Happy New Year from the Bunyips!

We hope you all had a great Christmas break and that Santa was kind to you

Every year we (the Bunyips both professionally and personally), sit down just like many other people and plan some New Year’s resolutions. And then count how many days before we break them or put them aside “for later”…….

So here are ours for this year (feel free to tell us when we break them!).

1. Weekly blog – we want to keep you informed about what is going on at Bunyip Toys – new products, specials, sponsorship activity etc.

2. Monthly newsletter – lots of promotions for our current (and future) wonderful customers.

3. Get fit. Oops, that’s a personal resolution.  But I suppose we can apply it to the business – are our emails as informative as they can be, do our newsletters have a bit of flab/verbosity we can trim down, can we be more efficient and professional (while still being easy-going, laid back mythical Australian beasts .

Anyway, back to the grindstone aka writing the January newsletter and working out what goodies to put in it.

Andrew

Bunyip Toys – for quality playtime

Meccano now available

Meccano was one of my favourite toys when I was growing up. I guess having an engineer for a father had something to do with that!

I would spend hours building things with wheels, pulleys, nuts and bolts and more.

Now Meccano has a much larger range starting with sets suitable for 2+. So now even older toddlers can enjoy Meccano. Not only is it fun but it is great for hand-eye coordination and problem solving.

Try some for Christmas – a quality toy for quality play time.

Andrew

Head Bunyip

www.bunyiptoys.com.au

Playmobil Advent Calendars

For the last few years the Bunyip kids have each received a Playmobil Advent Calendar.

The way they work is that on 1 December you set up the diorama that comes with the calendar and open the first box. Inside will be something Playmobil – a person or an animal or some accessories. Each day as you open a new box your diorama fills up so by Christmas Day you have a great play set.

Unlike other Advent Calendars that provide a chocolate or lolly each day (not the best thing to eat first thing in the morning!), the Playmobil sets can be added to your collection and played with all year.

There are calendars to suit all children.  Currently we have Magic Castle, Christmas in the Park, Winter Park, Pirates, Unicorn World, Pony Farm, Dinosaurs and Dragonland, and hope to have Police, Santa’s Post Office and the Pony Farm calendars soon.

One of the great things I have found with the calendars is that if your kids wake up grumpy all you have to say is “let’s go see what is in today’s box” for them to instantly cheer up!

Cheers,

Andrew

Bunyip Toys - for quality playtime

Update – Bunyip warehouse now open again

Update: The warehouse is back up and running. Fortunately there is no smoke damage and all orders from last week and the weekend have been sent out. Thank you for your understanding during the shutdown period.

Unfortunately a lot of businesses near the fire site are still closed. Hopefully they can get back and running soon.

Access to Mitchell is now allowed. I am heading out to the warehouse soon to check the status.

Due to the huge fire in Mitchell the Bunyip warehouse is closed. We hope to be able to get out there soon to see if the warehouse has been damaged in any way.

This means any orders received since Wednesday afternoon (the Bunyips had the day off yesterday) haven’t gone out. Hopefully we’ll be able to get to the warehouse this afternoon and send out the orders.

Stay tuned for more updates.

What toys do the Bunyip kids like?

Imogen and Aiden are pretty chuffed dad owns a toy store! It is not really all that surprising given they get to test out lots of toys.

So what do the kids of a toy store owner play with?  Not surprisingly, they largely like the toys we like – hands on, interactive toys that encourage imagination and cooperative play.

Aiden is a Star Wars fan so he is into a range of products Bunyip Toys doesn’t stock – despite his frequent requests! (no licensed products or movie tie-ins here).  Though I must confess to occasionally being tempted to cave in.

What he does love from the Bunyip Toys selection is Playmobil – knights and pirates are his favourite. Though fire engines and policemen are a close second. But even better is firemen in castles and pirates driving fire trucks! He likes to mix and match themes and eras, providing a running  commentary as he introduces his friends to the world of Playmobil.

Imogen loves doll houses – whether it be a Playmobil Magic Castle or a Sylvanian Families collection. Her current favourite is the Playmobil School - she runs classes, calls the roll and instructs her friends (imaginary and real). Hours and hours of fun. It is really pleasing watching her play by herself, taking on multiple rolls and telling stories as she goes.

Both kids love their scooters (and the adult Bunyips have their own too now).

Whether it is scootering to the shops or a 5km ride to visit mum’s office after school, the scooters keep them active and fit. Plus they fold up easily so you can take them away on holidays or even just pop them in the boot for a day out.

Both are active readers and our selection of books is made up of their favourites. All of them are books that they have had read to them many times. Imogen even learnt to read partly by reading her favourites to Aiden.

I love talking about toys and helping people select the right ones, so feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Cheers,

Andrew

Bunyip Toys – for quality play time

Bunyip Games – for families and kids

Playmobil Leisure theme now in

Even Playmobil figures deserve a holiday sometimes!

Whether you want to stay at a luxurious holiday house (4857) with a fancy swimming pool (4858) or hit the road in a campervan (4859), there is something for every taste in this theme.

 

 

 

As with all Playmobil themes, there is a great range of small sets to round out your collection.  Whether it is a comfy hammock (4861) for mum, a cute pool floatie (4860) for little Miss, wading pool for the littlies (4864) or a funky dune buggy and surfboard (4863) for the teenagers, everyone is covered.

 

 

 

And when the whole family wants to get adventurous, get out on the water with a swish speedboat (4862) for a spot of diving or fishing.

Bunyip Games is live!

Games are great form of entertainment. They encourage cooperation, promote lateral thinking, and teach planning and problem solving. Plus they are fun!

Games are also portable so they are great for entertaining the family when you go away on holidays.  On rainy days they provide an alternative to sitting glued to a TV.

Nowadays there are so many more game options than before. I remember as a child being limited to Monopoly, Scrabble, Uno and not much more. Now there are thousands of options.

At Bunyip Games we offer only our favourite games. All the games are ones we have played so we know they meet our requirements for value and fun. None of our games are the type to be played once and then forgotten in a dusty cupboard.

To help you choose a game we have included informative descriptions, as del las comments from our resident game experts, Tim and Andrew.

So have a look around and feel free to ask us a question.

Andrew

Bunyip Toys (and Games)

for quality playtime

Playmobil Top Agents in stock

The Top Agents is the coolest theme yet from Playmobil and is fully deserving of all the awards it has won. It has functioning alarms, video cameras, remote controls , UV lights and more. The Bunyip team have been having lots of fun this week setting up and playing with all the sets.

The highlight of the theme is the remote control Robo Gangster SUV (set 4878). It has a satellite launcher – the satellite opens out its solar panels and has a firing missile. If you add the Remote Control Unit  (set 4856) you can drive the SUV around – it is pretty rugged and can handle outdoors use. But even better is when you add the Spy Camera (set 4879). Mount the viewer on the remote control handset and watch where your SUV goes. You can even plus the camera into a computer and record your movies.

Based on how this theme went when it was launched in Europe last year, it is going to be incredibly popular.

Andrew

Bunyip Toys – for quality playtime

New look website

As you may have noticed, we have updated the Bunyip Toys website. It has some new features, like the Daily Deal and Testimonials, that I hope will make your visit more fun.

We would love to hear from you, either what you think about the new site or what you think of our service (via the testimonials link).

Stay tuned for two more Bunyip websites to be launched over the coming weeks….

Have fun!

Andrew

Head Bunyip

The Bunyip is back!

The Monster That Ate Canberra is back in print and awaiting you at www.bunyiptoys.com.au!

This is one of my all time favourite stories. I remember my parents reading it to me when it first came out in 1972.

Last week the book was relaunched at the National Library. Bunyip Toys provided some Bunyip themed colouring-in material for the kiddies who attended while author Michael Salmon spoke about the book, the bunyip and the early days of Canberra.

It was very exciting to meet Michael and to talk about bunyips – books and toys! When I was thinking of what to call this store I thought back to The Monster and decided a quirky bunyip would be a good name for a toy store.

Living in Canberra, the Bunyip holds special meaning. Every day as  I drive to and from my boring public service day job, I go right past the National Library and can’t help but think of Alexander the Bunyip taking a big bite out of it, then showering under the Captain Cook Waterspout….

And there is even a statue of Alexander too!  The Canberra buildings behind him even light up at night (maybe in case he wants a late night snack!).