Calico Critters Margaret & Halley’s Dress Shop

Calico Critters is an award-winning collection of adorable miniature animal toys from International Playthings.They live in Cloverleaf Corners where you’ll find families of bears, dogs, raccoons, cats, pandas, mice and more living, working, going to school, playing, shopping, and having fun!

Calico Critters Margaret & Halley's Dress Shop Play Set review MomReviews

Thanks to Blogtricity and Growing Tree Toys, Kaitlyn and I had the chance to review Margaret & Halley’s Dress Shop Set. It comes with Petite Bear Mother Margaret wearing a yellow floral dress and white apron with lace trim, Petite Bear Baby Halley wearing a pink and white baby outfit, two dress mannequins, a blue sleeveless dress with white ribbon trim topped with a matching blue short-sleeve jacket with a lace collar and tiny “pearls” on the sleeves, a white baby dress with blue ribbon trim and a blue bow with a white “pearl”,  a blue hat with a white bow, a yellow handbag with a white “pearl” closure, a hand mirror, headbands, a baby toy, and a wall portrait.

The attention to detail in Calico Critters sets is unparallelled.  Even the smallest pieces are carefully detailed and realistic. Baby Halley’s head and Mother Margaret’s  head, arms, and legs are articulated for posing and playing. The clothing is easy to take off and put on which I appreciate so that Kaitlyn can do it herself.  Everything in Margaret & Halley’s Dress Shop will fit right in at Camryn’s Country Boutique, which I reviewed in July!

Growing Tree Toys has Margaret & Halley’s Dress Shop Set for $18.95 which is a great deal for as many pieces as this set contains.  One thing that Growing Tree Toys does that I like is tell shoppers which developmental benefits each of their products provides, and which types of play each product is for.  Margaret &  Halley’s Dress Shop Set develops physical, logical, spatial, and intrapersonal skills, and is good for quiet, dramatic, and manipulative types of play.  It would be a terrific gift for a child ages 3 to 7!

Calico Critters Costume Critters

CostumeCritters

If you aren’t familiar with them, Calico Critters is an entire world of animal-themed toys from International Playthings. Sold in sets, the adorable bunnies, raccoons, monkeys, pigs, dogs, cats, pandas, foxes, and more come in families of four as well as sibling twins and grandparents. The Calico Critters website is one of Kaitlyn’s favorites, take a look and you’ll see why.  I also get a kick out of how each animal family has a detailed story about their jobs and their favorite hobbies, like this:

Hopscotch Rabbit Family- Mother Heidi is a gym teacher at the Cloverleaf Corners high school and Father Harlin is a sports reporter for the local paper. Brother Skip and Sister Bell play high school soccer and enjoy hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter.

Just in time for Halloween, Calico Critters has released two sets of animals wearing their Halloween costumes! They sent me a set to review, which Kaitlyn absolutely loves. She already has the Calico Critters: Pigglywink Pig Family, and now she has Calico Critters Costume Critters – Frog and Lion to be their friends!  She’s already assigned a room in her dollhouse just for the Critters and had Frog and Lion tell the Pig brother and sister all about their costumes, SO cute.

WHERE TO BUY: I’d suggest if you want to buy the Costume Critters, call your local educational toy store. Ours has an entire nook devoted just to Calico Critters.  Amazon can ship them in time for Halloween but it would be expensive. Click the links in the previous paragraph for Amazon.  As toys for kids go, $19.95 might seem like a lot for two little animals, but I think Calico Critters are worth the money. They are well-made and would be a great gift for little ones! Imagine their surprise if they woke up Halloween morning and Frog and Lion (or Bunny and Chick, the other Costume Critters set) were waiting for them at their place at the table!

disclosure: International Playthings sent us Costume Critters with no obligation for this review. No other compensation was received.