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.

What we are always looking for at Toys & Learning are quality suppliers of educational toys. Late 2009 we started dealing with Schleich who make brilliantly accurate models of, inter alia, animals, people, knights & fairies.
Within these broad categories you have wild animals, farm animals and dinosaurs; all of which are really good for widening children’s thinking about the world around them.
So strong was the feedback from customers that we, quite quickly, extended the range we stocked to include the knights and fantasy fairies and elves. During the later part of 2010 it became apparent that we were not being helpful to some customers because there were Schleich items that they wanted that we did not stock. So, from 2011 onwards, we will stock the whole range of Schleich products – and most important of all we are working closely with Schleich UK to ensure that we are will be as close as you can get to having all items in stock – all of the time – that will be pretty difficult – but an important task we have set ourselves.

Back to Smurfs.

The little smurf characters are great fun and a useful way for children to start collecting and using their imagination in play. Once they, and their parents, understand quite how good Schleich products are they will also collect dinosaurs, historical models and various animals. This is a great way for children to be unaware of the extent to which they are widening their understanding and horizons.

Jolly good things are our Smurfs!

It wasn’t just finger puppets but also the finger puppet story sets that really caught our eye. These story sets provide a quality card with a classic children’s story – like goldilocks and the three bears – along with the finger puppets to go with them. Children just love the play acting that can be done with finger puppets like these.

The other finger puppets that are just unbelievably fun are the hideaway puppets – like rabbit in a lettuce or the tree house hideaway puppets.

Having said that we could not resist the range of sockette and full sized bird puppets – so much so that we have widened our range to include all the UK’s best selling puppets – most provide educational toys – some are just outright fun!

Firstly we have made significant price reductions to all the items we stock from Gibsons – that is all their family games – all their children’s puzzles – and all their quality jigsaw puzzles

Secondly we have put together our own favourites page

All we have here is to take a representative sample of Orchard Toys children’s games and some of the Schleich models – all of them are ones that make us smile!

For the Schleich models we have taken three each of – African Wild Animal, here a group of elephants – Dinosaurs – Replica Dinosaurs – Knights on horseback.

We hope some customers will find this useful – it just gives a quick easy summary of top quality best selling educational toys