A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a lovely lady from Ashmin toys, asking if I'd review some of their products. I instantly loved the way she introduced herself and her company : "I am a SAHM mother of two wonderfully exhausting munchkins (girl 5, boy 3) and I run a new online business selling gorgeous wooden toys at NON greedy prices. Our aim is to make wood toys widely accessible. Being wood fans I noticed just how expensive they are (the mark up is frightening). A lot of parents we spoke to agreed that they also love wooden toys, however they are 'so expensive'........We decided to challenge that." Sounds great, and that's certainly an opinion I can relate to.
We excitedly awaited the postman, who soon delivered a travel hangman game and a little battery-operated train for us to play with and review.
We excitedly awaited the postman, who soon delivered a travel hangman game and a little battery-operated train for us to play with and review.
The Hangman game is a brilliant idea and is totally original - I've never seen one like it before. The wooden board is covered in double-sided wooden tiles attached with elastic bindings that you flip over during play instead of drawing the hangman and to keep track of the letters used. The tiles are very well attached and the kids love the "clack" noise that they make when you turn them over. (I love it a bit less when they've been playing for hours on end, I must admit !) The elastic is quite tight so very young players will find it quite hard to turn them over. This does mean it's very robust though.
You use a dry-erase marker (that comes with the board) to write your word at the bottom for each game. My only slight niggle is that the elastic loops for attaching the marker to the edge of the board are very tight and almost impossible for me to wriggle the pen through, let alone the kids. Overall, it's a great toy though and is a lovely twist on the original pen-and-paper hangman game.
The second toy that we received was a BigJigs battery operated engine. I was surprised to see that it is made of plastic, not wood. It needs one AAA battery which isn't included and I suggest you buy lots because they don't last very long, especially if you make it pull carriages, go uphill or push obstacles out of the way a lot ! It has forward, reverse and stop functions and is compatible with most wooden train tracks - it's a great addition to our John Crane wooden train set.
Pierre loves the bright colours and the fact that he can make it run across the floor and the table as well as on the train track. There are all sorts of carriages that you can buy to use with the engine, which attach simply with the magnetic coupling, but for now Pierre is happy to use it on its own. In fact, he is busy putting his train track together again right now so that he can use it with his new engine !
These are just a couple of the products available at Ashmin Toys. I've had a look at their website and I love the huge selection of wooden toys that they have on offer, as well as the fact that they are a family-run business. They promise to price-check with their competitors and also offer free UK delivery, which is always good news.
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : £9.98 for the hangman game, £11.95 for the engine
for more information : http://www.ashmintoys.co.uk
Disclosure : I received some toys in order to write an honest review.
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Things look really good. A little quirky and reasonably priced.
ReplyDeletethe hangman game looks great, wooden toys are lovely, i got lots for my youngest child for christmas, she loves them and best of all there are no batteries required.
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