Review: Ben and Holly’s Little Castle Magical Playset

King Thistle does not want a bath

Ben Elf and Gaston up to mischief in the throne room.

Queen Thistle and Nanny Plum wonder if they can’t magic up some household help.

The Castle opened out.

Boy Three is something of a Ben and Holly fan. In fact, on any given day he IS Ben Elf – toot. 


We have often been in the grip of a jelly flood – or worse. If you don’t have small children, Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom is a cute and charming place where Ben Elf and Princess Holly have lots of 11-minute adventures. It’s sweet and one of the less irritating and non-sensical of the kids’ shows. 


The show is aimed at preschoolers. 


Ben and Holly’s Little Castle Magical Playset has five rooms and is decorated with stickers that you need to add. It comes with Holly’s wand and figures of Princess Holly, King and Queen Thistle, Nanny Plum, Ben Elf and Gaston. The wand activates five “magical” features such as the fire lighting, the bath filling and the washing line popping up. 


I thought that Boy Three, being such a fan, would love it. 


What we loved: The whole thing is adorable. The “magical” action is lovely and I wanted to do it again and again.


The whole thing looks very like the scenes in the TV show. 


What we loved less: The kit needed some construction and the stickers to be applied. Boy One loved doing this for his little brother. 


The figures are a bit wobbly and tend to fall over. “Oh dear, Nanny Plum has been at the gin again.” They’re also quite small.


Slightly too fiddly for our three year old.


Conclusion: If I was a three-year-old girl, I’d imagine I would adore this. And I’m sure some children would. There’s plenty of scope for playing Ben and Holly based games. 


It was a little too fragile for our three-year-old and he wasn’t terribly interested in such “small” play, although his brothers liked it. 


I’m going to put it away for six months or so, because I think there’s lots of mileage in this toy, but Boy Three just isn’t quite ready for it. 



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