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Lego and Duplo

If you are looking to buy toys for Annabel, Jacob or Beatrice, Lego and Duplo make good presents; particularly Duplo.

Thank-you for your interest in buying our children presents.

You can buy Lego from Toys Я Us, Amazon, the Lego online shop, Toymaster (who have local toy shops) and The Entertainer (who also have local toy shops). Be aware that The Entertainer has some fundamentalist Christian policies such as not opening on Sundays and not stocking items associated with magic or Hallow'een. I particularly recommend Toymaster, they're a federation of independent toy shops staffed by very knowledgable staff.

Specific shops

  • Shropshire & West Midlands: In Bridgnorth, Hobby Horse, 62 Whitburn St tel. 01746 766659. In Dudley, The Arcade Toy Shop, Fountain Arcade is my favourite toy shop, fondly remembered and still going strong. Toys Я Us in Merry Hill is also excellent.

  • Gloucestershire: The cheapest place, and the largest range, for Lego in Cheltenham is the Waitrose / John Lewis superstore. Toys Я Us in Gloucester is also excellent but not as cheap as Waitrose/JL.

  • Hereford & Worcestershire: Toyworld in Droitwitch has good stock. This is also a generally excellent independent toy store. In Ledbury, there is Little Shop of Wonders which is indeed little but has good stock.

  • Holland: The cheapest place for Lego in Holland is A-Tembo in Delft, tel. 015-2159552. A-Tembo's prices are around a third cheaper than RRP, they sell both mail-order and in the shop. And yes, they also sell and repair computers.

    Duplo

    Jacob, Beatrice and Annabel are all very keen on Duplo. Duplo is the type of Lego suitable for young children aged 2-5 years. It is double the size of normal Lego and has no small parts. Although Annabel could be considered a little old for it, she enjoys playing with it with her brother and sister.

    We already own the following Duplo sets:

    We also own Bob The Builder and Wendy minifigures (Duplo people). If you're after a Duplo set you remember from your childhood, you can buy old sets and even specific bricks from bricklink.com .

    There are other third-party brands which claim to be compatible with Duplo, such as Mega Bloks "Mini" size.

    Lego

    Annabel inherited her father and auntie's Lego collection for Christmas 2010. This means she has an extremely large volume of Lego from the late 1970s and early to mid 1980s. However this collection is generally missing or short of more modern parts from the 1990s onwards.

    Please bear Annabel's age in mind, she is not yet ready to follow complex instructions. Sets noted as age 4, 5 or 6 are fine; sets from age 7 upwards may be too difficult for her to build.

    Annabel's Lego collection is low on:

    Annabel already has a lot of:

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