Casper farewells his dream job

Christmas came frequently to Casper Prescott in the past eight months.

The time is almost up for the Titahi Bay 10-year-old’s tenure in his dream job as a toy tester for The Warehouse.

The company is now on a nationwide hunt for new testers, aged 6 to 10.

Prescott was one of four children chosen from 400 entrants last July.

He had to spend $30 on toys at The Warehouse and then upload a video entry to the company’s Facebook page, explaining why he would make a good toy tester.

Casper got his four siblings involved in making the video, which involved putting a script together with his father, Barry, and then filming over a day.

His video showed off his cheekiness and was creative and quirky.

‘‘It was a lot of fun making it, but hard at times, too,’’ he said.

Casper and three children from Wellington, Dunedin and Auckland got the full media treatment when it was announced they had won, including interviews on breakfast television.

Getting a $200 box of toys each month was brilliant, Casper said.

‘‘I was always thinking, ‘Could it be one of this or this?’ I never knew what I was going to get and that made it super exciting.

‘‘I kept saying I was very lucky.’’

Casper had to assess each toy and fill out a form, answering questions about the toy’s age suitability, which toys he played with most and whether he could combine sets with one another.

‘‘It was like homework but much, much more fun. I will definitely miss doing it.’’

Along with the $200 box of toys, fame and glory – including having his video played in front of his entire St Pius X schoolmates – the best part of the promotion for Casper and his family is yet to come: they received $15,000 worth of travel and plan to go to Disneyland.

Along with $200 of toys per month, each of the four winners get $8000 for their family this year.

Casper’s tips for making a video that will wow the judges?

‘‘Be authentic, don’t be bland. Include others around you and have fun.’’