Schleich Horse Club Mobile Vet Van & Horse Club Girls - Review

[AD/Gifted products - We received these items free of charge 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.]

I absolutely love Schleich products and we have been lucky enough to review some of their jungle animals and dinosaurs with C in the past. E was very excited to get her very own first Schleich products from the extensive Horse Club range.

We, very kindly, were sent the Schleich Horse Club Mobile Vet Van and two Horse Club Girls to have a play with.

The Mobile Vet Van is a fantastic set with tons of creative play value. The van itself is simple to put together, taking me less than ten minutes, and E enjoyed helping me pop the stickers on to make it look pretty. 

Once the top and side of the van are opened up, you have the main veterinary area. The set comes with 15 accessories such as a table and laptop and x-ray machine, you even get a ramp to help get the horses up to the van to be checked. Everything every good vet would need! It can all be closed up and kept enclosed so you won't lose anything. A few of the pieces are quite small so wouldn't be suitable for children under 3. The target age for these toys are around 5-12 years.

As well as the actual van and accessories, you get a Hanoverian foal figure and vet with movable arms which is great as you can use your imagination to have the vet work with the foal, handle medical equipment or hold onto the included reins. E loved the addition of sticky plasters and a printed notepad to jot down the foals ailments.

The Schleich Mobile Vet Van retails at £30.00 and is available from Argos.

Schleich have a huge range of Horse Club products which can all be played with together. In addition to the Vet Van, we received two Horse Club Girls (and their horses). There are four girls in the range; Hannah, Sofia, Lisa and Sarah. We got Sofia with her horse Blossom and Sarah with her horse Mystery.

Each Horse Club Girl has her own personality and relationship with her horse. Sofia and her beautiful Andalusian mare Blossom are a dream team with Sofia's blonde hair matching Blossom's fair mane. Sarah loves to go on long rides and gallop across wide fields on the back of her Arabian mare Mystery.

The attention to detail on these figures are fantastic - they are so realistic and lifelike. You can tell that so much thought has been put into the design of them and the quality of the entire Schleich range are brilliant. They are the type of toy that will withstand the test of time and be played with for years.

The saddles and bridles can be removed and the girls slot on easily, having their feet resting on the stirrups and the reins in their hands. 

The Horse Club Girls retail at £15.00 each and can also be purchased from Argos.

Schleich Dino Set with Cave - Review

My son C has always been interested in dinosaurs, ever since the age of 2 when he became obsessed with Andy's Dinosaur Adventures on CBeebies and proudly told me that his favourite was a parasaurolophus (which I promptly had to Google - how could a 2 year old outsmart me?) Four years on, his love of dinosaurs is still there so he was very excited to get his hands on the Schleich Dino Set with Cave (recommended for age 5+).

I love the Schleich range and you can tell just by looking and holding them that they are a great value, well made and will stand the test of time. We reviewed some Schleich animal figures two years ago and they are still going strong, have been borrowed by C's nursery for a while and now enjoyed by both of my children with not a breakage in sight.

The Dino Set with cave comes with four pieces to build the cave (cave, column, stone and stone slab), a Herrerasaurus with a moveable lower jaw, a Psittacosaurus, a Microraptor and a fossil head. Upon opening, the first thing I noticed was the sheer weight of each piece, you know that this is a fantastic quality toy. The cave itself was simple enough for 6 year old C to build alone and he loved that you can transform the front part into a catapult when the stone column is moved.

The dinosaur figures themselves have been crafted with exceptional attention to detail. The colouring on each is second to none and I was surprised to see that they are all handpainted because they look so incredible. The size of the cave and figures are decent too.

C, although a lover of dinosaurs, wasn't actually aware of these types so we had a quick Google about their backgrounds, what they ate and he was very interested in learning more. Watching C's imagination come to life when he is playing with this set is wonderful. He will have them fight each other, try to run or fly away, have one dinosaur remove the stone trying to crush another, all while roaring as loud as he can and you can just feel his excitement.

We love the Schleich Dino with Cave Set as it combines two of my favourite things; playing and learning. I even learned a bit more about dinosaurs too! This set retails at £44.99 but for handpainted, high quality toys that encourage creativity and imagination, it's definitely worth it. You can purchase your own at the Schleich website.

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

 

Educational Play the Schleich Way

I am a huge fan of Schleich products. They are always C's go-to when we enter Smyths as his favourite type of play is roleplay scenarios with figures. Schleich have recently put together a 16 brochure which is designed to be a guide to the best in imaginative play and development and they have included thoughts from renowned child psychologist, Dr Amanda Gummer.

I honestly thought that the brochure would include mostly information that I already knew but it has been a wonderful eye opener for me. We all know how important a balanced diet is for children but they should also have a balanced play diet too. I sort of knew this already but not to the extent included in the brochure. I tend to let my kids watch a little television, C gets 30 minutes of iPad time a day, we do outdoor play and indoor play too. Schleich have also stated that children need Active Play, Creative Play, Social Play and Free Play so they've gone into a little more detail and I really learned a lot and will definitely ensure that my children do these types of playing every day.

The brochure encourages you to stimulate your child's imagination with some game ideas. I have to admit that before I had my own children, I wasn't a kid person. I introduced some of these games with C and to be honest, he enjoyed them so much and I did too! It was a really lovely bonding session for the two of us. You can incorporate and use Schleich figures in all of these games and play areas because they are just so versatile. With Active Play we can take our animal figures outside into the beautiful forests near where we live or with Free Play, C can make up his own little scenarios in his head with his animals and imagine how they would interact. One of my favourite games included is What's The Animal? I would choose one of the animals to pretend to be and when C had guessed which one, he'd hold it up.

Schleich have an amazing range of products from individual figures to big playsets. We received four animal figures: Elephant, Tiger, Sheep and Donkey. They are such a great weight and size and I do think that aids children's learning. For example the Elephant figure is a lot bigger and heavier than the rest - something which is obviously true in real life too. C loves to ask questions so having these figures has encouraged him to ask me more about these animals and I have loved teaching him. The quality is just fantastic and I know we will definitely be picking up more in the future as I'm sure they will withstand lots of fun playtime in years to come. Even C's 22 month old sister is learning too. She had previously never experienced some of the animals but her big brother has taught her how to say them and make the noises that they would make. I love that Schleich have mentioned the fact that girls can like dinosaurs and boys can like dolls and prams because my son and daughter are exactly like that. Toys are not gender specific.

The Schleich range starts at £2.99 per figure and you can pick them up here: http://www.schleich-s.com/en/GB/ or at Smyths.

You can also download the 16-page brochure to help your child's playtime by clicking the image below.

(We received four Schleich animal figures, the brochure and a small payment for this post.)