Archive for the 'Traditional Toys' Category
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
The Mulberry Bush Spring and Summer catalogue of wooden toys and games is on its way. If you are already a customer one should be arriving by post in the next few days. If you would like one please enter your details on our catalogue request page and we’ll send you one and add you to our mailing list for future catalogues too. (UK only by post, but the whole range can be seen on the website)
We have quite a number of new products and many old favourites. It’s sign of the times that some prices have had to go up but for the vast majority we have been able to maintain last years price – and there are even some that have gone down!
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Saturday, November 28th, 2009
What are our best selling toys this Christmas? Some of the wooden 
toys we offer are best sellers year after year. In pride of place has to be the fantastic Mini Cakes and Stand which has been immensely popular for a couple of years now, and not surprisingly. The detail is incredible and with 12 mouth-watering wooden cakes plus wooden stand at £11.99 it’s incredible value too.
Another best seller this year and a consistent favourite for 2 or 3 years is the Magic Roller, now available in Red or Purple . If only my knees allowed I’d be riding one myself – fantastic fun, and at £39.99 we know our price is very competitive. Others are selling this same item, sometimes called the Magic Roller, for £49.99 or more.
New this year but already a Best Seller is Le Grand Garage from Le Toy Van, a brightly painted multi-level garage that will give years of enjoyment to car-mad boys or girls who can zoom their cars up and down the ramps, in and out of the lift, round the carpark… It even has a helicopter and heli-pad. A lovely toy.
Perhaps the biggest surprise for us has been how popular Whizzers are. This is the first year we have had them in our range with Girl’s style’s and Boy’s styles, and they are selling equally well. When I was a boy they came as cardboard cutouts on the side of Cornflakes packets, but these wooden ones are much more sophisticated and colourful. In fact so popular have these been we have now run out of some of the styles we started with and have had to switch to other equally colourful and fun designs. Father Christmas has already taken several hundred pairs from us and we fully expect him to order even more as last-minute stocking fillers over the next few weeks. Make sure you ask him to get some for your child!
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Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
There’s going to be a shortage of toys this Christmas - so says BBC Breakfast today.
Well for the must-have, toy-of-the-year Barbie Roller Girl or Transformers Movie Leader type of toy that may very well be true. The big distributors have to place their orders in the Far East many months before Christmas, and at the beginning of this year with all the doom and gloom there was it was not surprising that many importers were cautious. Bear in mind too that the face of toy retailing on the High Street was changing hugely at that time with the demise of Woolworth and no obvious replacement for them, the largest toy retailer in Britain. So if the big boys scaled back the numbers then there will of course be a limited supply of some toys.
Yet I seem to remember similar scare stories in the past. I did a quick search on the BBC website and they still have a story from 2003 saying how there would be a toy shortage that Christmas because of SARS – the reason being that few toy buyers would dare to go to China for fear of catching the then dreaded disease. There’s always a reason to try to encourage early buying and that was that year’s.
Here at Mulberry Bush 2009 has been a harder year for obtaining stock but largely we have or will have more than enough of most of our products to see us through to Christmas. There are a small number of products where we have been let down and just can’t get more of, but there is always one or two each year. If you offer well over 500 products there’s bound to be a few that don’t materialise as expected. But we work closely with our suppliers in the summer each year to ensure that they know how many of what we will need, and when. And because we sell Traditional Toys we don’t mind if we do have some stock left after Christmas because birthdays happen all year round and most of our toys are old favourites.
There is one very good reason to shop early for Christmas though which is that the late surge of orders we see every year does mean real pressure to despatch those later orders in time to arrive before the big day. Christmas shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone – it happens every year on December 25th – so to be sure to avoid your own toy shortage please, please do get your order in early !
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Thursday, September 10th, 2009
What a relief! After several months of hard work our new autumn / winter catalogue of children’s toys is not only printed but is now in the post to our customers. We think it’s the best yet, but we are a bit biased! We’re very pleased to have found loads of new toys which we think you’ll like, and certainly the initial orders received this week seem to show that our new range has the seal of approval from parents and grandparents alike.
If you can’t wait for your catalogue to arrive you can see all the new items on our web-site right now. If you find it easier to browse a paper catalogue please use our catalogue request form and we’ll get one in the post to you (sorry – UK only)
Online we have introduced four new categories – Wooden Trains, Playfood, Music and Vehicles – reflecting some of the most popular selections in our paper catalogue and making similar toys easier to find.
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Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
It may seem incredible to be thinking about Christmas in the middle of the summer (what summer ?!?) but that’s what we do every year at this time as we finalise our autumn & winter catalogue. All the toy manufacturers and retailers will have been gearing up for the past few months as the Christmas season begins as soon as the summer holidays are over.
We’re adding a couple more pages of wooden toys this year – which have always been our strongest area – because we know how popular they are, what good value they represent and how durable they are compared with the plastic we try to avoid. Now it seems we’re being followed by Hamleys & Argos who, according to today’s Times, are predicting a return to traditional toys this year. Hamleys are quoted as saying "Parents are likely to go for old favourites and solid, reliable materials, such as wood." Well we could have told them that because so far as we’re concerned wooden toys are always popular.
Apparently it is predicted that the best sellers this year will be "Barbie, Lego and Transformers" all of which are now classed as traditional toys. Blimey – a Transformer a traditional toy? What about the good old snakes & ladders or a pop-gun, or maybe a nice wooden Noah’s Ark? Now those really are traditional toys.
Posted in The History of Toys & Games, Traditional Toys, Wooden Toys | No Comments »
Saturday, March 28th, 2009
When my wife and I started Mulberry Bush twelve years ago our aim was to build a collection of traditional toys and games that Grandparents would want to buy for their grandchildren. Lots of wooden toys, not too much plastic, nothing to do with computers, and none of those character or film related toys that are the “must have” one Christmas and gone the next. The only slight snag was that we weren’t grandparents ourselves, nor indeed did we have a single child in the family to buy for, our own all being well past that stage. But we seem to have managed with, we believe, many thousands of satisfied customers over the years – grandparents and parents, uncles and aunts.
Now we too have joined the Grandparent brigade with the arrival of Max, just a month ago. We’re still adjusting to being a generation older but he’s going to change our perspective entirely. Now when we look at samples or our stock we’re saying “Oh Max will like that” and “When he’s a bit older Max would love one of these”. He’s probably going to be a little spoiled, and when we met him for the first time just a few weeks ago we rather overdid the soft toys. But isn’t that what Grandparents are supposed to do?
Now we have our own live product tester we really look forward to telling you which toys have proved to be his favourites, and finding out from him and his toddler friends what we should be including in our range. Grannies and Granddads watch this space!
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Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
Toy collecting, especially antique tin and wooden toys, as an investment is a relatively recent phenomenon.
It started to get serious in the mid-60′s with prices and demand being driven largely by interest from the USA. By the mid-eighties the market really took off. Toy prices in the USA and around the world started going through the roof. In 1988 the sale of the contents of Leon J Perelman’s Toy Museum generated over $5 million in just 24 hours for a collection of around 5,000 old toys of every variety.
Fortunately for the more humble collector this spectacular Perelman Museum sale result proved to be a plateau. Prices did level off during the 90′s, but even so, toy collecting has become one of the top five “collectibles activities” in the USA and the explosion in the market has been nothing short of remarkable.
Collecting toys for investment has been seen as an excellent hedge against inflation. As with all antiques, toy prices can be volatile and it is possible to inflate and deflate on the same day. A toy can vary in price depending on condition (Mint in Box is best of course). All that aside, toys do seem to be steadily going up in value even in these turbulent economic conditions.
But is that the point of a toy?
Surely the real value of any toy is the joy and pleasure it gives your child. How it nurtures imagination or helps develop physical and mental skills. Citizen Kane after all ultimately treasured Rosebud – a wooden sledge – above all his other possessions. Our guiding principle at Mulberry Bush is to select the type of toy and gift that parents remember with fondness from their own childhood and that Grandparents will want to buy for their grandchildren. Maybe that’s tapping into nostalgia – a very powerful emotion that could also said to be the motivation for collectors. Our colourful, well-made toys (many of which are wooden and often hard to find) would certainly last and could become the “collectibles” of tomorrow, but that’s not why we source them. Our soft toys for example are selected for their cuddliness and expressive personalities – not their investment potential.
The only ROI we here at Mulberry Bush are really interested in is how well your gift is loved, treasured, cherished, appreciated and used by your children. That is genuinely priceless!
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Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
I’ve taken a close look at our recent sales statistics to compile this list of traditional wooden toys that continue to be immensely popular:
Jacobs Ladder:
This is a very popular traditional folk toy consisting of wooden blocks that are held together with ribbon. When the toy is held at one end the illusion of a block tumbling down the ladder is created. Fascinating fun.
Junior Carpenter Set:
This brilliant carpentry set continues to be extremely popular. It consists of real tools, scaled down to fit tiny hands. Ideal for children aged from about 8 years upwards it comes in a tough wooden storage box with a carrying handle. Ideal for all those budding Handy Andies and Andreas.
Daisy’s Wardrobe:
Dolls are always popular with both boys and girls. Daisy is a popular, flexible wooden doll who is lucky enough to have her own little wardrobe packed with assorted outfits. Children learn a lot through imaginative play with toys like this.
Peek-a-boo Ball:
A great toddlers toy, ideal for children from about 12 months. The ball may be rolled or shaken making the comical friendly faces pop out. Immensely amusing and fun for a toddler this toy also helps them to develop their understanding of the physical world.
Funky Letters:
Ideal for that personalised bedroom door name. Just let us know the letters needed to enable your child to decorate their bedroom door with their name in these heart covered letters.
Jungle Letters:
Like the Funky Letters but these are decorated with animals. They come with self adhesive backing that enables them to be easily attached to a bedroom door. A great way to personalise a bedroom or label a wardrobe.
Slide Whistle:
Sometimes called a swanee whistle, a piston flute or even a jazz flute. One of the easiest musical instruments to play great fun for children aged from about 3 years. Interestingly, this instrument became popular in the 1920s when it was used in some popular jazz tunes.
London in a Bag:
The city of London in brightly coloured, chunky wooden models. This popular playset features famous historic buildings including Big Ben, Tower Bridge and St Pauls. There are also buses, taxis, policemen and guardsmen in this 33 piece set. And all for only £12.99. A great gift for children aged from about 3 years.
Cake Stand:
Another excellent wooden toy for children aged from about 3 years. This cake stand laden with yummy looking wooden cakes is ideal for pretend tea parties. A great educational toy.
Flying Monkey:
OK, so it’s neither wooden nor traditional, but this is great fun and a great toy for children aged from around 5 years, but I’ll bet parents will not be able to resist having a go. This monkey has elastic arms that are used to catapult him through the air with his cape flapping behind him. As he flies he makes a screeching sound and can travel up to 15 metres. Amazing value at only £4.99. (There is also a Flying Pig in our online shop).
All of our toys and games are top quality, robust and hard wearing. We hope that this list will provide some inspiration if you are looking for an alternative to the electronic plastic gizmos that are so common these days.
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Monday, June 23rd, 2008
There’s a nicely written piece about traditional games on Time Magazine’s website with the author describing how he and his primary schoolmates played marbles in the playground in the 1970s. No doubt he thinks that makes him sound old, but I could have written the same about my primary school in the 1950s and I reckon if I asked my father – now in his 80s – he could have done the same for the 1920s and ’30s. But in a way that’s the point of the article.
The author reckons marbles are as popular as ever – and they have been played since Roman times – and by-the-by points out that a child needs no instructions on how to play with them, nor ever did. That pretty much sums up the appeal of so many traditional toys. Simple, straightforward but still fun. And isn’t there something reassuring, in this constantly changing world, in knowing that children get the same enjoyment out of a simple game that their forebears did generations ago?
Posted in Games, The History of Toys & Games, Traditional Toys | 1 Comment »