Touching Base - Pre-School

Alys Dawson

Director of Product, Creative and Marketing Services, Rainbow Designs

The pre-school toy I am really excited to be launching this year is The Adventures of Paddington Dress Me Up Soft Toy. With four changeable outfits, including his traditional blue duffle coat and red hat, pre-schoolers can dress up the super-cuddly Paddington soft toy as a doctor, a baker, or as a magician.

Perfect for inspiring imaginative play, this 25cm, 4-in-1 Paddington soft toy is also ideal for aiding the development of fine motor and dexterity skills, as children learn how to change and dress Paddington. The award-winning The Adventures of Paddington TV series has really allowed the younger generation to get to know this wonderful bear and now preschoolers can cuddle up and enjoy the show with this super soft, engaging and educational toy, inspired by Paddington's adventures in the TV series.

Honor Davidson

Marketing manager, Commotion

Our TickiT Rainbow Wooden Community People set is one of my favourite pre-school products for 2023. They come in a set of five or 15 beautifully made, wooden, mix and match figures, with different skin tones and colourful body cuffs.

The figures have immediate appeal: straight from the box children will start to unscrew the “feet” so they can slide off the cuffs and redesign the bodies, while having pretend conversations with the characters they have created. They are also fantastic for encouraging chats about families, communities, diversity and inclusion.

The People present a lovely invitation to play and learn in a variety of ways – for using in imaginative small world play, creating outfits with the cuffs in a single colour or stripes, counting and sorting by colour - and the pieces work with our best-selling Rainbow Wooden Nuts & Bolts, so children will love swapping in a triangle or star shape as one of the body parts.

Kerry Tarrant

UK marketing manager, IMC Toys

Without doubt the product I am most excited about for 2023 is the adorable Newborn Coney from our everexpanding Cry Babies collection.

Combining a much-loved Cry Babies character with all of the realistic features of a newborn baby, Newborn Coney makes over 20 baby-like sounds, closes her eyes when laid down and comes with six nurturing accessories, including dummy, baby bottle, identity bracelet, personalised blanket and baby rattle. A magic bracelet is also included which enables kids to comfort Coney in their arms when wearing the bracelet. This connection makes Coney feel safe, making her cheeks blush before she falls asleep.

In addition to these features, Newborn Coney is lightweight and really soft making her perfect for lots of cuddles. Suitable for children aged 18 months+, Newborn Coney develops our hugely popular Cry Babies offering whilst keeping the brand’s roots firmly within the nurturing play category.

Lisa Fuller

Senior sales manager, Toynamics

My favourite new Hape preschooler toy this year is the Tea Time Playset. I love the beautiful design and packaging, and the role-play aspect of the toy. All the accessorieseverything needed for a teatime treat - are cleverly stored in a mini suitcase with stylish toucan design. It comes with a teapot, cups and saucers, plate, wooden cookies and a picnic blanket, with all the crockery featuring the beautiful toucan design too. I am sure this will be a great hit with gift buyers this year.

Lindsay Hardy

Marketing director, Trends UK

We are really excited about the new Numberblocks and the Alphablocks Clip & Learn items launching later this year. It’s hard to imagine a better fit between a property and a pre-school learning toy than these educational programmes with fantastic, engaging content. The new format we have developed in Clip & Learn allows us to explore additional activities, with up to 12 games in each item, and they are great fun too.

Grant Gie

UK managing director, Creative Kids

Creative Kids recently announced the extension of our partnership with Little Tikes, which will see us add 15 new products into the wooden toy category. We launched some at Toy Fair and had a great response. We think the range will do extremely well not just because it is of course an iconic brand but the whole collection is made of high quality FSC certified wood that offers such great value sitting alongside more expensive wooden lines. The Music Wooden Table is the hero product of the range with lots of different musical instrument elements for children to explore and have great fun with.

Anna Vaughan

Marketing manager, A.B. Gee of Ripley

Nazneen Yasin

Director, Fabula Toys

It’s very difficult to choose just one PreSchool product as we have had some fantastic additions this year, but I am quite excited about the Tooky wooden folding play sets. There’s a hospital, a farm and a fire station in the range, and they are a great introduction to pretend play, plus the built in carry handle makes each set ideal to play with on the go. Anything that folds away and stores its contents within is a win for all parents in my opinion.

Without a doubt, my favourite pre-school toy at the moment has to be our The Finger Family set of 10 finger puppets. It is the only multi-cultural set of finger puppets in the UK at the moment and with millennial parents focusing on inclusion as a key parenting ideal, as well as renewed emphasis from OFSTED on diversity across schools in the country, these puppets are automatically elevated to a position of high demand.

Secondly, from a toy buyer perspective, this bag of 10 puppets can just as easily be sold individually as 10 pocket money toys, allowing children to pick up the puppet closest to themselves/their loved one. This maximises their margin multiple times, making The Finger Family a very profitable item in store.

Our set of 10 family members, which also includes grandparents and pets, are perfect to bring any story alive, while also helping construct any family set-up along with aiding discussions on important topics such the arrival of a new sibling or visiting grandparents.

Sabrina Pensom

Key account manager, Orange Tree Toys

Our new Woodland Puzzle Train is a gorgeous product and a perfect traditional toy for pre-schoolers. It has 14 removable pieces including five favourite woodland characters and a pull-along string on the front so toddlers can take this toy on the go, giving excellent play value.

Decorated in autumnal colours with an eye-catching design, its recommended retail price is £19.99 which I think is excellent value as the quality really is exceptional. The product itself is made from FSC-certified wood and the packaging is 100% recyclable and plastic free, so it’s sustainable too. This really is a toy that will rarely see the inside of the toy box.

Kirsty Mackenzie

Head of Marketing, Bandai UK

I am so excited to be launching the first Milo toys into the market this autumn. The show has been a huge success on Milkshake! and we know that there is demand for a product range.

Our plush, figures and play sets all revolve around the cute character of Milo and his friends. The standout line for me is the Amazing Talking Milo which is a 25cm plush with sounds and phrases from the show. Milo comes with two different outfits which can be swapped to give him a different look, just like in the show when he discovers a new vocation to explore. I think all Milo fans will want an Amazing Talking Milo.

Sophie Greenbank

Product manager - dress Amscan International

We’re thrilled to have Bluey join our licensed portfolio, with products covering all three celebration categories including sustainable partyware items, foil balloons and costume styles for both Bluey and Bingo.

The product we’re most excited about in the Bluey portfolio for 2023 would have to be the Bluey costumes. The outfits comprise jumpsuit, detachable tail and character face mask and, what’s more, they are also made from 100% recycled content, meaning they’re sustainable. This is a fantastic industry leading message, allowing our customers to purchase a costume that’s not only fun but kind to the environment.

We saw a big uplift in costumes being purchased for World Book Day, so we’re excited to see what the rest of the year has to bring.

Becca Hanlon

Senior brand manager, Pre-School –Paw Patrol, Spin Master

It’s going to be a truly great year, as 2023 marks 10 years since Paw Patrol hit screens and shelves all over the world. We have big celebration plans for this year with our partners, Paramount, as well as a new autumn/winter product line which we can’t wait to unveil.

In the meantime, we’re excited to showcase our new iconic Look Out Tower Playset to celebrate the 10th Anniversary. The Look Out Tower is recognised by pre-schoolers globally and the play set delivers on Paw Patrol’s show to shelf promise. It comes with Chase’s iconic rescue vehicle and two Chase action figures, both in and out of uniform, which alongside the working lift, mission cards and periscope, allows pre-schoolers to bring to life their very own Paw Patrol rescue missions.

Damien Collett

Head of sales & country manager, UK & Ireland, SES Creative

One of the products that I am most excited about in this range this year is our My First-Dough Mega Set with Tools. This fantastic product offers so much value to both the consumer and the retailer as it is packed with dough, seven dough cutters and a wooden rolling pin and roller – all specifically designed to be safe for use for ages 1+, meaning all the tools are single piece. At a very competitive retail price for the consumer while offering lots of fun activities for those budding crafters, I feel this is a superb addition to this fantastic range.

All our paint and dough products are safe if ingested and, with over 8.5m people in the UK now living a gluten free lifestyle and with an estimated 1% of the UK population who are gluten intolerant, all our products are certified gluten free and safe for all children to use.

Simon Prest

Sales director, Orchard Toys

We have plenty of first colour matching and recognition games to choose from for pre-schoolers, but I really love our new Mucky Trucks. It’s simple game play, it’s fun, and our designers have done a great job on the colourful illustrations on the car wash playing board and the mucky and clean truck cards.

There’s so much for pre-schoolers to get excited about, from taking turns to rolling the dice, the thrill of the race and a bit of role-play as they clean the dirty trucks with the sponge, and having a giggle as they try and avoid the mud-splat. They can even have a splish splosh sing along, so it’s got everything. Vehicle loving pre-schoolers are going to love Mucky Trucks.

Becky Matthews

Sales & marketing director, Golden Bear Toys

One product that really stands out to me is Peek-a-Boo Bing. It goes without saying that the plush itself is adorable and soft, but it’s also unique in the way that it encourages such playful interactions between the child and toy.

Mimicking the widely loved pre-school game, Peek-a-Boo Bing highlights the difference between basic emotions, offering children the most rewarding, engaging play pattern experience. This makes it the perfect choice for parents who lead with Montessori inspired learning, too. It gives their kids the chance to laugh, touch, hold, cuddle and talk to their toy.

I love that Peek-a-Boo Bing stimulates gentle, low-distraction learning – while also being a comforting friend to the child.

Phil Cassidy

Managing director, Casdon Toys

It’s hard to choose just one product but the one I have enjoyed showing retailers most and cannot wait to see launch this autumn is the De’Longhi La Specialista Barista Coffee Machine.

With a visit to a local Starbucks or Costa being a treat for many families, there has been a growing trend amongst adults to bring this barista-style coffee into their homes too. As we know all too well, children love to mirror adults’ behaviour, so it felt like the perfect time to launch our very own Barista Coffee Machine alongside the number one espresso maker brand, De’Longhi.

In true Casdon fashion, we’ve created a machine that lets budding baristas join in with the coffee making fun, minus the caffeine. It’s packed full of functions and clever features including realistic sounds and a magic coffee reveal. It comes complete with all the accessories a mini-barista will need to create the perfect Americano or Cappuccinoall neatly stored at the back for safe keeping.

Emma Sharples

Category manager, HTI Toys

Our immensely popular range of Peppa Pig toys continues to expand year on year and Peppa’s Keys is the standout hero product for 2023.

Peppa’s Keys comes with three colourful light-up buttons that, when pressed, produce fun sound effects, including the Peppa theme tune, guaranteed to aid the development of touch and hearing.

Peppa’s Keys also doubles as a soothing teether making the growth of new teeth less traumatic for both child and parent. The three accessories made from soft plastic are the perfect toy for a baby to nibble on, providing relief from sore gums, and there is also a clip to hook on to cribs, mobiles or strollers.

All hero products have one thing in common - they solve a specific problem for a specific group of people - and Peppa’s Keys ticks both those boxes and remains a useful toy even after the child is through with teething.

Carmel Wright

Marketing manager, Pat Avenue

Hama Beads, distributed by Pat Avenue, holds creative licences with popular pre-school brands Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol, both firm favourites with parents and pre-schoolers alike.

We’re very excited to see Hama’s Paw Patrol Maxi set hit stores this year. Maxi beads have been developed for younger children, who require a bigger size bead for their small fingers; the beads have a diameter of 10 mm so are perfect for 3+ years. The Maxi range uses translucent pegboards so design sheets can be placed underneath, allowing pre-schoolers to trace the pattern.

Children can have fun crafting their favourite Paw Patrol characters with the 900 beads, pegboards and design sheets included in the set. This set enables children to create several character designs while tuning their fine motor skills, logical skills and stimulating creativity.

David Mordecai

CEO, One for Fun

It’s hard to pick a real hero product from our pre-school offering this year as we have such a great selection across all play categories.

However, as you are making me choose, the one that I love is our brand new BB Junior Push and Glow Formula 1 Car. It has got everything; the consistent popularity of toy racing cars plus a great push button mechanism that makes the car glow through the transparent body. At the same time, it plays great racing sound effects and is available in two colour combinations.

It has been specially designed for children aged one year and over and the chunky, bright design, coupled with the sound and light, make it fascinating for little ones. In research, the adults loved it too, especially with the trusted reputation of Bburago which, of course, sits behind all our BB Junior pre-school range.

Neil Montgomery

UK commercial director, Juratoys

We are especially excited about Janod’s Jurassic launches this season. The brand-new Dino collection has been so well received; the quality is exceptional and the characterisation is brilliant - it’s a truly fun and engaging range of toys to take little ones on a prehistoric adventure. Bursting with the cutest Dino characters, the new range includes more than 15 toys, games and puzzles.

A real favourite of mine is the Volcano MultiActivity Wooden Toy. Five Dino themed activities on the portable cube - a shape sorter, mirror, maze, abacus and gears - will keep little ones entertained for hours, while helping to develop their fine motor skills, dexterity and curiosity. I am also a big fan of the push along wooden dinosaurs, a gang of six characters, each sold separately, with charming felt detail, which feature wooden wheels and are suitable for 12 months

Amy Saunders

Sales director,

Everyone we present Potty Time Elmo to instantly understands the fun it provides to kids and the help it can provide to parents and carers embarking on the potty-training journey and beyond.

Potty Time Elmo was created following the huge success of an original Sesame Street video that has amassed over 23m views on YouTube and sees Elmo sitting on his new potty as his father, Louie, teaches him how to use it.

Potty Time Elmo is an engaging interactive plush toy, with phrases that encourage learning through role play. Most importantly, it is really entertaining.

Ashley Holman

Director, ToyTopic Group

We are hugely excited for all our new pre-school launches this year across the many huge brands we have in a portfolio that now boasts Peppa Pig, My Little Pony, Baby Shark, Peter Rabbit and newly announced Paw Patrol. To choose just one is very hard, however, I’d have to say our new line of Seasonal Paw Patrol full plush has got to be the most exciting and original introduction, and we can’t wait to bring it to market.

David LublinerHead of Customer Marketing Europe, Melissa & Doug

I’m excited to tell retailers all about our new product for AW23 - the Barber Set. It’s such an innovative toy and I can't wait for our customers to get their hands on it.The Barber Set sparks creativity and imagination in children while helping them develop their fine motor skills. With scissors, a comb, shaving foam and plenty of other accessories, kids can pretend to be a real-life barber, trimming beards and giving haircuts to their toys.The Barber Set is a toy that kids will absolutely love. It's made with high-quality materials that are safe and durable, so will provide endless hours of entertainment. I highly recommend that retailers get this product on their shelves when it launches because it's going to be a hero product for Melissa & Doug.

Lauren Shipman

Group brand and marketing director, Posh Paws

Having presented our brand-new Cute Eco Earth Baby Animals to retailers at London Toy Fair, we were delighted with them picking up a Hero Toy Award and being featured on ITV’s This Morning in its Top Toy Trends for 2023 feature. I can’t wait for the products to be seen on shelves and in the hands of kids this month when they launch.

This new collection of baby animals is made using 100% recycled materials, from the stuffing and outer fabrics to the packaging, helping to keep plastics out of our oceans and landfills, and giving children new, loveable companions they can play with and cherish.

We have partnered with the amazing wish-granting charity, Rays of Sunshine, to set-up a fundraising initiative and help brighten up the lives of seriously ill children in the UK. For every Cute Eco Earth toy sold, we will donate 50p to the Rays of Sunshine charity, in a bid to help raise £10,000.

Kasia Leskow

Head of UK marketing, Zapf Creation

We’re excited to be launching the brand-new Baby born Bear in 2023, an extension to the Baby born family and a first for Baby born within the growing plush category.

Baby born Bear is Baby born’s best friend and is cuddly and soft, with moveable arms and legs. Great for growing children’s imagination and communication skills, this teddy is perfect from birth, making it an ideal first present for babies, as well as pre-school children. Baby born and Baby born Bear can swap outfits and accessories, allowing for limitless dual play possibilities for children - from sharing naptimes and eating meals together, to dressing up the Bear and Baby born, as a pair in their prams.

Alongside the Baby born Bear, there’s a themed accessory range, including a Bear Sleeping Cave, and the plastic-free packaging, in line with Zapf Creation’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, is a big plus. Zapf Creation’s ‘Showbox Open’ packaging, launched this year, has been designed to bring a whole new level to parents’ and children’s buying experiences.

Ben Hogg

Head of marketing, Simba Smoby Toys UK

I am most excited about the Smoby Beauty Centre – it’s really the ultimate role-play product for children interested in all things beauty. It’s a multi-functional set, consisting of a dressing table, shampoo area, nail bar and merchant counter, allowing kids to engage with it using a host of play patterns, from playing shop to giving each other treatments.

In addition to the build of the Beauty Centre, there are 32 accessories including a hairdryer with its own light and sound function, hair accessories and make up. As with all Smoby products, children will benefit from the high-quality build and thought that has gone into storage, with many compartments to store accessories as well as the ability to fold up the Centre to take up a smaller footprint when not being played with.