Well we all decided to go shopping and see what the BIG toy retailers were up to. We all came back feeling rather depressed with most retailers.

Woolworths was masses of lurid plastic, action figures and cheap electronics. We couldn't find any staff that knew anything about the toys, and if there was quality we didn't find it. No wonder Woolies are struggling!

Toys R Us were quite a bit better than Woolworths, but completely overwhelming. TRU looks as though they are trying to sell everything and this means it is quite a major undertaking to find something that will be great for your child. Having said that they had a great range of Lego, Knex, Fisher Price, Games had all the dolls you could want (massive on Bratz if that's your thing). Just best if you already know what you want before you go..they don't help you decide, just lay it all out for you. It could be me, but I think they are putting less of their space onto traditional toys and games, as there are lots of computers and computer games, ride-on toys / bikes and baby gear.

Babies R Us (in Toys R Us) was more impressive, and we liked the fact they had the beautiful Amazing Baby range as well as Baby Einstein, and looked as though they were starting to work on selling toys and games that were good for you and your baby.

Early Learning Centre was the best shop that we shopped in this month. The ELC in town has recently been refitted and has lovely wooden floors and is spacious. The staff were helpful and straightforward and we could have bought a car load! As you will see in our toy reviews we did buy quite a few toys, and found them to be excellent. If you have an ELC in town, and you have a 0-6 year old than this would be the best place to start.

We noticed that Early Learning Centre have started to sell a few non-ELC products, which we at Whattoy were not sure about. They have the V-Tech and Leapfrog electronic learning products, Fisher Price and Tomy's Thomas the Tank Engine. ELC have been so good at designing toys that most of these seem to be unnecessary, although Thomas is a great character to get children to play with fab toys..so this looks good to us.

John Lewis have a well put together range, and we really liked the books and tapes, great range of jigsaw puzzles, games and quality toys like dolls houses/ lego and craft products.
The staff at John Lewis are unfailingly helpful, but we didn't feel they knew very much about the toys and games that they sell.

Argos is more of a catalogue outlet than a normal shop, but similar to Toys R Us they seem to sell anything and everything, and although the kids loved the catalogue we found it really hard to read and to find anything that we felt happy to buy. At least if your children find something in the catalogue you know where you can get it from!

Boots have moved to a much better focus on pre-school, and cover all the key characters (Noddy, Bob, Dora, Fifi etc) and have a good selection of ELC as well as their own Learning Through Play brands. Get Scientific and Get Crafty are very strong ranges for 5+ kids.