Sometimes these are end of lines, sometimes slightly damaged stock, sometimes just things we enjoy selling.

This spring we have chosen 9 items to reduce to illustrate some of our best products – 3 Orchard Toys – 3 Schleich models and 2 electronics items, and, of course, a train.

On the Orchard items we have selected some great items – Find the Rhyme puzzle, Noah’s Ark Puzzle and Nursery Rhymes 4 in a box puzzles now at £3.99, £3.99, £2.99 giving savings of £4.50 and more.

On the Schleich items we have the new Akhal Teke Foal from £3.89 to £2.19, the pretty little Duck from £2.89 to £1.99 and the Horse Stable – which is already a very popular line on a very very special offer of £35.99 from £57.49.

With the electronic items we have taken the bveautifully simple and illustrative Cambridge BrainBox walking robot from £6.99 to £3.99 and our Logiman Civilian down to just 49 pence.

Last but not least is our battery operated train engine for wooden train sets – £4.99 is a great price for this lovely little engine.

This picture is just one of the Learning Resources Gears Gears Gears products. All the products from Learning Resources make fun educational toys – they say of themselves “The brand teachers trust” – and they say it with good reason.

Next on our list of additions is an expansion of the wooden train sets to include a wider range of accessories.

Baby Bigjigs is expanded but do also look at the Green products – they are tip top stuff from recycled materials.

Brainstorm globe range is expanded – fantastic products and value.

Orchard Toys bring in another 14 exciting games and puzzles for the discerning youngsters and we can’t forget Schleich who bring in their fantastic additions released in January, May & September.

Overall we do now think we are on top of our game with one of the best selections of products in the UK – along with some of the most competitive prices available in the UK.

Back along last summer we had just sorted out how to use Google adwords rather more effectively than we had been. The effect of this was to double and in some cases treble our actual sales. This also had the knock on effect of increasing our sales across the board.

Once we get to the early autumn then things hot up anyway so it is difficult to keep up to date with a blog when we are fully occupied making sure we look after each transaction and every customer.

Once we get past Christmas we sort of collapse – November and December see sales at 6 times normal sales – so yes we sort of collapse.

January then sees us re-look at our whole product range whilst assessing how existing products are being received –  I guess not too badly because our sales are doubling year on year.

Nevertheless we are intent on re-looking at the whole UK market and seeing where we can improve what we are doing.

Let’s leave this one for now and come back with some more info on this years new products soonest – we will then try to write regular blogs about specific products and promotional bargains.

When we spoke with Ravensburger and with Gibsons we also carefully checked the market to see what other ranges we should be stocking. It came as a pleasant surprise to find that we already deal with the very best.
Both these companies are quality driven, with an absolute emphasis on being the best in the market.
Not just that but they also ensure that their jigsaw puzzles cover the most popular 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles as well as large and large piece jigsaw puzzles for people with sight or handling difficulties.
Both produce some fabulous images – do check them out here – Jigsaw Puzzles

We would expect a significant rise of Schleich sales in 2011 compared with 2010 – simply because we have widened the range we stock. In 2010 we stocked around 75% of the range – now we stock 100% – sales however are 5 times 2010 and July is double June – we are very pleased.

Yes we have improved our presentation – yes we have improved our advertising – but most of this change has to be down to the quality of the Schleich models themselves.

We never cease to be amazed at just how positive customer feedback is – once one of our customers has found part of the range – they find that their children are delighted – it is a natural response to buy more – in the certain knowledge that their child will be delighted again.

If you have not tried already do have a look at the different ranges – all listed on our Schleich quick index page

As a brief summary here we have – Animals – Wild Animals – Farm Animals – Horses – Forest Animals – Pets – Dogs – Dinosaurs – Knights – People – Accessories – Fantasy Fairies and Elves – Smurfs

Whichever area you look at you will find top quality models for children to play with and collect – do also have a look at the new releases – the fighting elephant is brilliant!

Not surprisingly I suppose our list is amazingly and consistently in line with Orchard’s list. – It does vary a little month by month but for the last three months – April May & June – Shopping List has been top of the tree – we understand it has been the top seller for years – not surprising really when you think of what the game has within it.
It is aimed at children between the ages of three and seven and is a bright, colourful fun game. It involves enabling a child to use and expand their memory skills in trying to fill their shopping trolley first – back come natural competitive attitudes – great!

We have to go back to March this year to find when shopping list was not our best seller – back then we had a tie for first place with Jelly Elephants and Red Dog Blue Dog.

To find any particular Orchard Toys item on the Toys & Learning website just use the search box on the top right – or use the Orchard Toys link on page left hand side – all items are displayed alphabetically.

Each scenery pack comes with one element that is only available within the scenery pack – thus making it collectable in its own right.

More importantly these scenery packs are one of the easiest ways to buy a present for a child and set them up with a whole new interest.

We have included images of each of the six scenery packs below.

The suggested retail price of £12.50 makes them really good value – at Toys & Learning they are just £9.99 giving a saving of £2.51

Here are the pictures of each of the six scenery packs – with links direct to the product description pages – happy choosing.

Schleich Noctis Scenery Pack

Schleich Elf Scenery Pack

Schleich Forestry Scenery Pack

Schleich Dog Scenery Pack

Schleich Cat Scenery Pack

Schleich Rabbit Scenery Pack

Four years ago – when we first set up Toys & Learning as specialist educational toy retailers – I was able to say – with equally foolish confidence – no social media for me – not now – not ever.

So here we are today having spent a happy few hours – sort of – so to speak.

Toys & Learning on Twitter – for our latest special offers.

Toys & Learning on Facebook – I am sure we will work out what works here too!

So what produced this happy volte-face. Quite a simple story really – our expert seo people (search engine optimisers) at High Position in Colchester have quietly and carefully been making the point that it is necessary to use social media to reach out to a wider audience – and we have equally quietly and carefully taken no notice.

In January 2011 High Position put one of their most dynamic staff in charge of our account – Oh Dear! – Wake Up Time – for us all.

Since our objective at Toys & Learning is to become the UK market leading internet retailer of key educational toys – a pretty good job too.

This year – 2011 – we are taking enormous strides – both in product line up and in our own presentation – we have dropped and are dropping suppliers where the product quality is not good enough or where the customer support is not up to standard – some surprising names are going – We are heavily focused on Orchard Toys – Schleich Animals, Knights & Fantasy models – Cambridge BrainBox & Logiblocs Electronics Kits – along with soft toys, wooden toys and developing relationships with card game manufacturers – can be difficult with some but we will get there!

Our presentation gets better and easier to use – and our work with High Position starts taking us to the top of the internet tree on a wider range of products.

Silly talk aside Twitter gives us the chance to tell a wide audience of discounts on products as soon as possible – and Facebook will give us the ability to offer clear and simple product promotions and also to get direct feedback – do come along for the ride – it will be fun.

History Heroes is different – very different – a great fun card game that you laugh and learn with.

What a brilliant name for a designer of history products – Harry Hastings – indeed Harry’s real name!

We had a long chat with Harry, about his background as a history teacher, about the frustrations of finding products on the market that really grab the attentions of young children, about how he has thought through his intentions of producing a range of History Heroes products.
The next step was for Harry to send us a sample.
Immediately we could see – this is a good product

• All the drawings are produced by Bill Stott – they are interesting and original
• The cards are high quality and have a great tactile feel
• Each card has 6 questions with 3 colour coded levels of difficulty
• There are six different games that can be played
• There are Harry’s hints to go with the questions

What we decided, in conjunction with Harry was that we would include History Heroes – Monarchs in our range and display it in such a way that all our customers who are interested in card games will have a look at History Heroes.

We do not know how long it will take for people to catch on and see how good this product is but we are determined to add each new product as it comes along – meantime have a go with this History Heroes product and let us know how you get on.

Once we started looking properly at the snap cards from The Green Board Game Company we were quite taken aback both at the quality of the people we met as well as the product – a huge amount of care has gone into the design, production and presentation of these snap cards.

It is, however, not just this quality that impressed us. Each title has been thought through to maximise the enjoyment as well as the learning process by including images that go alongside the words that are used. The most effective titles – no not really worth our recommending specifics – of course the basic maths, tables, words and fractions are fantastic but then so are all the others.

Do have a look yourselves – and remember – these cards can keep children occupied for ages – both at home and on holiday.