It's rare to find a toy that appeals equally to a 3-year-old boy and two girls aged 8 and 11, but that's what happened when the postman dropped off this range of horse figurines from Schleich. All three of the Madhouse Mini-testers oohed and aahed as they unwrapped this herd (if that's the right word for a group of horses !) of pretty toy horses.
I'll have to be totally honest - my initial impression was that the packaging wasn't very impressive, then I slapped myself on the wrist. That's totally hypocritical because I'm always complaining about excess packaging so sticking them in a big cardboard and plastic box would just be a waste of time and resources.
These horses are from the World of Nature range and, as with all of Schleich's figurines, the realism and attention to detail is impressive.
Each horse has a dynamic pose so it really looks like it is walking (or trotting), making creative playtime much more enriching. I always love toys that rely on a child's imagination rather than batteries and these certainly fit the bill.
What appealed the most to the girls, in particular Juliette, is that they all have braided manes and tails.
The girls don't know much about the different breeds of horses but they do apparently correspond to real breeds so horse-lovers will be in their element.
You can build up whole families of horses because there are stallions (12cm high), mares (12.5cm - this surprised me, I thought the stallions would be the biggest) and foals, measuring 9cm.
I'm sure many of these will end up in collections on shelves, to look pretty rather than actually being played with, but they have been well played with since arriving here at the Madhouse and they're very robust, which is something I've noticed with other Schleich figurines.
The Braided Horses were added to the range in January 2013 but there are many other figurines (of horses and just about any other animal you can think of) available at most good retailers.
star rating : 4/5
RRP : Stallion: £5.99; Mare: £5.99; Foal: £3.99
Disclosure : We received a selection of Schleich Braided Horses in order to write an honest review.
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I adore their toys. When Sasha was younger, we got a whole load of wild animals, and now Eddie plays with them too.
ReplyDeleteThey are really long-lasting and put up with a lot of rough play so they're great to hand down to younger siblings :)
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