I was contacted by a company with the most fabulous name a couple of weeks ago. Big Game Hunters is a retailer of outdoor games and toys. I was invited to choose one of their products for review. I had a browse round their website and against all my pre-conceived ideas of the kind of toys and games the Tinkerous Toddler would have, I selected a pink Fairy Princess Castle.
It seems it really is true about this whole nature, nurture thing; Little girls are very capable of finding their way to pink, princesses, fairies and frills, no matter what you do. Who knew. So why fight it!
A few days later the castle arrived. It’s constructed of wooden batons of varying lengths, plastic links to connect them and a heavy-weight printed canvas tent fabric. Oh and a whole bunch of little tiny screws, but more about those later.
Fabulous Things About The Fairy Princess Castle
The Tinkerous Toddler adores it. She is so happy to have her own place. It can be used both outdoors and indoors. Given the current weather conditions, we spent one very happy hot sunny afternoon playing out in it and since then it has resided in our spare bedroom, which is slowly evolving into a playroom for TT.
It is big enough to fit possibly three toddlers or small children in it or as we’ve mostly been playing with it; a Tinkerous Toddler and an adult plus a small child’s chair, a tea set on a tray and assorted soft toys, who’ve been treated to more than one tea party since the arrival of the castle – it turns out that TT is quite the hostess.
There are canvas blinds on each of the three windows, which can be left down for ultimate privacy or rolled up and tied above the windows. The door is also canvas and can be rolled up and tie above the doorway.
Less Fabulous Things About The Fairy Princess Castle
The instructions say it can be put together in 15 minutes. In my experience it can’t. It has that set up where there are screws, but the wood doesn’t have screw holes. After more than 15 minutes I was about six screws in and decided to give up.
Instead, I found that the batons fitted so snugly into the plastic links, that I was confident enough to forget about the screws. And I’ve been proved right; after we left the frame out in a shower of rain, we found we couldn’t get the batons out until the frame had dried out.
This is where a metal frame would perhaps be more practical than wood, but then there is a certain beauty to wood that can’t be beaten by other materials.
In Summary
The Fairy Princess Castle is a gorgeous addition to the Tinkerous Toddler’s armoury of toys and games. It is well made – if you overlook the screw issue – and the detail on the castle is lovely, without being too frou-frou and over the top.
Would I be happy if I’d bought the Fairy Princess Castle for the Tinkerous Toddler? Yes, on the whole I think I would. And most importantly, so would the Tinkerous Toddler.
Price: The Fairy Princess Castle is currently on sale at Big Game Hunters at £74.99 (reduced from £99)
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