Dear Mummy, you know how much I love playing with little figurines, so when a package came through the post addressed for me I was pleasantly surprised and eager to open it.

The delivery was from Schleich and contained two toy sets of their new Farm Yard Animals for me to review! We visited the Schleich stand at the London Toy Fair 2016 and were really impressed with the range of life-like miniature figures they created. From bright flamingos to menacing sharks, tall giraffes to little turtles Schleich really does have the whole animal kingdom covered! Schleich is a German toy figurine producer and their toys are modeled/inspired by nature and meticulously handpainted. They are beautiful, and lifelike, except for the size, of course.

We were really lucky to be given the opportunity to review some animals that I had seen in real life and I was overjoyed when I opened the packaging. On my travels I have come across a lot of farmyard animals, so I knew exactly what these figurines were. It was great to reinforce animals seen at the farm by identifying the animals at home.

The first set we opened was from the new Farm Life Collection (41424) – My First Farm Animals which included a Black-Pied cow, a lamb, a pig, a hen, one bunches of carrots, a hay bale and some green apples. The packaging was really easy and safe for me to open and the crafted animals just popped out of the protective plastic which housed them in the display box.

There were no ‘faffy’ bits to unwind and we didn’t have to use scissors to release the animals. The packaging was bright and colourful and the boxes even doubled up as a backdrop for my animal adventures. We had great fun taking photos of the animals and pretending they were in situ in a farm on Instagram.

My mummy loved their small size and I was looking for some toys to pack away in my rucksack to take to Ireland with me on my holidays. All the Schleich animal figures have a good weight to them and feel substantial in your hands – not cheap and ‘plastically’. The attention to detail is amazing too and up close you can see they are hand painted with life-like features like skin and fur textures.

They are all self-standing which makes them easy to play with to create a roll-playing scenes. I took them on my holiday to Ireland to see my Grandma. We knew she would appreciate these little toys as she lives out in the sticks and is a country girl (she grew up on a farm), so I wanted to show her my farm animals.

I played with them when we went out as they were easily transportable. When we waited for lunch I would lay them out and play with them quietly on the table. It was great activity to kill time before our food arrived, as I ended up feeding them first with the little crafted food that was provided in the Farm Life sets.

I always gave the hay to the cows and the pig and the sheep ended up with the carrots – much to the piggys dismay! The Black-Pied cow is the largest of the figures and always seem to be the most dominant of my farmyard animals. When I was acting out scenarios he was always the bossy boots demanding food.

The second set (41422) of the Farm Life Collection – Stable Cleaning, included a Fleckvieh calf, a Shropshire lamb, two bunches of carrots, a bucket and a broom.

It was a great toy set to pretend play with and I reenacted mucking out animal pens and clearing up all their poo! My Grandma says that stable management is important on a farm! I enjoyed feeding the animals and putting them to bed in their boxes too.

Schleich do a massive range of animals and I can’t wait to add to my collection. (Who knows in the future I may have my own Noah’s Ark full of animals!).

You can’t beat the quality and the attention to detail of these miniature hand painted figurines from Schleich and the prices range around £4.99 for individual figures to £16.99 for sets. They are available online and in the majority of toy shops across the UK and make great collectables!

Do you own any Schleich animals? What’s your favourites?

Love Bella x

Disclosure: We received the product in order to write an honest review.

 

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