At last, it is here! I’m sorry I’m so late out with this review, I was going to post it like two weeks ago – but the weather has been absolutely horrid and I depend on the weather to actually try the car seats out properly. What’s the point in writing a review if I have not actually used the seat right?

I tend to use the seats for about 3 weeks before I review them so that I can get a good feel of them! But as I said, this time I am really late out – so I apologise for that.

Thank you so much to Axkid for sponsoring us with this car seat so that we can give you all this honest review of it!

As a bonus – Henry has made you a video all on his own! So make sure you give him some support, he’s only 7 bless him and he adores making his “YouTubes”.

I don’t think it’s the last you will see of him, and I hope that maybe his content can help children around his age, as I’m sure watching a child review a car seat is vastly better than when boring parents do it right? haha

But let us get down to it! As always we will start with the specs (below) and then we shall tell you all about what we think of this high back booster.

Axkid Bigkid Info:

Instruction manual – Instruction Video by Axkid

Technical specifications

The Axkid Bigkid is a high back booster, which means it uses the adult seat belt to hold the child, not a harness, and it is what is called a ‘belt-positioning device’.

That means that it’s sole job is to lift the child up so that said child gets a correct and safe belt fit from the seat belt in the car, as well as giving much-needed side impact protection to the child.

All that said, despite this car seat being legal to use from 15kg, I want to be very clear that a high back booster is for big kids, not for young children.

The absolute minimum age for a child to safely use a high back booster – is 4 years old!

The longer you can stay rear-facing, the better – personally I advise aiming for age 6 before you consider changing to a high back booster unless there are other factors involved like the child reaching 25kg before that age!

• Group: 2/3 15-36kg
• Width: 48 cm
• Height: 53 cm
• Depth: 59.5 cm
• Weight with ISOFIX:7,5kg
• Weight with Seat Belt attachment: 6,5kg (this none-Isofix version is not available on the UK market!)

Price: RRP £170 (UK)

The children:

• Henry age 7 and 133cm tall
• Caitiebelle age nearly 9 and 135cm tall

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First impressions

We posted on Facebook and I put down a few quick first impressions at the time:

Shoulder width…

One of which is the narrowness of the seat. I am a little concerned about it because you can not adjust it in any way and Henry already found it slightly snug.

He does have those nice wide shoulders that are to die for when he’s all grown up (haha) but sadly not a great thing when using high back boosters!

Caitlyn on the other hand, who is slimmer across the shoulders had absolutely no issues.

That aside, it’s not a problem he was complaining about, and it’s nothing like he can’t sit properly, as you can see from the photos (above) he has a very good belt path in the seat.

It is, however, something I noted, and something I feel you should be aware of, I would have liked to have the option to extend width for shoulders on this seat.

The horns

Yes, that’s what they are called. hehe

The horns on the Axkid Bigkid are well designed, though I do feel they should have had just a tiny bit more space in the gap.

The narrowness of the gap means that it will take your child a few tries before they learn to belt themselves into the seat correctly (depending on age), and it does compromise the time it takes to belt in, there’s no doubt about that.

Again, this isn’t a huge problem for us, it took a couple of days for mine to be confident with the belting in, but if you are very often in a rush and need to be able to do it SUUUPER fast, then it would most likely annoy you.

On a positive note, it does mean that the seat is more ideal for 3 across because of the shape and design of the horns puzzles positively in a 3-across situation.

But yeh, just a few extra millimetres there would go a long way.

Seating position

When sitting in the seat, you can see that it’s slightly short for Caitiebelle, but nothing concerning. Her knees are still correctly bent in this car, but I don’t know if this would still be the case in a larger car that has larger back seats (width front to back)?

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Henry has a very good seating position in the booster and his knees are bent just on the edge of the booster, so all is well there.

Belt path

The belt path is something I am very happy with. Both kids had a correct good pathing on the lap belt. It sits far down (but not too far!) and the design of the horns also makes sure it’s not slipping upwards or out of the horns.

The shoulder belt also sits nicely, it does not rub on the neck and is also not too far out on the shoulder. All in all, I think it’s a perfect fit.

Axkid Bigkid is the newest high back booster from @Axkid_Intl ! Remember, boosters are for BIGKIDs! | A Rear Facing Family | plz RT #AxkidBigkid #review #erfmission #carseat #safety #saferkidsincars #kidreview Click To Tweet

The shoulder belt guide

It has a small slit to slide the shoulder belt through, it’s very narrow, but I didn’t have any issues, and the narrowness of this makes sure it does not slip out.

Slipping out has been a problem in other booster seats like the Recaro Young Sport when used in booster mode, where the shoulder belt guide was simply too wide and “big”, making the seat belt slip out of it.

All that said, it’s very important that you yourself always try the seat in the car before you buy – and one of the key things to look for when testing to see if the booster is a correct fit in your car, is to have your child lean forwards when belted in, lean forward aaaallll the way and then sit back correctly.

If the shoulder belt is sliding nicely back into the retractor and does not get caught in the shoulder belt holder, it’s a good fit, but if it’s getting caught and causing slack? It is not a correct fit.

You can then try to see if there are adjustments that need to be made:

• is the headrest the correct height for the child on the booster?
• are there any adjustments that can be made to the vehicle seat belt retractor in terms of up/down adjustment?
• check that the back seat is not reclined, but fully upright.
• check that the vehicle headrest is not in the way and compromising the fit of the booster. I always recommend removing them full stop when possible.

If none of the above suggestions is working, I’m afraid the booster isn’t a fit for your car and looking at a different option would be the right thing to do.

As always I recommend visiting specialist retailers for help in buying and selecting the perfect seats for your children and car.

Henry’s thoughts on the Bigkid

Our Pros & Cons

Pros

• Lightweight and easy to install.
• Good recline and the kids sleep well in it.
• It is slim, possibly good for 3-across.
• Very good belt pathing for the children.
• The headrest is easy to adjust.
• Budget-friendly!
• The horns have a good design, though I wish there was a few more millimetres of space in-between.
• Manual is easy to understand.
• Isofix arms are easy to adjust in and out, no fiddling.

Cons

• It feels short in the seat (see the picture of oldest).
• I think it would benefit of having one or two higher height settings, at 135cm I don’t feel confident my daughter will make it to 150 (but I’ll update when she is that height!).
• I think it could use a bit more padding in the lower back area.
• The gap on the horn is very thin, this makes it a learning task before the children are confident in buckling in as it’s so narrow. It also means it takes slightly longer to buckle in as it can be fiddly to get both lap and shoulder belt under the horn correctly (again, the thickness of the vehicle seat belts vs. the narrow gap space).
• Too narrow in the shoulders for my liking. I would like to see a width adjustment.
• The bloody cup holders… hehe.
  It is absolutely against my rules (ergo it’s not being used) because filled bottles are a flying projectile hazard in a crash, and giving parents a cup holder in a car seat goes against trying to teach them about the dangers of flying projectiles. Best not to include it at all in my honest opinion!