If you walk through a toy shop these days you’ll be surrounded by brand new things. Sometimes, it’s a bit overwhelming. I have a lot of nostalgia for the things I used to play with and I still think the old ones are the best ones – so when I have the opportunity to share classic toys with my son, I’m on it!
Today I’m sharing some information about Plasticine and Stickle Bricks. These are two brands that have been around long enough to be labelled retro, but still perform perfectly. Simple toys are great.
Stickle Bricks
Stickle Bricks are perfect for little hands to start learning how to put things together and start building. The Little Builder’s box includes enough bricks of different shapes to make a few designs, as well as three Stickle Brick faces. They’re suitable for 18 months plus, but at 4 years old my son loves them, making lots of interesting creations – although mostly robots, as those are his favourite thing right now, so the faces are perfect!
Plasticine
Plasticine is another well loved reliable toy that I’m very familiar with. We took it outside to make the most of the good weather and enjoy some creative play time. You might notice I’m using a silicone mat, I recently bought a two pack of these bright silicone baking mats on Amazon for just £12 and they really are great for crafting too and perfect for clay modelling as it means nothing sticks to it.
Plasticine can be a bit tough to work with, but it has the advantage of not drying out, and holding it’s shape and design for pretty much ever. That really allows you to make intricate designs although little hands can keep things simple too. It’s aimed at age five+ to get the most out of it, and my son did need some help rolling this out and using it at first, as he’s used to much softer modelling clay, but he was very impressed by the bright colours and keen to get hands on. The colour range that came with the set we reviewed really helped him be creative, and he was soon making models of different types of fruit for his play kitchen.
My husband even commented that he’d used Plasticine as a child in America, and how he used to use it for modelling to create buildings and fun little stop animation shows – so it has a lot of use for older children too. I really like the fact that this could span generations, and it means mums and dads as well as brothers and sisters of all ages could dig in and play together.
Both Stick Bricks and Plasticine had my son really excited, and kept him busy all afternoon.
If you’re looking for pre-school friendly toys, or perhaps looking for ideas for birthday or Christmas gifts, why not check out some of my other fantastic toy reviews!
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