The traditional wooden sector of the toy market continues to hold its own among the raft of new technology currently available. A favourite with parents and other gift-givers, products offer solid play patterns and are good value for money. Samantha Loveday takes a look at what’s new in the category…
TOMY
Made from real wood, the Chuggington Wooden range combines classic wooden train play with the innovation that consumers, and retailers, have come to expect from Tomy’s train play team. The line is fully compatible with other wooden railway systems and includes 16 collectable, chunky and colourful character engines. Prices start from £7.99 for a single engine. The Beginner’s Set (£24.99) is pitched as the perfect introduction to Chuggington Wooden Railway. The 13- piece set forms an oval track and
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includes hero Chuggers Wilson and Brewster. There is also a signal to go alongside the track. For those wanting to kick off their collection with a bigger play-set, the Over and Under Set (£39.99) is a 22- piece line featuring a two-in-one modular Clock Tower. The system means that the Clock Tower can be stacked and unstacked to enable toddlers to keep their layouts fresh and inspire more imaginative train play. The set comes with Wilson, Koko and
Vee characters. GOLDEN BEAR
Golden Bear’s selection of wooden pull- back vehicles bring together traditional play with the top pre-school licence Peppa Pig.
Each of the wooden vehicles is colourful, chunky and perfect for little
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hands. Featuring Peppa and other characters from the show, there is a boat, car, train and rocket, plus Peppa Pig’s campervan. Tots simply need to pull them back and watch them go.
MARBEL JOHN CRANE
John Crane is home to a host of wooden toy brands including Pintoy, Sevi, and its own brand, Tidlo. The wooden toys and games in the
exclusive Pintoy collection are made from rubber wood, which is harvested from replenishable sources when rubber trees have reached the end of their natural latex producing cycle. The Tower Castle is a recent edition to the castle collection. It has a working drawbridge and portcullis, plus brightly coloured ramparts. John Crane also distributes Sevi, with
its range of games including several important items to encourage learning and creativity.
01604 774949 Balance from Sevi is a game that
requires a steady hand: children can try and balance as many animals as they can onto the rocking Noah’s Ark before it topples over. Finally, Tidlo is the firm’s in-house
brand of wooden toys. The collection has grown dramatically over the course of the last few years. A best seller is the High Tea Shape Matching Set. This the two-tier cake stand comes with 15 little decoarted cakes, each with a number on the bottom that corresponds with a number on the stand, so to help teach children early numeracy and shape matching skills.
Marbel is the distributor for nine exclusive wooden toy brands in the UK, including Brio, Plan Toys, Hape, I’M Toy, George Luck and Anamalz.
Brio continues to lead the wooden
railway market. Children can start their train journey with the Central Station, using a LCD display screen and sound recording function for an immersive play experience. Brio Builder, meanwhile, was launched last month. The wooden-based construction system allows kids to build sturdy models with realistic details by following the instructions, or they can build whatever their imagination comes
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up with. The official website – www.briobuilder.net – also includes instruction downloads for different variations and other resources for the whole family. The recently revamped Hape range of classic wooden toys is another successful collection for Marbel. The Gourmet Kitchen is a stand-out
product – it allows children to create their own mealtime with an oven, cupboard and sink station. The cupboard can be used to store dinnerware, pots and pans, and other objects, or it can even be transformed into a refrigerator.