Casdon Flymo Toy Lawnmower - Review #CasdonFlymo

[AD/gifted - We received this item for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. [This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to buy anything through a link on this page, I will earn a few pennies at no extra cost to you.]

One of E's favourite ways to play is doing role-play. This started at a young age with her little tea set and progressing onto a toy kitchen, a sweep/mop set, shopping trolley - anything mummy and daddy do, she wanted to act it out and pretend that she was doing it too. Casdon are a really great brand for role-playing toys and we've actually reviewed some in the past which have been well-received.

With it being the middle of summer and it being quite good weather, E was delighted to receive the Casdon Flymo Lawnmower - exactly the same one that her grandad has - so she could "help" him mow his garden.

It is super simple to put together, coming in just three parts, the main base which is the iconic Flymo orange colour (complete with Flymo logo) and two handle pieces that slot together. You're then all ready to go!

The lawnmower doesn't require batteries which is a massive plus in my book and the wheels on the bottom make a clicking sound to imitate the mower noise.

Aimed at children aged 3+, I did have a little worry that my tall, almost-five-year-old daughter may be too big for it but she is able to push it comfortably around the garden.

The plastic is really sturdy and I did think, before opening, that if E maybe put a bit too much pressure on the handle as she pushes, they would come apart but that hasn't been the case and we are very impressed with it. 

E is enjoying mimicking her grandad and cutting his grass for him but it's even great to bring indoors on a rainy day too as it wheels along the floor nicely too.

The Casdon Flymo Lawnmower is priced at £12.99 and is available at all good toy retailers. You can find out more at the Casdon website.

Casdon Morphy Richards Toy Kitchen Set - Review

[AD/Gifted - We received this set for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. [This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to buy anything through a link on this page, I will earn a few pennies at no extra cost to you.]

I really love the Casdon range and we have reviewed the Hetty Cleaning Trolley, Chip 'n' Pin Till, Shopping Trolley and Wooden Kitchen in the past.

Both my children love pretend play, especially if they are acting out "grown up jobs", and E will always tell me about playing with the role play toys at nursery such as the fruit and veg stall, shop or house.  

E was so excited to be sent the Casdon Morphy Richards Kitchen Set, as one of her favourite things to do at home is to pretend to cook at her wooden kitchen. This set would be a perfect accompaniment to that.

Inside the box is:

• Kettle with level gauge indicator
• Toaster with two pieces of toast
• Coffee machine with carafe 
• Two cups
• Two saucers
• Two plates
• Two teaspoons
• Two forks
• Two knives
• Play food - bacon, sausage and egg

Without even properly looking into each item, I thought E would be able to use her imagination well with these but it's the little extras that really make this set great.

As I mentioned above the kettle has a level gauge indicator and you can flick the switch just like a real kettle. The coffee machine has a lid at the top that you can open to pour water into then it filters through into the carafe below. E absolutely loves this aspect as we have a coffee maker at home and it makes her feel just like mummy.

The toaster is very cool too. Not only can you twist the knob on the front to hear clicks but once you've inserted the bread into the slots, you can push the toast down using the lever and after a few seconds it will pop up.

The set is really true to the Morphy Richards style with the gorgeous style, colour and logo. E could play with this set for hours, either making breakfast for us or setting up a cafe for her dolls and teddies which is really cute to watch.

The quality is fantastic and great for little hands to play with, from age 3 and up. The Casdon Morphy Richards Kitchen Set retails at around £17 but Amazon currently have it for £12.99 - go snap it up!

You can find out more about the full range at the Casdon website. 

 

 
 

Pretend Play with the Casdon Deluxe Hetty Cleaning Trolley

We are massive fans of the Casdon brand and my youngest child, three year old E, plays with her toy washine machine and Henry Hoover on a daily basis. She loves pretend play and will always act like she's "mummy" by cleaning up her wooden kitchen, getting into her cosy coupe and telling me, "I'm just off to the shops!"

E was delighted to get her hands on the Casdon Deluxe Hetty Cleaning Trolley set - anything pink and she is in love! It is available in the red Henry style too.

The set contains:

• Trolley
• Mop and bucket
• Long-handled brush
• Handheld vacuum
• Dustpan and brush
• Toy detergent and spray bottles
• Cloth
• Paper bag

The trolley is super easy to put together - I built it and placed the stickers on the bucket, dustpan and bottles in less than 10 minutes which was great as E was very impatient and couldn't wait to get playing. 

The handheld vacuum really works, you just need to insert 3 AA batteries (not included). This is definitely E's favourite item in the set because I think she feels like she's properly helping mummy out, even though it is low suction.

It was absolutely adorable to see her pushing the little trolley around on it's wheels, coming to something which she imagined was dirty then choosing which item to clean it up with. I think it's a great little set to encourage your little one's imaginations but also to get them to like doing some real cleaning.

We have been playing with this set for just over two weeks now and I honestly thought that the cloth and paper bag wouldn't last long. With two children aged five and under, they can be quite rough, so I anticipated the cloth getting dirty beyond belief and the paper bag being ripped to shreds. They have surprised me though and they are still going strong! Although it is made of plastic, it's relatively sturdy and has coped well with my two!

The spray and detergent bottle don't actually work but I'm quite glad about that. E is happy enough pretending that she's spraying then wiping with the cloth. I just know that if I could really fill it, she'd make a huge mess!

I like that every item has it's own place so it is quite compact and can be tidied away in the corner nicely. E has even become a bit meticulous and has to have everything in its place, not choosing another cleaning item until she's put the one she's been using in its rightful place - the Cleaning Trolley is definitely doing its job and teaching her things!

The Casdon Deluxe Cleaning Trolley (both Hetty and Henry styles) retails at £25.00 and can be found at all good retailers, including Amazon. You can find out more at the Casdon website and you can keep up to date with the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

(We received this item for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.) 

 

A Christmas Gift from Casdon

We've worked with Casdon on a couple of reviews in the past (of the Shopping Trolley and Kitchen Set) and it has quickly become a brand that the kids love and those toys are still played with a lot. With Christmas coming, the lovely people at Casdon sent the children a little Christmas gift. It was wrapped up and even had a little chocolate tree decoration and candy cane - a cute touch!

C and E were so excited to see what was inside, take a look at the video below!
 

The kids have opened their present! Thank you, @casdontoysuk - they love it!

A video posted by Rebecca (@13rebecca13) on Dec 10, 2016 at 6:46am PST

It was the Chip n Pin Till! I knew that C especially would love this because he always wants to use the self serve checkouts at the supermarket.

The set includes:

• Till
• Chip and pin machine
• Pretend food
• Money
• Credit cards

The till takes 5 AA batteries and I was so impressed with what it could do. As I have two children, they loved that they could play together, one being the shopper and one being the shopkeeper so this was great for exploring their imagination and creating their own little shopping scenarios. 

Everything is so realistic and the buttons are a working calculator. Although C is a little young to properly understand this, it will be great for him in the future. You could even roll out a little fake receipt which was a nice addition. I'm not sure if the microphone is supposed to work, we couldn't seem to get ours too and C did ask, "where's the scanner?" but soon got distracted by the rest of the features and didn't mind too much about there not being one.

The chip and pin really impressed me. Each of the cards has a set PIN number which is embossed onto the bottom of the card. When you insert it into the reader, an orange light shines to tell you that the number is ready to be punched in. Depending on whether you get the number right or wrong, a light will shine green or red. C got really excited when he got the number correct, but similarly it helped him to understand why it was shining red if he accidentally typed the wrong thing.

Both of the children adore role play and it really gets their minds working. I think they both seem to like doing grown up things so they feel like mummy and daddy when they play with toys similar to this one. C tends to enjoy iPad time and does ask for it a lot (I limit his screen time) but this type of play gets him more excited and engaged.

The Casdon Chip N Pin Till retails at only £15 at Amazon (currently on sale at £13.29 at the time of publishing) and it's suitable for children aged 3-8 years old.

You can find out more about the range of roleplay toys at the Casdon website or you can follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

(We received this item for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)

 

Casdon Woodplay Wooden Kitchen Set - Review

May is Woodplay month at toy company Casdon and I am so pleased to have been able to review one of their fabulous wooden toy sets which are aimed at children aged 3+. There are three boxsets in the range; Pirate Island, Beach Villa and a Kitchen Set. C absoutely loves pretending to cook so I had to opt for the kitchen set. He's always playing with the large wooden kitchen when we go to softplay.

When the box arrived it was smaller than I thought it would be, but in a good way. It's great for carrying around especially on Saturdays when we visit my parents so he can bring it with him easily. One of the first things that I noticed, obviously after accepting this toy for my son to play with was the fact that there were only girls playing with the kitchen on the box. It's not a massive deal but boys like kitchens and cooking too so it would have been nice to show that it's a toy that is aimed at both genders.

All of the pieces were kept inside the main oven part of the kitchen set and it was so simple to put together, it was just a case of slotting the utensil rack into the top of the wooden box part then setting up all the little play pieces. Opening and closing it is easy enough for kids to master with a little bead and elasticated string.

Included in the set are:

• Bamboo wooden box
• Utensils rack
• Spoon
• Spatula
• Knife
• Fork
• Plate
• Pan
• Pan lid
• Pizza
• Egg
• Pepper pot

All of the pieces are made from bamboo wood so it's not too heavy for C to carry around but still sustainable. We did have a incident where he dropped it from a height and the corner cracked. It was nothing that a little wood glue couldn't fix though.

The paint work on the set is beautiful and they've really thought of everything. The cute shelves and jugs on the side are my favourite. The wood itself is finished and varnished so I had no worries about splinters or other injuries. We received this set about 3-4 weeks ago and it has been played with every single day by both children. C especially (aged 3) loves to cook for mummy and daddy and it is lovely watching him get so much enjoyment out of it. The other two woodplay sets are definitely being purchased for this kids birthdays this September.  

The Woodplay sets retail at £25.00 which I think is a really reasonable price for what you're getting and how much children will have, and you can purchase them from Amazon. If you want to find out more about the range, you can do so at the Casdon website. You can keep up to date with all things Casdon on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

(We received this item for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)

 

Casdon Little Shoppers Shopping Trolley - Review

I have always been a huge fan of the Casdon range, ever since my sister had some of their sets when she was little. When we were offered the chance to review the Casdon Shopping Trolley, I knew C would love it. He, strangely, loves going food shopping so I thought that it would be great for him to role play. 

Inside the box were all of the pieces to build the trolley and some food bits. The trolley itself is easy enough to build. The instructions were clear and had imagery to help. I think it only took us 15 minutes at most. There are 2 pieces of fruit (orange and lemon), 2 jars with stickers and lots of boxes of food items that just needed to be slotted together. C got really excited waiting for everything to be put together and even told us, "I'm so happy!"

When everything was ready, C went off to do his "shopping", putting all the food that he wanted to buy in his trolley and telling us what they were. Of course his little sister wanted to play too and the two of them played together with it for a good few hours. 

Since building it up, it's quickly become a firm favourite and I don't think a day goes by where one of the kids doesn't play with it. I was really surprised by how sturdy it is. I thought that it would be all plastic but only the handle, basket and wheels are plastic with the frame being metal. 

The Casdon Shopping Trolley is recommended for children aged 3-8. C is 3.5 and I think the handle is the perfect height for him but E at 18 months is able to push it with no problems too.
It retails at £15.00 and you can find out where to buy at the Casdon website and you can also keep up to date on Facebook and Twitter.

(We received this item for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)