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Casdon 476 Toy Hotpoint Electronic Washer
by BrookieFan99
==Hotpoint Electronic Toy Washing Machine==
In the world of toy's today (different to when even I was young! Only about 10 years ago!) there are many role play toys designed to introduce the world of household at a very young age to kids. Many iimitation toys such as toy washing machines, cookers, vacuum cleaners & even ... fridges & dishwashers are available, along with other items like cash registers, shopping trolleys & post offices you can buy too. When I was little I had a toy washing machine, a cooker, plenty of toy vacuum cleaners & several cash registers! Bearing in mind I had loads of toys to play with, I did spend several hours a day playing them. As I grew up I gave some of my toys away & sold most on the Car Boot (& made money too!) I was also just old enough to have a toy Henry Vacuum Cleaner (when they were first launched in 2007) & I still have it! It is one of my collectors items & I will never give it away!
==How I got it==
I still remember the lovely sunny day in 2003 when me & my mum went into Index (an old retailer, like Argos but smaller) & started to order some items for our newly converted family room. We ordered some furniture, but we only had a few things as we went to Argos down the road afterwards, but the new Casdon range was new at the time & Argos did'nt have any of it so I persuaded my Mum to buy this Casdon Hotpoint Electronic Washing Machine, for me. I loved the washing machine we had in the house at the time before the LG came along, so I said this would let me have fun for hours aswell as learning what to do with a washing machine! Reluctantly my Mum brought it as it was only around £9 for an introductory offer, plus, it had flashing lights, a pull open powder drawer, rotating drum, wash basket, powder carton & plenty of buttons to press! I thought it was perfect! I got it home & immediately asked Dad to put in 3 x C Batteries (which are not required but needed) & used the machine for the first time. My experience of the machine could not have gone better! I loved the fact that you were able to pretend powder (a mini Persil Non-Bio box at the time, different now though) in to the drawer & put the clothes in. The 'Power' button glowed red when turned on & the 'Fill', 'Wash', 'Eco Wash' & 'Spin' buttons glowed green across the bottom. It was really nice to see this & it sounded exactly like my nans Hotpoint Aquarius washing machine when tested with each other! Me, (like most people) just loved the clothes spinning around & the noises it made! It sounded like some proper washer, with more realisitc sounds than any other toy washer of it's time!
==About the company behind it (Casdon)==
Casdon (formerly CB Casdon) was a company run by a man called Tom Cassidy, which started in 1944. They started off during the war as a toolmaker, only repairing vacuum cleaners in his spare time. The company originated from Blackpool. The company was named 'Cassidy Bro's' in 1946. They brought several premises in Blackpool in 1949 & hired 12 employees. Soon after in 1950 they introduced their first toy which was a clockwork speedboat, & carried on until the mid 1980's selling & making boys toys such as cars & snooker tables. They also sold girls toys like dolls, prams & the all famous Hypertills. In the 1980's Casdon started to make imitations of toys from famous brands such as Hoover, Beldray, Rowenta, Creda & Hotpoint. In 1998 they lauched the child version of the Dyson DC01 vacuum cleaner & still make Dyson vacuums today, even the ones with a ball! It's pretty much the same these days but they continue to make toys & they even now trade in countrys like Africa & Japan!
==Advantages==
Well, this toy keeps the kids quiet, has plenty of features, with the flashing lights, opening drawer, the spinning drum, the washing powder carton, the wash basket & the brilliant build quality. Oh, that's another thing I forgot to mention, the build quality. It is brilliant! I've used this on a regular basis (well, not so much as I got older anyway, but, you know what I mean!) & it has lasted well. Hardly any visible damage to the machine, like no scratches or marks. It has a nice finish, a lovely Silver & Graphite finish. which does stand out. Kids can copy Mum (or Dad!) & pretend to do their own washing, & then hang it out, or re-wash it again!
==Disadvantages==
There are a few disadvantages to this product as their is with any product really! The toy washer needs 3 x C Batteries to operate, but a good side to this they do take a long time to run out. Also you cannot put water in the toy washer, unlike some Miele or AEG toy washing machines. This does make a safer & more fun play too, as the clothes get spun around faster than the machine, which is better fun for the kids!
==Summary==
This machine has lasted over a brilliant part of 9 & something years because of it's usage & minimal damage, along with still keeping the original bits & bobs that came with it too! The Persil washing powdfer carton does not come with it now, as it is a cheaper version which is just as nice! For all the price of about £14.99, this machine is well worth the fact your kids might get years worth of play from it. It's just litterally worth it's weight in gold!
www.casdon.co.uk
==Thanks for Reading==
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Casdon 477 Toy Hotpoint Electronic Cooker
by historywitch
Both of my children love imaginary play, especially when they are mimicking something that I or their dad do. We have a large plastic kitchen but due to its size it lives outside in the playhouse, which means its inaccessible during the winter behind bikes and slides and balls. My 2 year old son in particular loves to pretend to cook so ... for last Christmas I suggested that my brother buy him this little cooker - which firmly cemented him as BEST UNCLE EVER. It retails at £25 but it is currently £14.99 on Amazon and is part of a range from Casdon that includes a sink unit and a washing machine of the same size and a similar price.
The first thing I noticed about it was its size. At 30 centimetres high and 25 centimetres wide and deep it is not very big at all and I had visions of my children getting fed up of crouching on the floor to use it. In design it does look very similar to our current cooker, with buttons instead of knobs and halogen hobs rather than gas but generally very realistic rather than an obvious toy. There is a small amount of assembly to do before playing can commence- the cooker requires three C batteries (the big round cylinders) in the compartment in the back, which of course needs a screwdriver to undo. Stickers come with the toy too, but of course the children took charge of these so they are on the side of the toy rather than in their correct places on the front.
At 2.5 kg the toy is quite light, my two year old manages to carry it around easily, but the quality feels good at first. However the two doors are flimsy, not just the plastic doors themselves but also the way they are fixed onto the oven. We have already had to slot the doors back on four or five times since Christmas, luckily they go in fairly easily. The instructions say that they are designed to come off easily so they don't get broken irretrievably, but the plastic is so flimsy that every time I have to put them on I am terrified that I will snap off a crucial piece.
The seven buttons on the top are better quality and I have just taken the opportunity to have a play and work out their function (review writing is a hard old job). Four buttons on the left work the hobs on top, each button corresponding to a hob. When you press a button the hob lights up for about ten seconds and a static noise is heard, which I assume is supposed to sound like cooking. You can only have one hob lit at a time which is a shame, although you don't have to wait for one hob to finish before pressing another, you can just press another button.
The middle button is a mystery button. I pressed it and it made a tiny static noise and stopped. I assume it is either broken.......mystery solved, whilst I was typing the cooker went ding ding ding randomly, so I'm guessing it's a pretend food timer. The final two buttons make LED lights in either the top or bottom oven light up with more of the static scary cooking noise.
Also the cooker comes with two oven shelves (when there are three spaces for shelves inside), pans with lids (four pans, three lids), a grill pan, a baking tray and a selection of plastic play food . All of these are mediocre quality, they wouldn't stand up for regularly being stood on and dropped but they aren't flimsy enough to fall apart instantly.
When my son opened this on Christmas day he wouldn't open any more of his presents until he had played with this for at least an hour. The thrill of having a cooker like the grown-ups has faded slightly but this is still a toy that he will play with every day for at least twenty minutes. It is also a lovely toy for him to play with his older sister with, she is much more willing to play cooking than do puzzles or read him stories. They play very nicely with this together. I can't see why this is a toy recommended for 3+ as my two year old gets so much pleasure out of it and there is nothing to hurt him or to be swallowed. I can see his interest in it growing even bigger as he gets older and into even more imaginative games. I like this cooker as it is not particularly loud, the noises do not last very long and it is very easy to store, so it is a toy that can live in my son's small bedroom or be brought down to the lounge very easily. If you only have a small house then this is an ideal toy as it allows a child to play imaginative games without taking up huge amounts of space.
The size doesn't seem to faze either of my children either, the six year old crouches and the two year old kneels and sometimes they put it on a chair or table to allow them more access. The only negative with this oven is the flimsy plastic doors but it wouldn't prevent me from buying it again, especially at its current £14.99 price on Amazon which makes it a bargain.
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