Santa's Summer Shopping

Well that's it!  The first day of summer, the weather is slowly improving and later on today we head off to a trade fair to start looking at toys for....(deep breath)....Christmas!

We have already completed orders with some of our key suppliers.  By the end of January this year we had finalised our Advent Calender order from LEGO, and made sure that we'd picked out our top lines for the second half of the year.  We'd also had the chance to visit Toy Fair London - where many new lines and prototypes are showcased and we schmoozed with the whole Toy Industry.  

The trade fair we are going to this week is different!  It's focused purely on independent businesses, meaning we don't have to jostle for time and space against the big supermarket/catalogue/online retailers. The great news for us is that the suppliers will have the time to demonstrate all their fantastic new lines for Autumn/Winter 2012 and we'll have a chance to really play with the new toys and make the best decisions about which brands we think will be top of Santa's Wish List.  

We're also looking forward to chatting with other independent toy shops, and coming back brimming with ideas of how to make your shopping experience with us the best it can be!   So, although a heat wave is about to sweep the country, please don't think we're mad if you come into the shop to find us humming Christmas Carols - after all we are doing Santa's Summer Shopping!

And now for something completely different....

One of the big challenges we face as a toy shop is always trying to find products that set us aside from other toy retailers.  We think that we have done just that with our latest ranges from Djeco. 

This is a company that we've started dealing with in the past few weeks, as we love their exclusive design-led products and as an added bonus they don't supply them to large multiple retailers and grocers.  

Sometimes it's the simplest toys that have the biggest impact, and the marble range from Djeco does just that.  I played a lot with marbles as a child, but don't remember them having the wonderful array of colours and designs that we've found from Djeco.  With pinks, blues, blacks and reds as well as patterns from the traditional petal to spots, stripes, flowers and glitter these are no ordinary marbles.  Priced from £2.50, they come in fabulous little clear storage boxes - perfect to keep them tidy when not being played with!  There is also a complimentary range of marbles toys to inspire game play, each toy set comes with a few marbles and a handy carry pouch for fun-on-the-go!

 

In addition to the marbles collection we also stock other Djeco products including an inspiring collection of Magic Tricks and a design-led collection of collectable pirates, knights & superhero figures called "Arty Toys".  We love that Djeco have managed to turn very traditional toys into something completely different.  Their ranges offer a great modern twist on existing ideas, making them perfect for kids of all ages!