ToyTalk: Toy news, reviews and features

Coming soon: Hari’s World toys

by David Smith
Hari the elephant could soon be with us in toy form. Bright Group International (BGI) is now representing the young elephant, who stars in a range of child-safety books.

Hari and his friends, Moe Mouse and Max the Dog, are always getting into scrapes, and their adventures help educate children aged three to seven. Each book deals with a separate area of child safety.

“Hari is great fun for kids, while parents love the safety aspect of the books, so it’s understandably popular,” said Vicki Willden-Lebrecht at BGI. “We are very excited about developing Hari’s World as a brand and are already in talks with a number of top publishers and licensees.”

Marbz attacks!

by David Smith
If you thought marbles were an old-fashioned toy, think again, because the Marbz range from Corinthian Marketing brings these glass spheres bang up to date.

Ben 10 Alien Force is the latest range to launch, featuring 370 marbles – 82 large and 288 small – each emblazoned with characters from the TV show.

Classic marbles gameplay is spiced up with the addition of collector numbers and ‘Power Pointz’ ratings of 1–10, and new this year are 10 extremely rare black ‘chaser’ marbles, with an invincible Power Pointz rating of 11.

The Ben 10 Alien Force Marbz come in bags of five (plus a game card) and are priced at 99p for kids aged five and up. You can find out more, and monitor a collection, at the official Marbz website.

Match those diggers

by David Smith
Golden Bear’s My 1st JCB range has expanded to include wooden toys and the first offering is this beautiful Digger Dominoes set.

Youngsters can match the colourful JCB characters, or go for shape or number matching, while the chunky wooden pieces should appeal to little hands.

Helping to develop hand-eye coordination as well as recognition skills, the My 1st JCB Digger Dominoes are priced around £6.99.

Time for a holiday

by Eleanor de Bruin
Just looking at this Family Van with Boat and Trailer set from Playmobil makes us want to jump in the car and head off to the seaside.

Everything is included to make sure that the little Playmobil family of four has a great day at the beach. A picnic hamper is bursting with goodies and a brown holdall is sure to contain all those other beach essentials.

There are even toys for your toys to play with – a bucket and spade, a watering can and a little boat. A big red suitcase makes it look like the Playmobil family is planning on staying away for a while (and with the weather we’ve had recently, who can blame them?).

The Playmobil family has a proper boat too – one that really floats (kind of essential in a boat really). You can also add a Playmobil underwater motor to power it up. The boat fits neatly onto the trailer.

When the family is ready to head home, children aged four upwards can open the top of their van to pop mum, dad, their son, their daughter and their dog inside. The van can be pushed along or, by fitting a Playmobil RC unit, it can be remote controlled. The set is priced around £24.99.

Nature nurture

by Eleanor de Bruin
For caring kids aged three and upwards, the new Caring Corners Outdoor Adventures range from Learning Curve provides lots of opportunities to practise their nurturing skills.

Looking after animals is a great way to foster caring and empathy in young children, and with the Caring for Wildlife doll pack, mini animal lovers can learn through small-world play by helping the girl doll to look after a rabbit, a turtle and a nest full of birds in a rescue station.

The playset contains everything you might need to make little animals well again – a feeding bottle so that they can eat, a hammock where they can sleep and a big box of plasters to fix up those cuts and scrapes. Any ailments that need more serious treatment than a sticking plaster can be taken care of by the doctor dolly, who has her own special medical bag. The playset is priced around £14.99.

Children can also learn about the great outdoors with the Backroads Biking set (priced around £14.99), the Picnic in Paradise and Sweet Tree Swing sets (around £9.99 each), or the Floating with Froggies, Nature Walk and Keep Nature Green sets (all priced around £6.99 each).

The power of twilight

by Eleanor de Bruin
Older girls all across the UK have been swept up in the Twilight craze recently. Now, thanks to Vivid Imaginations, there is a new Twilight craze that younger girls can get excited about.

The Twilight Ponies are a group of special and powerful ponies, who not only look beautiful by day but have incredible powers which are unleashed on the world when night falls.

Each pony wears a ‘power icon’ round their neck, which relates to their mission in the world. They also have an animal buddy who follows them wherever they go and takes part in their adventures. Their glow-in-the-dark hooves signal the arrival of twilight, and the start of their magical exploits.

The six ponies, Blossom, Storm, Sunbeam, Wish, Surf and Valentine, are named to represent their special skills, and a full set of these Treasure Ponies can be purchased for around £6.99 each.

A pony called Twilight is at the centre of it all – not only is she a mother figure, looking after the other little ponies, she is also the source of all their power, as she absorbs strength from the stars and passes it on to fuel the little ponies’ global missions.

Flying Twilight is priced around £9.99, which includes her power pendant necklace, which either she or her owner can wear, and magical wings that really move up and down.

Find out more about the Twilight ponies on the Twilight Ponies website.

Feathered friends

by Eleanor de Bruin
Those cute characters from hit preschool animation 3rd & Bird are now available to cuddle in real life, thanks to Fisher-Price.

Children aged three years upwards can choose one of the main characters to own, play with and carry around with them everywhere they go. Muffin, Samuel and Rudy mini plush toys are priced around £6 each.

For around £17 each, children can own a talking version of Muffin or Samuel. The Basic Talking Soft Toys say little phrases and sing cute songs from the TV show when you press their wings.

Finally, for around £30, you can literally own the all-singing, all-dancing version of the toy. Muffin Talking Friend dances, sings, waddles around, waggles her wings and shakes her tailfeather. The little bird is just like the one in the TV show - she dances and sings the Muffin song and invites you to join in with her. The toy is activated by pressing her foot and is priced around £30.

Happy camping

by Eleanor de Bruin
Daisy Greenway is a cute camper van from the Caring Corners range at Learning Curve.

On the exterior, Daisy is full of character, with big beautiful eyes that move, light up-lips and headlights, and she’s decorated all over in pastel colours and a floral theme. She even has a voice – when you press her horn you can hear over 100 different activities, songs, phrases and sound effects.

A big door on Daisy’s side swings open to reveal an interior full of interesting features and surprises. With a bedroom decorated in true girly fashion, a little bathroom, well-stocked kitchen complete with a recycling area and a cab sleeper for nights spent on the road, Daisy offers everything that little campers need for an outdoor adventure. Hidden extras include a dog bed, BBQ and a fold down TV for the in-van entertainment.

The new Caring Corners range from Learning Curve encourages children to think about how to care for the world around them. The Daisy Greenway van, which is priced around £24.99, reinforces these positive messages in numerous ways, including bumper stickers that reward real-life good deeds.

A little bird told us...

by Eleanor de Bruin
The under fives have been enjoying the adventures of loveable birds Samuel and Muffin in the popular CBeebies show 3rd & Bird for 18 months, so little fans will be delighted to see a range of associated toys hitting the shelves from Fisher-Price.

Each episode of the show focuses on little bird friends sharing adventures and learning how to live as part of a community. The two new toys, suitable for three-year-olds upwards, provide lots of opportunities for learning and discovery.

The Bath Toy is priced around £13 and is a great way to make bathtime fun. The whole playset floats in the bath, and children will love pouring water into the tree to see Elliot the worm wiggle, or into the flower top to give Muffin a nice shower. Muffin can repay the compliment in kind as he is also a cheeky little water squirter.

With the Swing Around Playset, children can play with Muffin, Samuel and their friend Rudy (included) in a setting with lots of different fun features. The little birds can play on the swings, which also twirl around thanks to the revolving central lamp post and transform into other items to play with. The playset is priced around £17 and also includes extra pieces.

Wolf at the door

by David Smith
Playmobil’s Knights range has a new group of warriors, the Wolf Knight Troop.

As their name suggests, these fierce knights each have a wolf companion with glowing red eyes. They also have a Wolf Knight Catapult, which can hurl ‘wolf bullets’ at the enemy.

Each figure in the range comes with a wolf bullet – collect them all and they can fit together on the catapult, and the wolves can team up like sled dogs to pull the catapult along.

Pictured below, from left to right, are the Swordsman, Soldier, Soldier with Axe, Bowman and Chief. Each figure is priced around £4.99 each, with the Cataplut (which comes with a figure) costing around £6.99.