Christmas Shopping

Traditionally in the UK Christmas shopping really gets started after the Fireworks around the 5th November. Look out for some great Christmas windows at your local independent toy shop if you are lucky enough to still have one!

I'm going to try to do all my shopping this year at my local independents supporting my local towns. 

The Best Wood for Toys?

Not all wood is equal when it comes to making toys and my favourite is rubberwood. It's amazing how may really great toys are made from this material it just seems am ideal choice when making a wooden toy.

Originally cultivated for the latex sap the tree produces they are felled after about 30 years (when their yield of latex naturally reduces) and new trees planted. The wood from the tree is a tight grained hardwood that is just perfect for making toys with. Since these trees are not felled specifically for timber use but are part of a maintained forestry program they are seen as an ecologically sound choice of wood for use in manufacturung. The wood is durable, hard to splinter, easy to work with and ages well.

So where is it grown? In short the best quality rubberwood is harvested in Thailand, so if you see a toy made in Thailand from rubberwood it's a good indication it may be worth taking a closer look.

Toy Testing - The CE Mark

The CE mark can be found on products sold throughout Europe. It stands for "Conformité Européenne" meaning European Conformity.

It informs the consumer that the product they are looking at complies to the regulations stipulated in Europeam Directives for that particular class of product and so can be so throughout Europe.

Nest time I will take a look at what steps have to be followed by the manufacturer in order to be able to put a CE mark on their packaging.

The importance of Tea ! - Tea Bags - By Haba

Not all tea sets come with tea bags so if you are missing some from yours take a look at Haba's tea bags which come in their own cute storage tin.



Made to Haba's usual high standard they are a great addition to your children's toy box and are sure encourage some fantastic imaginary play. Each tea bag is about 3cm x 4cm so should fit in most play cups for a perfect imaginary brew. Priced around £6.00- £7.00.

Toy Testing -Intoduction

Over the coming months I'm going to take a look at toy safety and how the law ensures that the toys you buy are safe for children to play with.

I'm going to try to steer clear of lots of the technical detail and if your reading these posts as a toy safety expert then you will notice it will not be fully comprehensive examination of the legislation and discussion of every little testing  detail. Instead I will provide a broad overview that I hope will be helpful as an introduction to an important subject that often seems shrouded in more than a little mystery.

As I am based in the United Kingdom I will be looking at primarily UK/European law but as so many companies also sell into the United States I will also be touching on the American standards as well.
As mentioned in previous post I really liked the old Swoppets figures from Britains. Today I start a look at a few of the different figurines are available in todays toy shops. As I walk around the UK's shops it seems that most retailers have very large displays of Schleich figurines and I suppose you would have to say in terms of floor space they are the market leaders in the UK.

Papo also seems popular (although maybe not quite as popular as previous years) in some of the shops that stock the Le Toy Van range of play environments. I guess that's because Le Toy Van used to distribute Papo and still features their figures on some of their boxes.  But I want to take a look at some of the other brands you see a bit less of in your local independent toy shop.

Poseidon - by Safari
Safari are an American based company and have some really great designs and are a worthy alternative to Schleich and Papo, You can check out their full range at www.safariltd.com and their story at Safari

Poseidon shown above is a good example of their work and its nice to see some great painting on a fantastically detailed figure. The scale is similar to Papo and Schleich so will happily mix in with existing collections. So if you are looking for something a bit different but to the standard Schleich/Papo figures its worth trying to track down a stockist.

A True Classic - Pop up Toy - by Galt - 12 months +

This toy has been around for many many years now,

 and is as popular today with children today as it ever was. Its a really simple toy the peg people bob up and down on a concealed spring and will pop right out. They are painted in bright primary colours and can be matched to the colours on the front of the toy.

The peg people normally get a good chewing/gumming which is fine as of course its all non toxic paints. particularly hard biting may cause the paint to crack off (a bit like when you bite a pencil hard!).

Its hard to explain to another adult why very young children like this toy so much, but they really do, and it has become the standard present for many an adult faced with attending a lot of 1 year olds parties.

Price Around £9 -£10 and a five star guru rating.


Nice to see Merrythought being mentioned as a winner in the Guardian with its 2012 Olympic Bear.
Great Toys from the Past - Britains Swoppet Knights

I was lucky enough to find a few of these fantastic British designed knights in a local charity shop.


The attention to detail is amazing and the ability to swap so many of the parts from figure to figure is just so much better than the standard one piece plastic knights most of the companies are producing today. I also like the scale better they seem to fit alot of the castles that are being sold today much better. So keep your eyes peeled for them, for lots more information visit this great site .


Crazy Animals - By Djeco - Around £12.99. 2+

Today we have been playing with these 24 wooden magnetic "puzzle" pieces, which you can mix and match to make all sorts of fun combinations.

 A quick word on the box. Its really nice to find a piece of strong attractive packaging that is well designed to act as the perfect storage box for the contents. The pieces themselves are made from a ply wood with a colourful print added. They are aged on the box for 2+ but our testers ranged from 18 months until 4 years old and they all seemed to enjoy them. We used the inside of a biscuit tin and an old white board to make up our crazy animals the younger children preffering the biscuit tin on their laps to make their animals on. Everyone thought they were great fun, an attractive design and really well made.

ELC's Vanishing from the High St.

Don't be surprised to see Early Learning Centres disappear from the High St and become a brand available in Out of Town Mothercares. Following a whole load of independent shops who have disappeared from towns across the country.

I can't help feeling its our children who are losing out soon there will be many towns with no toy shop for them to visit and spend their pocket money.

I know I cherish my childhood memories of visiting a toy shop do we really want our children to miss out on such a great thing.

Support your local toy shops or lose them and make the world a sadder place for your children and your community.

High Street Closures

More and more independent toy shops are closing in the 1st half of 2011, they are being dragged under by greedy landlords and the poor state of the economy.

Lots of toy producers are now worried that there are not enough places on the high street for their products to be seen, leading to an adverse effect on online sales. Lego is starting to open Lego brand stores in order for it to maintain a presence on the high street.