Horsing About with Schleich On A Rainy Day Review
Reviewed by Louise Totton
Real toys seem to be undergoing a bit of a resurgence in our house. I am up to my ears with consoles, tablets and subscription screening services; they seem to do nothing but shorten tempers and cause arguments. The kids (7 and 9) can never agree which Xbox game they want to play, which character they will be if they can agree on a game, or which film they want to watch on Netflix. So, I have recently been trying to get them playing with proper toys – playsets, crafts, boardgames and the like, and the difference in them is marked and clear to see!
Screens can make kids insular and inward looking, and because the kids are not using their imagination or moving around, I think they can easily get agitated and frustrated, which leads to short tempers and snapping. Since we started rationing screen time and encouraging them to play ‘properly’, the girls have got on better with each other and there has been a good deal less shouting and grumping.
Finding things for me eldest isn’t quite as easy as for the youngest as she does consider herself to be too old for lots of toys, but one thing that is consistent is that she loves horses, and anything horse related. She has had her eye on the Schleich Horse Club range for quite some time now – she had Schleich farm animals when she was younger and they have really stood the test of time, so when the opportunity came up to try out a couple of their new products, we jumped at the chance! We were sent the Horse Club 42519 (RRP: £39.99), which is a rider café, as well as Farm World 42486 (RRP: £15.99), which is a vet with a horse and a foal.
The Rider Café comes packaged in a purple Horse Club themed box, clearly showing the café and all of the characters and accessories that are included. This one is aimed at kids aged 5-12 and I think lots of the branding on the box is aimed at making it appeal to the upper end of that age bracket which is great as it made my daughter feel the ‘right age’ for playing with it.
Like all toys of this type, there are lots and lots of parts in the box, and there is an amount of fiddly assembly to complete as well. I tend to get things like this assembled before I give them to the kids, as they always want to play with them straight away and it can feel quite high-pressure assembling them whilst they’re chomping at the bit to play! The little bits all come in plastic bags, so you can be confident no vital little pieces have gone missing / fallen out of the box before you get it home. The instruction book that it came with was pretty big, but that’s because all of the instructions are accompanied by large and clear pictures, making assembly quite simple – it probably took be about 15/20 minutes all told, and that included getting the stickers in the right place and setting all of the cakes and crockery out in the café.
The set comes complete with an open café building, two sets of tables and chairs, a horse with a rider and a café worker. There is also a cooker with an opening door, a till, a coffee machine, lots of food and drinks and a basket of apples for the horse whilst the rider is tucking into her cakes.
The quality of this set is outstanding, as you would expect from a company like Schleich. The building and all of the figures are a good weight and all of the characters are beautifully painted. My daughter particularly likes the Schleich stuff because the animals are quite realistic looking – they don’t look cartoony or too young for her and I think that this keeps her interested in their playsets.
As well as the Rider Café, we were sent the vet with horse and foal from the Farm World range. This one comes with a female vet, a large white horse, a sandy coloured foal and a little piglet as well as a vet’s box and some apples for the animals. Again, the figures are gorgeous and are fabulously detailed. This set was the perfect accompaniment to the café, as it provides two extra horses as well as an extra customer for the café.
Both of my girls have had such fun playing with these sets. Because it is Schleich, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that they will stand the test of time and look as good in five years as they do now. It is wonderful seeing the kids playing properly, sat on the floor together and using their imaginations – in the same way that kids always do, they have added lots of other characters from the playroom into their games, so we have had visiting unicorns seeking help for injured wings from the vet as well as some Scooby Doo monsters popping into the café for a slices of cake before they continue on with their hauntings!
This is a far healthier and more enjoyable way for the kids to spend their time, be it a rainy weekend, a day in the school holidays where I’m working from home and we can’t go out, or even just because they realised that it’s actually far more fun that sitting watching tv. You never hear the shrieks of laughter from them when their head is buried in a tablet like you do when they’re playing like this, and that speaks volumes to me.
Rating: 5/5
For more information or to buy online visit www.schleich-s.com.
