NEWS Comment A PARENT BLOGGER’S VIEW
Parent bloggers are an influential part of the pre- school landscape. Each month we ask a mummy or daddy blogger to write a special blog post for ToyNews, giving their views on the toy market.
This month: Jax Blunt
WITH FOUR children ranging in ages two to 14, I have a lot of experience with toys. We’ve been lucky over the last couple of years to attend a few trade events which means we’ve seen ranges that I wouldn’t have otherwise considered, and it’s helped me come to some fairly firm conclusions on what sort of thing I like. The first and most important characteristic is play value. Will this toy actually last through that first flush of excitement of ‘new thing’ and be something that they return to, build into their days and lives and feel sad about should it disappear? Will it enhance their play or can it be adapted to their games instead of them having to adapt to it? The obvious ones here are teddies and dolls that become babies, friends, animals or aliens that have stories built around them and become a part of our family. It’s better if they can be clothed and unclothed, carried about, talked to and so on. Toys with in-built voices
have less long-term appeal, perhaps because they can’t be quite as flexible - their identity is fixed. These toys don’t have to be expensive. One of my four year old daughter’s favourite dolls
is a handmade puppet which is only a tube of material, stuffed, and then has some other material wrapped round it as swaddling cloths. It features no limbs or hair, yet it has been carried, cared for, slept with and loved for years. My next favourite are imagination enhancing toys, like the old classics LEGO and Playmobil. These can be enhanced and built upon, mixed and matched and returned to time and time again. My children are endlessly inventive with these, and it’s worth the occasional pain of standing on a very small very hard thing. Honest. It is. The toys I turn away
from are those flimsy plastic fads that usually come in more packaging than there is toy. It’s a bad sign when you unwrap it and there’s a tiny play piece and more bits of cardboard and plastic than you’re supposed to keep. They get so tangled, you can’t even recycle the cardboard. I try very hard not to have that sort of thing in the house. If they’re gifted to us, they sneakily disappear until they can take a one way trip to the nearest charity shop. We have limited time and space, and I’d rather fill it with things we can all see a value to.
Check out more from Jax Blunt online:
www.liveotherwise.co.uk/makingitup and on Twitter @liveotherwise
Wow Toys launches Christmas calendar line
By Robert Hutchins
WOW TOYS has revealed its plans to go head to head with the likes of LEGO and Playmobil this year with its own collection of Christmas Advent Calendars. Aimed at kids aged from 12 months to five years, the new collection features two designs: Wow Town and Wow Wonderland, each offering young fans a different toy to play with for every day of the Christmas countdown. Both calendars contain 24 figures and vehicles, all fully compatible with Wow’s range of pre-school toys and activities and will retail at £19.99 each. “We decided that Christmas 2014 was time to take Wow Toys in to competition with the likes of LEGO and Playmobil. So we chose to introduce our very own Calendar concept,” Wow Toys’ brand manager, Safoura Bahrani informed ToyNews.
“The reaction to the concept has already been fantastic, we couldn’t have asked for better feedback. Wow advent calendars are one of the only toy filled calendars available on the infant market, which is a real opportunity for retailers and something exciting for consumers.” The range is now leading
Wow Toys’ Christmas offering, which the firm is confident will expand as a new generation engages with the brand. “These advent calendars
are hugely important to Wow Toys’ Christmas portfolio. We hope that after strong sales this year we can expand the range. But for now, the Wow Wonderland and Wow Town advent calendars are crucial for increasing our year on year Christmas sales.”
The advent calendars will
be available to all retailers from mid-September, and to support the range, Wow Toys has created a unique FSDU able to hold 12 units of each calendar. “We are also promoting the calendars in multiple magazines and working with our devoted online blogger network, as well as running a social media plan for our online community,” said Bahrani. “We feel we have the
perfect product for this Christmas,” she concluded. Wow Toys: 020 7471 0980
Can You Guess? is our big game for Q4, says Orchard Toys
By Billy Langsworthy
ORCHARD TOYS has launched what it believes will be its top game this Christmas in the form of Can You Guess? The game sees players
make sounds and perform actions, which the other players must then try to guess correctly. Players have to fill their board with tokens to win the game.
The firm also
believes Can You Guess? can help shy children grow more comfortable with being the centre of attention, while allowing confident kids to showcase their acting skills.
64 September “We know that
families come together at Christmas and it is a time when they also love to play together,” said Orchard Toys MD Simon Newbery. “Can You Guess? provides the whole family, from the youngest child through to the oldest adult or grandparent, the
opportunity to play a game together. Furthermore, it is guaranteed to generate great excitement and to have everyone in fits of laughter this year.” Marketing manager, Ali
Brown, added: “Orchard Toys prides itself on producing games with educational value and Can You Guess? helps children to develop life skills, whilst building their confidence. They will, of course, find it hilarious to hear their Granny or Grandpa roar like a lion too.” Can You Guess? is suitable for ages four and above, and can be played by up to four players or teams. Orchard Toys: 01953 859525
www.toynews-online.biz
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