Surprising your children on their birthday or at Christmas isn’t easy when you run a toy website. With a mountain of press releases, brochures and catalogues in the office it’s inevitable that most of them will fall into small hands sooner or later, which makes my five-year-old dauntingly well prepped when it comes to present lists.
When I was young, you had to wait for the Autumn/Winter catalogues to arrive for a real bask in toy-browsing heaven (the Spring/Summer catalogues, with their ridiculously curtailed toy sections, weren’t worth looking at). ITV would carry some toy adverts as Christmas approached, and they were certainly illuminating, but when you have access to information (including gorgeous full-colour images) on almost every major toy launch the UK will witness in the coming year, the job of surprising a child becomes extremely difficult.
Last night my eldest son was to be found on the sofa, casually flicking through the Bandai Power Rangers brochure, with the air of a satisfied cat perusing a selection of mice. His younger brother, not yet three but catching on fast, scooted over for a quick look as well. His judgment on the brochure was a distinctly awestruck ‘Wow’.
I only hope I can come up with something for the little guy’s birthday in a few weeks that will get a similar wide-eyed response.
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