The fun and joy of giving at Christmas is just around the corner! It can be easy to forget with the media full of deficit cutting, child benefit reviews and squeeze after squeeze, so to remind you of all the festive fun Dillon's Toybox have complied their top ten Wooden toys for Christmas 2010. Remember this is a magical time for children, so its really worth giving their gifts some extra thought.
Of course at Dillon's Toybox we are not irresponsible and as we have all been told, "we must take responsibility for the economy and we must all play our part", so we have focused our top ten on toys which give value for money. We have defined this with three criteria;
1) Toys which allow more than one child to play. This was a really important criteria for us, given that Christmas is a time when you will often have visiting children, who may not share as well as yours, a little thought around your gifts with this in mind can set you up for a really great Christmas, avoid the arguments which come from children "sharing".
2) Toys which allow in depth role play games. We have included this as a criteria because we believe toys at Christmas, particularly ones you are giving as a main present, should give the opportunity for a very wide range of play. This also allows for Parents and older siblings to get involved with the play and the fun of the gift.
3) Toys which have are fun to play with! It is Christmas after all, any toy in the top ten should be fun, As passed by our junior testers, Dillon and his friends!
The top spot was very closely contested between the kitchen combo and the workbench, almost a draw in fact. The workbench just has the top spot because of the great range of accessories included, making this a staggering 39 piece set! With the very sturdy bench, including a vice and tool rack, you get lengths of wood with various holes in and connecting blocks to allow children to actually build up from the bench or away from it, and a good range of tools including a saw, set square, spanner, screwdriver, nuts and bolts, connection blocks. The Pintoy Workbench answers our three criteria the most fully, the tools allow many children to play at once. Role play is great with this toy and can be taken to a multi person level and every child loves the fun of building and creating.
This Kitchen Combo in red came in a very close runner up. With cooking as popular as ever, made even more so by the recent 'Great British Bake Off', the kitchen set was never going to be far down the list. The sink and tap, cooker with working dials, three ring hob, mean two or even three cooks can get involved, and as for role play, 'Mini Masterchef', 'The Great Toddler Bake Off' and 'Saturday Morning Kitchen For Kids', you are limited only by your imagination!
Christmas should also be fun for parents too, and with this comprehensive set everything you need for a full wooden train set is in one box so you don't need to search for endless add ons. The full 100 piece set includes not one, but two trains, one with two carriages, one with a coal store and three carriages. An extensive track layout with an internal loop, a single arch bridge, a suspension style bridge, a town hall, a station, a level crossing, a post office, four houses, a family, a station master, seven trees, three bushes, two fir trees, four signs, a signal, five overhead cable carriers, two cows, three sheep, and an end of the line stop!
This is a set we have put together especially for Christmas 2010, and includes the fire station, the engine and the fire-fighters. Of course this is really a dolls house for boys, I wouldn't tell your little man that though! Like the pirate ship the fire set scores well on allowing multiple children to play at once. This set includes the station with all these accessories; 4 Lockers, Control Console, Swivel Chair, Satellite Dish, Bunk Bed, Round Table, 2 Chairs and a Shelf Unit. The fire engine includes an extending two part rotating ladder, removable hose, and sides that open for extra storage, removable roof sections on the cab and the back and a fire hose with nozzle and two connecting hoses. And of course the set include the dolls, sorry, the pack of 4 fire-fighters, who also come with their own accessory pack of a fire extinguisher, 2 Axes, 2 Walkie Talkies, Breathing Apparatus and a Megaphone. The role play with this set explains itself, as does the fun!
The Great Paragon Pirate Ship from John Crane. The fact that this is open on all sides and includes a good accessory range means the pirate ship scored well on allowing many children to play. This great wooden ship comes with a captain and five crew members, two cannons, two barrels, two set of steps an anchor and a treasure chest, this allows for some great games to be played, hide the chest and use the ship and pirates to go on a treasure hunt.
A classic Christmas gift, maybe one of the oldest play sets still in use today, nicely meeting all our criteria, this contemporary set from Plan Toys includes 12 pairs of animals and of course Noah and his wife. The roof can be removed for easy access and the gangway opens onto the roomy cargo-hold that has 3 portholes to allow children to see the animals inside.
This is one for our the younger children, the activity centre includes; a music section with a Xylophone, a drum, a washboard, a symbol and a beater. A drawing section with a blackboard and a magnetic whiteboard. Two belt buckles, lacing, buttons, and a zip. A shape sorting section with the cow, pig, sheep and duck made of a circle, a square, a triangle and a semi circle, these are also magnetic so can be played with and drawn round on the white board. And a stacking section, where the ever increasing size discs stack on top of each other and are again magnetic. Although the role play isn't in depth for the younger children the amount of play value in this activity centre means that a seventh place is well deserved.
A classic toy, the wooden parking garage is a must for every little boy at some point in their development, and of course a great place for pretending to be a multitude of characters, the driver, the parking attendant, the lift operator and the car washer! Stories can be made up around the garage over the festive season by the whole family using the accessories included a figure, a car, a petrol station, and a car wash.
This is not a large play sets, but a play set none the less, and incredile play value for the money. The set includes a metro train, some block buildings, an ambulance, a school bus and a police car, four trees and two signs. All the pieces stack onto 5 dowels which then slot into the base plate, which itself can be used as a bridge when in play, also included is a lacing string so that the pieces can be laced onto the string to form a pull along toy too! All the wooden pieces are numbered so the set can also be used to help with learning to count! And the best part of all? This set tidies away nicely and neatly on its wooden base, meaning that this won't be the toy that you are struggling to find a new home for after Christmas.
The final place in our 2010 Christmas top ten wooden toys goes to a 3 piece car set from Automoblox. These are small wooden cars with a difference, each is a mini construction kit and the bodies, wheels and roofs are interchangeable. This adds and extra dimension to the simple wooden toy car and allows for role play, swapping games, and creativity as little designers can build their own models from the parts. And of course three cars mean that three can play.
