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Showing posts from October, 2012

Halloween Fun and Games from Toyday

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This year Blake is very excited by Halloween and very keen on throwing a party so I have been trying to come up with some ideas to keep the children entertained. First we shall have a Skeleton Skavenger Hunt. I shall draw or print pictures of skeletons, one for every child coming. I shall then cut them apart into 6 pieces; 2 x arms, 2 x legs, 1 x head and 1 x body. I shall hide each body part in a different place. The children will then race around trying to find all the parts to make up a skeleton. I shall give a prize for every completed skeleton and an extra special prize for the person who finishes first. Pass the parcel always goes down well and I have heard about pass the pumpkin for a Halloween version of the game. Basically instead of unwrapping the parcel each time the music stops the child will reach into the pumpkin and pull out a prize. I'm going to make a pumpkin piñata but I'm cheating slightly. I'm using a pumpkin paper lantern and after filling it with

Would you buy your 5 year old child an Ipad?

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Our new poll has started today, and our question is: Would you buy your 5 year old child an Ipad / Ipod? Over the last ten years, I have seen a dramatic increase of sophisticated technology products in the "want lists" of younger children in the toy trade publications, and was curious to know how many kids will actually be getting them in their stockings this year. Especially having a nearly five year old myself, I am dreading the take a toy to school day (aka toyday!) with the fear that all of his friends will be taking in top of the range Ipod / Iphones etc, and would hate for him to feel that he was missing out. Please do take a vote on the top right, and I'll write back soon with the results.

Now Stocking a New Range of Wooden Toys Handmade in Europe

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When we discovered this range of natural wooden animals and vehicles we were very impressed with how beautiful they are. Each wooden toy is lovingly made in Europe from beech wood, cherry, walnut or mahogany. They are really well made and a lovely toy to pass down through the generations. Made from sustainable wood and only packaged using recyclable materials, these toys are also eco friendly. Perfectly natural with no paint, varnish or anything toxic, giving you piece of mind. My two favourites are the ones pictured. The elephant on wheels would make a lovely christening gift for a girl or a boy. It's sticking out ears and string tail make him a friendly character that children will love. The other picture is of the racing car which is made from two different coloured woods. This wooden toy is so beautiful that not only would a child have fun pushing it around the floor but it would also look good on a racing fanatics shelf. Due to the natural shades of wood each toy is

Toyday is Coming Soon to Drake Circus Shopping Center in Plymouth

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Exciting news for Toyday and for those of you from Plymouth who go out of your way to travel to our shops in Looe and Totnes, you'll be pleased to know that just for Christmas we shall have a pop up shop in Plymouth's Drake Circus Shopping Centre. We'll be opening in time for October Half term we hope. There is a mad rush on at the moment to get everything organised! You'll find us between Lush and Next on the first floor. In the photo the shop you can see with the lit up sign saying 'Aqua' shall be Toyday. We shall be the only toy shop in the mall and the best place to go for all your stocking filler needs. Look out for signs of life behind those metal shutters! We shall keep you posted and let you know when we open.

Morph and the Beginnings of Aardman Animations

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David Sproxton and Peter Lord met at school and started their animation projects in their spare time.  In 1972 they were asked by the BBC to produce something for the show 'Vision On'.  They made a short piece which used cell animation and featured a Superman character known as Aardman.  It was from this that Aardman Animations was founded. It wasn't until 1976 that the legendary clay character, Morph first appeared on TV in a series called 'Take Hart', which was the follow up to Vision On.  'Take Hart' was an British children's television show about art, presented by Tony Hart.  The show would demonstrate projects that the viewers could do themselves at home as well as large scale artworks on the TV studio floor.  During the show Morph would pop up out of Tony's wooden pencil box and appear in a one minute 'short' which was related to the show. The character proved to be such a success that in 1981 the BBC decided to commission

Royal Mails last recommended Posting Dates for Christmas 2012

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Last posting dates 2012 Well now that the summer is truly behind us and with just over 10 weeks to go until Christmas we thought it a good time to tell you that Royal Mail has launched their own Christmas website at: www.royalmail.com/greetings . This should be your one stop guide to help you with all your posting needs this Christmas. As well as detailing the last posting dates for 2012, they offer advice on wrapping and packing, addressing of mail and provide details of their delivery and collection arrangements over the festive period.

Cars - typical boy toys

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Every little girl must have her doll. And every boy can not exist without his cars . Toy cars are actually miniature large car . Today we have a choice really of a large number of different types of cars, the size of cars, color range and performance cars. Cars are made of plastic, metal , rubber , paper , wood, like wooden toys, and are even well -known cars made ​​of chocolate . Cars and their history Cars as toys began to produce for the first time in the early 20th century in the UK and U.S. . At this time, however, these wooden toys for children have not been so well refined as the current cars. Cars also were not very durable and they broke. Today you can not find the historic toy cars from the period before World War II . Cars in the 50th years Since 1947 began manufacturing toy cars , Lesney also from Britain. It is famous for its Matchbox series 1 - 75 The name is derived so that the car

Czech Wooden Toys & Marionettes

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  WOODY - traditional Czech manufacturer of wooden toys The history of  "WOODY" draws from the long tradition and history traditional czech production and czech know-how which is handover  the generation to generation the whole centuries. This tradition and progressive technical resolution oriented afore-revolutionary czech republic to the  best important European producers of wooden toys. Collection WOODY contains 550 active products till today and it is ranked to the highest offer in Europe with large offer of wooden toys, decoration and gift items. Company WOODY have got a lot of beautiful traditional wooden toys, for example: Rocking horses Houses and doll houses Marionettes Puzzles Marionettes In the Czech Republic there are a lot of different kinds of traditional marionettes. But the most popular marionetts are "Spejbl and Hurvinek". These marionettes were made in 1920 by woodcarver Karel Nosek. Children of all ages love these wooden figures. Spejbl and H

Merkur - Czech original product

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Perhaps everybody, when hear of the word Merkur think of planet of our solar system, but most of them on the best known Czech toy of even title. Merkur is the title of the train models and metal kits, which arose at the beginning of the last century in the town of Police nad Metují in the Czech Republic. The company produces a lot of beautiful toys such as the ones pictured below. Construction set Railway Child`scarf and tools The company started in 1920, when Mr Jaroslav Vancl established the company INVENTOR. Before Mr Vancl had this construction of child's metal kit patented under the title INVENTOR. Today it is hard to find out, whether it was his idea, or whether he was inspired by design of any other construction set. Originally they were metal construction sets, INVENTOR connected with a metal hooks, similar to nowadays using scaffolding "haki". Metal construction set under the name INVENTOR finished, nevertheless this ti