Hawkin's Bazaar

I first heard of Hawkin's Bazaar about 18 months ago, on a mailing list for home educators. This is a shop which specialises partly in traditional gifts, and also, increasingly, in the strange and unusual. The gifts are mostly aimed at children, but there is a selection for adults too. If you want an inexpensive present for someone who appears to have everything, I can highly recommend Hawkin's!

They do have a web-site with a good ...
...history •

Hawkin's have been supplying retailers since 1973, and have been producing a gift catalogue since 1980. They now have a small chain of shops around the UK as well, useful for seeing the products before buying, if you happen to have one locally. However they do have a good exchange policy, much like that of Argos - no reason has to be given for returning unwanted goods, and a full refund will be given.

• Traditional ... more

I first heard of Hawkin's Bazaar about 18 months ago, on a mailing list for home educators. This is a shop which specialises partly in traditional gifts, and also, increasingly, in the strange and unusual. The gifts are mostly aimed at children, but there is a selection for adults too. If you want an inexpensive present for someone who appears to have everything, I can highly recommend Hawkin's!

They do have a web-site with a good search facility, but my eyes tend to get tired looking at pictures for too long, so I ordered their catalogue. This can easily be done from the site (http://www.hawkin.co.uk) and is free even to customers outside the UK. I received it within a few days (not bad since I was in Cyprus!) and was immediately entranced by it. It's a glossy paper catalogue with a cover in bright primary colours. It's only about 50 pages long, but full of the most fascinating gifts and gadgets. Once on the mailing list, I received further copies of the catalogue two or three times per year. The current one, which arrived around a month ago, is (not surprisingly) intended for Christmas.

• Brief history •

Hawkin's have been supplying retailers since 1973, and have been producing a gift catalogue since 1980. They now have a small chain of shops around the UK as well, useful for seeing the products before buying, if you happen to have one locally. However they do have a good exchange policy, much like that of Argos - no reason has to be given for returning unwanted goods, and a full refund will be given.

• Traditional toys •

One strong appeal of Hawkin's is that they supply gifts and games which are reminiscent of toys from forty or fifty years ago. This isn't immediately obvious from the current catalogue, which is designed to appeal to modern children, but amongst the pages it's still possible to spot items such as:

~~ Newton's cradle - those metal marbles that swing on fine strings, clacking against each other in different combinations. £4.99 for an 11cm high version.

~~ Make-your-own Pinocchio marionette - all the components, including clothes and even glue (though not string), to construct a 26cm high working puppet. £17.99

~~ French knitting doll - we used to make these from old wooden cotton reels, but that's no longer possible with modern plastic ones. Hawkin's sell one, shaped a bit like a pepper grinder, with wool and instructions provided. £2.99

~~ Space hoppers - those bouncy rubber balls that you can sit on to hop around the room. Adult-sized strong ones in varying colours. £16.99 or three for £39.99

~~ Springy (or Slinky, as we used to call them) - like a coiled spring that can be set to 'walk' downstairs. My grandmother had one of these but I've never seen them in shops. £2.50.

• Modern toys •

There are an ever-changing range of modern toys to suit almost any child. For instance you can find miniature radio-control cars in various designs, an alien gyroscope - a gyroscope with two glow-in-the-dark alien figures that can be attached, or two plastic rockets, with catapult launchers, and parachutes enabling them to drift down safely. Prices range from about £5 to £10 for items like these.

• Stocking fillers •

There are a huge range of tiny gifts, suitable for children's stockings. The catalogue has pages in the centre listing inexpensive gifts by price. For instance:

~~ Under £1 - among other things you could buy: a mini-springy, a clear water pistol, a set of sixteen mini jacks, a small 'four-in-a-row' game, a pot of sillly putty, a bag of marbles, a mini crayon set, or a mini satin purse.

~~ Between £1 and £2 - in this range you could choose from (among other things) - a good magnet, various wind-up plastic toys, a jester's stick, a mood ring, a compass, a toy hammock, or a kaleidoscope.

~~ For party bags, or for stockings for several children, there are multi-packs of various toys such as rubber creepy-crawlies, packs of crayons, stickers, and tiny notebooks. They range from about £1.50 to £2.99 for packs of four or six.

• Books and music •

For those who aren't interested in toys, Hawkin's sells quite a range of quirky books, and unusual musical instruments. In the main catalogue, there are only a few books listed, such as 'Could do better': collected school reports of the famous (£5.99) or 'E-tales': circulated jokes, Darwin awards and internet humour (£6.99). There's a separate catalogue available listing over 100 books of this type, which can also be found at the Hawkin's book web-site http://www.hawkinbooks.com.

As for music: in addition to some inexpensive children's pseudo-instruments, there are a few more serious ones, such as a chanter, suitable for starting to learn the bagpipes, with accompanying CD; an Irish tin whistle, also with instruction booklet and CD; a cymbala (a metal-stringed instrument from Russia) and even a didgeridoo. Each around £20.

• Educational items •

There are some very interesting educational activities available too, such as a barometer, a 'zoomscope' microscope which operates at any angle, a magnet set, a gyroscope, a tank of sea monkeys eggs, or a crystal-growing set. All under £10.

• Games and puzzles •

There are a number of games and puzzles, traditional and modern, for the whole family. The nicer ones are fairly expensive, but would last well, such as a bagatelle board for £ 59.99, or a set of mah-jong - the original Chinese game, played by four people using tiles, which is £29.99. For someone who likes crosswords, there's a 6-metre giant crossword with over 2000 clues for £6.99.

• For teenagers •

If you want to buy something a little unusual for the teenagers in your life, and none of the above appeals, there are various juggling accessories, such as juggling rings or a diabolo, mostly under £5. You can even buy a unicycle, strong enough for an adult, for £89.99, or if you're really extravagant £249.99 will buy you a 7-in-1 games table, with equipment and boards for table-tennis, pool, table-top football and more, all of which pack away inside to leave a smart wooden table when not in use.

• For adults •

There are some 'adult only' gifts, such as ironing board covers with scantily-clad models, whose clothes disappear completely when the iron gets hot, beer-making equipment, or a rucksack designed to take wine bottles; there are also gifts scattered through the catalogue which could well appeal to adults as much as teenagers, such as an artist's mannequin, a 'round tuit', a mug to make cafetiere style coffee for one, Simpsons fridge magnets, or a safe disguised as a book.

• Sweets and misellaneous •

In addition to all the above, there are various inexpensive sweets available, some pleasanter than others. There are various dispensers for jelly-beans and chocolate, from a Santa figure through to a reindeer which dispenses chocolate from its rear end! There is a cracker kit, gimmicky soaps, a ship-in-a-bottle to build, a jumbo party popper, a clock that goes backwards, activity calendars.... indeed, it's hard to think of anything of this sort that Hawkin's don't do.

• One minor criticism •

Without wanting to be sexist, it does seem to me that this catalogue is rather more geared to men and boys than to women and girls. There are some 'girlie' items such as hairbands, bracelets, or a jewellery box, but they're not toys, and seem almost a concession to females. While I could find several things in here that my sons would have loved when younger, and some which they like now, there's very little (other than one or two of the games and books) which would have appealed to me in my teens. There were no gifts at all from the catalogue which I would really appreciate now! Having said that, though, everyone is different and we did manage to find some 'uni-sex' presents for girls from last year's catalogue.

• How to order •

On the back page of the catalogue is a straightforward order form, where you can fill in the item code number, the description, and the quantity you want. Although it's possible to order online, I actually find it easier to use the order form, at least to jot down everything I want to buy, since this saves a great deal of time! On the back is a section for details needed for any personalised gifts. The form can be posted, or the order can be made over the phone. Credit cards or sterling cheques are the only methods of payment.

• Postage and packing •

For UK orders under £45, the p&p charge is £2.95, or free over £45 if ordered online. For next-day guaranteed delivery the cost is £6. Republic of Ireland and Europe are somewhat more, but again there's a fixed cost whatever the size of the parcel, so if you order a large amount at once it's quite reasonable. For further afield than Europe, they charge depending on what's ordered, and will give a quotation.

• Delivery •

Orders are generally dispatched within five working days of receipt, but the catalogue warns that it's best to allow up to 14 days in the busy pre-Christmas season. Personalised items need up to 28 days.

• My experience •

I made a fairly large order this time a year ago, requesting delivery to Cyprus. Although not yet in the EU, I was only charged the European rate of postage, which was good! The parcel arrived about ten days later, delivered by a courier. I had to sign for the box when it arrived.

Everything was well-packed, and nothing was missing or broken. Some of the items were a little smaller than I'd expected, but on the whole I was extremely pleased with what I'd bought. The silly putty did go gungy and unusable after a couple of months, but the wind-up toys continue to work, the Newton's cradle is still in good condition, the juggling equipment was excellent, and the books were amusing and much enjoyed.

• Conclusion •

The catalogue is fascinating, with amusing write-ups for some of the items, and good photographs of almost everything. Every time I look at it, I seem to find something different! I would recommend it to anyone. If you don't want it for Christmas gifts, it's useful for quirky presents at any time of year, or for children's parties. If you want to make your order online, it's still much easier to browse through the catalogue and make a note of the things you're interested in first. One big advantage to the web-site, however, is that it can tell you if something is out of stock, and it will also sometimes include extra items which aren't in the catalogue.

All in all I find Hawkin's a very useful catalogue to keep around. If I had an unlimited budget, I would use it far more often. The stock seems to change somewhat every time I get a new one, and it would be tempting to spend a large amount buying small bits and pieces for almost everyone I know! 

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