Our Twitter party on the 6th of December was a huge success with over 7 million timeline deliveries in the hour-long takeover. Running with the theme of STEM toys, the social media activity focused on our many varied educational products with parenting bloggers reviewing a wide range of products in the run up to the takeover. Read about it in Toy World and Toy News.
We are looking ahead to 2020 and another exciting new addition to the StikBot range – enter StikBot MEGABOTS. Now StikBot’s have their own mega machines with extra parts for easy animation. Read all about it here as published by Toy World.
Every year it becomes harder and harder for Father Christmas (and parents!) to decide what to give children for Christmas. With the launch of new tech and games launching all the time, UK children are developing sophisticated tastes when it comes to choosing toys and gifts. Most parents want to of course let their children experience the latest in gaming and help them get to grips with tech but they also want them to look up from their screens and learn about the world we live in, taking in the knowledge that’s essential for growing up in an ever-changing world. Choosing engaging, educational toys is a great way to teach children by stealth and Christmas is a great time to introduce different toys to expand their imagination and hopefully inspire a thirst for more knowledge.
At Brainstorm, it’s our mission to help children learn in fun and interesting ways through play and the toys within our Brainstorm Toys range are a great way to inspire children to take an interest in the world around them. Take for example our hugely popular space themed toys: My Very Own Moon not only makes a great nightlight, children will enjoy changing to different phases of the moon and learning all about how the moon goes through each phase…..parents will love how it also helps them to sleep thanks to its comforting glow and auto-shut off! My Very Own Solar System also makes a great gift for fans of all things Space and will also keep children entertained all year as it attaches to their bedroom ceiling acting as a cool, entertaining focal point to any bedroom.
See the World through Other’s Eyes will keep the whole family entertained this Christmas! Everyone can don the super-cool glasses and use the 22 interchangeable lenses to see the world through the eyes of different creatures and animals. Why not challenge people to guess what creature they are?
The Outdoor Adventure Collection features lots of great stocking fillers to get children enjoying the outdoors. You can even go on an adventure in between Christmas and New Year – head out with our Compass, Night Vision Torch and Magnifier and explore nature…then get back in time for more mince pies and leftover turkey sandwiches.
It’s not just Brainstorm Toys ranges that educate, here at Brainstorm Ltd, we also have a huge collection of other uniquely innovative products designed to educate your child while giving them hours of entertainment.
EUGY is the perfect stocking filler for creative types and also for parents looking for more sustainable products to add to their child’s stocking this year. Choose a cute character for your child to build using recyclable card and non-toxic glue. They can use their Christmas money to collect them all and choose from characters including a unicorn, panda, clownfish, llama, elephant and more.Forget Christmas movies when your children can make their own thanks to StikBot. As well as totally absorbing, StikBots are a great toy for developing your child’s creativity and imaginative skills as well as helping develop their tech knowledge with the cool green screen technology featured in the StikBot App. All the characters are collectable and poseable allowing kids to create engaging stop-frame animations – the creative possibilities are endless and children can also share with their friends and watch the ever-growing StikBot Central YouTube channel to entertain and inspire their own films.
If your child has watched the brand new A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, you’re bound to have an Aardman aficionado at home so treat them to the Shaun the Sheep Torch & Projector – a cute addition to any Christmas Stocking and parents will love its retro styling.
Many children may ask for a pet this Christmas and while you may not be able to commit to a dog or a cat, every home can welcome the unique Aqua Dragons – a perfect introduction to looking after a pet for your child. The Aqua Dragons Underwater World Kit features a tank and everything you need to get started – simply hatch and feed your Aqua Dragon Eggs and watch them grow. Children will love to watch them swim around their own special tank over Christmas and beyond.
TV advertising ramps up from September for all key lines and will continue in regular bursts until the end of the year. TV campaigns will be planned for the following lines: StikBots, StikBot Monsters, StikBot Zanimation, StikBot Dinosaurs, My Very Own Solar System with My Very Own Moon call out, T Rex Projector and Room Guard, Aqua Dragons and Addict a Ball. To read more about it as published in Toy World see here.
StikBots will be sponsoring CITV breakfast every weekday morning throughout the whole of November and December again in 2020 – to read more about it as published by Toy World see here.
Brainstorm have so many space STEM products, we of course wanted to celebrate this momentous occasion. We will be planning lots of social media activity and teaming up with the National Space Centre and First News, running competitions and other activity. To read more about it as published by Toy World see here.
The uncertainty about BREXIT continues to feed the media frenzy. At Brainstorm we are trying to be pragmatic about how we prepare for the unknown. In the first place we have ensured that we will have healthy stocks, in the UK, of all our current and new lines throughout this period in case of delays at port. Our supply chain is almost 100% outside of the EU so will not be affected in terms of trading restrictions with the EU whatever happens.
We have many valued customers in the EU and with the advice of the British Toy and Hobby Association we have formulated a contingency that will enable us to continue to trade and honour these long-standing arrangements. In the case of a no deal Brexit, we will immediately appoint an Authorised Representative based in the EU. This means that , in the terminology of the Toy Safety Directive, our retail and distribution customers would retain their status as a “Distributor” and not have the additional burden of being an “Importer”.
We are liaising with our Freight forwarders and have instructed them to act as our customs representatives. This will enable them to move our shipments across the customs boundary if Brexit occurs in late March 2019.
Customers are advised to find out their state of readiness to undertake import customs clearance. If needed we can organise our Freight forwarders in the EU to contact you and provide any specific support and guidance which may be required. At this stage, it is not possible to pre-empt what the future trading relationship between the UK and EU will be. Both parties have however expressed their desire to minimize the impact of BREXIT on business and trade. This forms a good foundation to work towards an eventual agreement on tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers.
Any customers with specific queries should email sales@brainstormltd.co.uk or your normal Brainstorm contact. We will do our very best to answer your questions or concerns.
Brainstorm launched the brand new eco-friendly craft toy at London Toy Fair last month to a ‘fantastic’ reception. To find out more read all about it here as published by Toy World.
Brainstorm is ending 2018 on a high following a whirlwind StikBot tour around toy shops across the UK. Read all about it here as published by Toy World.
The Brainstorm year end is 31st of March and we expect sales to fall in line with our previous record year despite the challenging retail environment in the UK and ROI.
Our aggressive consumer marketing, great products and plenty of hard work has been at the centre of our success in recent years and we will be keeping up this momentum in 2019/2020. Read more about it here as published in Toy World.
Brainstorm will become the exclusive UK distributor of craft brand EUGY in 2019. Read more about it here as published by Toy World.
