Following our recent article from Vivid about the most popular mainsteam toys for this Christmas, we thought it would only be fair to represent the independent toy shops out there and spoke to Jo Nicholson of Hullabaloo (formerly Little Nut Tree Toys) in Wilmslow. The shop has recently changed names, but the toys and staff are just the same! Read on to find out about the more indie toys that you can wow your kids with this yuletide, particularly if you are fed up of toys made of primary coloured plastic! Remember if you want to purchase any of the products below, support your local retailer and head into Hullabaloo Wilmslow.
1. Le Toy Van Castles & Doll houses
The range of imaginative play castles and dolls houses from Le Toy Van truly are the best in the marketplace. Each one is designed to really bring imaginative play to life. With the dolls houses and castles you can also buy fantastic play mats that extend the play area which is really popular with our customers.
2. Autoblox Puzzle Cars
These cars will never be off my Christmas list. They are simply beautiful and can be bought for toddlers right through to adult design junkies! Really educational too!
3. Haba Dolls
We have spent a lot of time looking for the perfect dollies, and really, we don't think there is anything to match the range of dolls from Haba. They are simply gorgeous dolls and range for £29.99 to £49.99
4. Le Toy Van Honeybake Range
From breakfast in bed to afternoon tea, this range from le Toy Van caters for everything: Breakfast sets with trays, boiled eggs, toaster, croissants, honey pots; Baking Sets with mimic Kenwood food mixers, wooden baking tray and beautiful cake stand, the cakes even have interchangeable toppings; The gorgeous red polka dot tea set and last but not least, the cake stand. Fabulous - we'll have it all!
5. My Zoo
Now this is amazing. We visited Nuremberg toy fair last February and found this toy and my 9 year old daughter and 4 year old son love it. It's kind of hard to explain but basically it's a kit that consists of a body, 4 legs and tail and then interchangeable heads and noses - has to be seen to be believed! You then put the animal together using the ratcheted magnetic system which basically means you can pose the animal in any way you like. They come in 3 designs and are in natural wood - they really are divine and long to be played with!
6. Mudpuppy Magnetic Playscenes
These are great little gifts that are fabulous for travel or for when out at cafes and restaurants. You basically get a great metal storage tin, and inside there are 2 laminated, reversible scenes and 2 sheets of vinyl magnets. Kids then choose their scene and using the tin as the play environment, create scenes using the magnets which are included. Top seller in the shop.
7. Haba 'Mike The Knight' Outfit
We all know that Cbeebies Mike The Knight has hit the screens and that kids are LOVING it! Well, luckily for Haba they do knight outfits in soft material that pretty much make your son or daughter look like Mike the Knight. The range includes: helmet; small sword; shield; armour; lance; and the all important Hobby Horse. It's proving very popular so don't miss out!
8. Djeco Arts & Crafts
Wow! How to sum this range up. Well basically it's one of our favourites in the shop, and lucky for us, it's also probably one of our customers favourite brands as well (closely followed by le Toy Van). Djeco design and make the most AMAZING arts and crafts sets for kids and the end results are incredible. Everything is incredibly well thought out, from the fantastic boxes that house all the materials and instructions. Their sets look to introduce art in all its forms to kids, so that they can get a feeling for what materials they like using the most: felt pens; sand; glitter; gouache, pencil crayongs; oil pastels; mosaics; stenciles; stickers - basically they have most bases covered. And we have the largest range in the UK!
9. Jellycat
We love, love, love Jellycat - and what child's Christmas would be right without Jellycat? We've just had a massive delivery of it and all I'm going to say is it's amazing any of it is still on the shelves. We wanted to adopt all of it.
10. Janod DIY Truck
Boys can quite often get forgotten in the toy industry, especially in the specialist end of the market, but this DIY Trolley by Janod is fabulous. It's basically a walker, but has little wooden tools that your toddler can play with. Once they've finished playing, depending on who is the tidiest (them or you) the tools can be handily stored on the front of the trolley - it's magnetised. It really is a fabulous toy and incredibly popular.