Customer Reviews

Monty Python Cow Catapult Deluxe Set

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My sister went to New York and all I got was this FANTASTIC trebuchet! My son and nieces (ages 8 and 9) have been playing with it for a week and it's held up just fine. It's sturdy, well constructed and works great. They've been having target practices with the farm animals. Even though the giggle-value alone makes it worth the price, it's a good toy, too.

This is just a simple little plastic toy that actually launches the included cows, sheep, and ducks several feet! Since my kids have seen the movie they really get into using this. The Wooden Rabbit is made of printed styrofoam, so it will stay in the packaging and out of the hands of my youngest child. The large cup on the Catapult can also be used to launch other small toys, and this may or may not be a good thing.

or, as in my case....2 (or more).

I just happen to know many people who could use one
and trebuchet's are hard to find; particularly if they are fitted out with livestock.

OK so this didn't add much to your knowledge of the product, BUT, know ye that these sell out and tend to acquire voluminous logs of back-orders at certain times of year (I had to wait months for mine).

And yes, it was worth it.

This toy set was inspired by a scene in MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, a comedy film based on medieval history in England.

First, let us review the positive attributes of this toy, which are abundant and compelling. The catapult is made of sturdy plastic, and the plastic has a "thick feel" to it. On the horizontal bar at the top of the catapult is a decal (or painted on) reading, "YE OL' COWTAPULT." Where the wooden bars (actually made of plastic) of the catapult contact each other, what is painted on are silver hinges. In all, the catapult has ten silver hinges. These hinges are not actually used to connect the pieces of the catapult together (they are only simulated connections). Best of all, the cowtapult actually works. It propels the cows, sheep, and ducks at least five or six feet across the room, in a high arcing trajectory. The wheels are firmly attached to the axles. Each wheel is painted with four silver spokes. Each wheel also has 14 simulated nails, which stick out about one half a millimeter. The "motor" of the cowtapult is a rubber band, but it is a fabric-covered rubber band, much like the fabric-covered elastic bands that girls and women use to fasten their hair.

The catapult has fine details in the color. A crest or coat of arms is mounted on the right side and left side, configured from separate pieces of plastic, and the coat of arms is blue and white, and the coat of arms has picture of what appears to be a stylized drawing of a wolf. There are two flags, as mentioned above, and the flags are made of rubber, in order to prevent breaking. (If they were made of hard plastic, they would be expected to snap off.) The rubber flag poles each have a silver-painted tip, and the flags are painted pink on top and blue on the bottom.

One of the best things about this kit, is the animals -- two cows, two sheep, and three ducks. The animals are made of hard rubber, not of plastic. This means that the animals are likely to survive (and not crack) in the event that somebody steps on it. The cows have a light-orange body, brown-painted horns, black Holstein patches, tiny black eyes, black hooves, and four nipples. The sheep are light gray, and the faces of the sheep are white (not gray). The sheep have black eyes that are slanted (not just dots). The ducks have three colors -- white body, yellow beak and yellow feet, and tiny black dots for eyes. As mentioned above, the animals are hard rubber, which invites affectionate squeezing, should the child or adult be possessed with the impulse to confer affectionate squeezing to the animals.

And now, for the negative attributes. The catapult is only ten centimeters tall, measuring from the ground to the tip of the flag. There are two flags. The catapult is only 15.5 centimeters long. The Trojan rabbit is only 17.5 centimeters high, and the tip of the rabbit's ears are clipped off, apparently to aid in packaging or in manufacturing. Another minus, is that the rabbit is not made of wood or plastic, but instead of styrofoam "board" coated with paper imprinted with color photographs of wooden logs (rabbit's body), or color paintings of wooden boards (for the neck and head, and wheels).

As a final word, the home hobbyist will likely be inspired to use the styrofoam Trojan rabbit as a model, and to construct a real wooden version out of straight twigs from a tree, and flat sheets of pine wood or balsa wood, acquired from a hobby store. As indicated above, the body of the Trojan rabbit, including the part of the body directly facing the ground, is imprinted with photographs of logs, and the home-hobbyist can easily construct this part of the rabbit using dried twigs.

This is such a totally awesome toy!! I loved loved loved it... til my then-4 year old got a hold of it and broke it. It's fine if it's used as a novelty toy for adults or older kids, but doesn't stand up to the thrashings of a small child. Keep it out of the hands of LITLE kids and it's great!

I bought one for my husband, my brother, and my husband's friend. It's very entertaining, at least when my husband's not aiming at my head or my coffee while I'm working in our office. It does work better without the rubberband and amazingly the cow and other animals can reach heights of 15-20 feet (hit one of fluorescents in our shop when my 5-year-old son flung one without the band attached). It's truly a toy for the entire family! Would travel well too if you wanted to take it to relatives' houses and fling farm animals at the cousins. The trojan rabbit is a bit too cumbersome, but the other farm animals more than make up for it. And it's fairly educational; how often does one see a catapult these days? In the interest of being humane, I might look for a piano to fling instead the poor farm animals (reminiscent of "Northern Exposure").

This catapult set from Monty Python is again another hilarious item...
it tosses cows. Never did get a TWISTER movie toy set where some cow
gets blown into the air. This makes up for it.