Late last year, my Dad took on the Wicked Uncle challenge. He will be the first to admit – he is hopeless at buying presents for the children in our family, so when Wicked Uncle challenged him to use their website to buy gifts and test out the response, he was more than willing to give it a go. The website’s gift finder clearly guided him with suggestions of gifts for both genders and all ages, and really helped him choose some wonderful gifts for the children in our family.

Erin absolutely loved the gifts she received from Grandad, and since that day, he has used Wicked Uncle regularly to help with gift ideas for my girls, my niece and my nephew.

We recently used their site again, this time to pick out a preschool treat for Erin.

About Wicked Uncle

Wicked Uncle pride themselves on helping solve the mystery of what to buy children of every age. They have scoured the world to find a really useful selection of fun, unusual and different presents for children, and have tested them with their own Junior Testers. Wicked Uncle can gift wrap your presents, send them direct with a handwritten birthday card and even send you a birthday reminder every year to make sure you don’t forget. Perfect for taking the stress out of present purchasing!

The Product

We were asked if we wanted to try out some of Wicked Uncle’s preschool range, and as Erin’s school days are rapidly approaching, I was keen to have something that we could play with together in the last few months of daytime company! *sob*

Erin loves all things princess and I love to watch her use her imagination. We looked through the website together, and as soon as she saw the Enchanted Castle Princess Playset, the rest of the products may as well have been invisible! 🙂

Enchanted Castle Princess Playset

This beautifully illustrated colourful cardboard carrying case opens up to reveal a two-level princess castle. Children can set the scene by putting together the 16 piece reversible puzzle play mat that forms the moat and garden around the castle. The set comes complete with 6 wooden characters – 3 princesses, a prince, two horses and a carriage. There are also 21 cardboard 3D accessories including trees, a fountain and a large dining table with chairs.

Our Experience

Erin was super excited when our Enchanted Castle Princess Playset arrived and was quite impatient whilst I opened up the packaging!.

Upon opening, there were lots of individual bags inside, in which the wooden charaters and carboard pieces were gathered. The initial set up required a bit of Mummy’s help, but this was very easy to do, and Erin helped with the odd tree once we’d established that they quite easily slotted into each other.

We then used the large jigsaw pieces to create the moat, and again, Mummy had to help a bit with this (I’m not sure she would have figured it out on her own, as even I had to watch the little video to realise which bits were supposed to go where! – Maybe I was just having a bad day!!!). The set works best on a hard floor or wooden surface as on carpet the puzzle pieces can come apart, but this wasn’t a major concern for Erin, who quite enjoyed popping them back together.

Once set up, Erin really enjoyed laying out all the different accessories, moving the trees and fountains around, and ensuring all the little chairs were stacked up neatly by the table. For someone who is related to me, the messiest person alive, she is surprisingly OCD when it comes to having things arranged neatly! 🙂 She started to act out little stories with the characters on different floors of the house, and sat the prince on his horse before wheeling him around to do laps of the castle! 🙂

We also played with the set outside on a picnic blanket – for this she left the moat off, but was still content playing with the wooden characters on their own.

I love how Erin’s imagination sprang into life immediately with this, and she added some more of her own princess toys to have a bit of a princess lock in at one point – it looked like a pretty exclusive party!

Although quite large in size, the set is perfect for popping out with you if you are heading to family for the day. It features a carry handle so the child could carry themselves like a mini suitcase, with all the pieces shut away inside. It can be a bit of a spacial awareness challenge getting them all back inside again, but there is plenty of room when you get things in the right place! 🙂

I love the traditional style of the castle and the wooden characters are more in keeping with an old fashioned playset – a welcome change from the amount of cheap plastic toys that Erin seems to be so besotted with!

The Enchanted Castle Princess Playset Retails at £39.99 – this is not cheap but it provides HOURS of fun and is made from high quality materials. The set is great for imagination and creativity, and would make a lovely gift.

Overall, I think the Enchanted Castle Princess Playset was the perfect choice for Erin, and I am confident she will be playing with it for many months to come.

Pros:

• Carry case, perfect for taking out to family and friends if you need something to keep them entertained!
• Includes all the accessories and figures for acting out scenes.
• Great for encouraging imagination and creative play
• Jigsaw is an additional element of the castle and can be used with or without.

Cons:

• Some of the cardboard pieces may get a little tatty over time (Erin has managed to break one of the trees already by being a little heavy handed)
• Jigsaw element of the castle works better on a hard or wooden floor than on carpet.
• At £39.99 it is not cheap, however I felt that this was worth the investment, and much preferable to small plastic toys.

You can get more preschool inspiration to suit both boys and girls on the Wicked Uncle website.

*Disclosure – We were sent this Enchanted Castle Princess Playset free of charge for the purpose of this review, however all thoughts and opinions are our own*