Erin loves animals and has done since a very early age. Given the choice, she would go to the safari park every single day.

She also loves imaginative play, and ever since she was very young has loved playing with ‘characters’, developing her own stories and creating scenes to act out.

We were recently offered the chance to review some of the Schleich toys range and I figured this would tick two boxes in one! Having had some of them myself as a child and loved them, I was familiar with the brand and knew they were high quality and very realistic!

About the Product

Schleich animal models have been around for over 80 years and never seem to go out of fashion. I had some as a child back in the 80s and despite their simple concept, they gave me hours and hours of fun.

These high quality, hand painted models are aimed at children aged 3-8 years and are very realistic – with high attention to detail on key features such as hair / fur textures, hooves and sparkling eyes.

There is a huge range of wildlife animals to collect as well as a farm animals, horses and dragons, available to buy both individually or in small sets.

Our Experience

We were sent the one of the newest sets in the range – the Schleich Wild Life New Forest playset – Forest Animal Babies. This retails at £9.99.

The box contained three models – a black bear cub, an elk calf and a wild boar piglet. Whilst the packaging itself didn’t confirm the animal types, we were able to look this up online on the Schleich Website.

Erin was excited to open the box and I was really pleased to see that the box itself could be used to create a bit of a backdrop scene of the animals in their natural environment.

She enjoyed playing immediately and started having conversations with them and acting out the boar drinking from the water. She asked questions about what the animals were called and where they lived, before adding some other toys such as her little people characters so they could all interact together.

These models are perfectly sized for popping into a bag and taking out with you as they are relatively small.

From a parent’s point of view, it is great to see a toy that is so realistic, which makes a pleasant change from a pig who’s nose appears to grow from the side of her face (mentioning no names Peppa!). I love that Erin is able to play creatively, and form her own play scenes however she wishes.

Overall, although not cheap, I think these high quality collectable models would make a lovely little set for inquisitive nature lovers!

I am confident Erin would be happy to collect more of the sets and create a large animal world!

You can see the entire Schleich range and check out the individual characters on the Schleich website here.

*Disclosure – we were sent the Forest Animal Babies set free of charge in exchange for this review. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.*