"Harry Potter" toys at ELC

[wynnde1 at aol.com]

Hiya, Everyone,

I was out shopping today and found some interesting toys at the Early 
Learning Centre - figurines of mythological creatures. Although they don't, 
of course, claim to be connected to Harry Potter, my guess is that whoever 
came up with them is a fan (or at least savvy enough to know the connection). 
They are: a unicorn (white), a dragon (green), a hippogryff (Brownish red 
with white wing tips), and a Phoenix (red). I also got a Snowy Owl in flight 
from the same display. Elsewhere, I also found a Dodo bird, which, although 
not connected with HP, I found to be a very interesting animal to find, and 
so bought that one as well. Oh - wait, there IS an HP connection, though, 
isn't there? What are they called . . . Diricawls, or something like that (in 
Fantastic Beasts). Cool. <G>

They weren't expensive, about £3 a piece, except for the owl, which was 
cheaper. They are all in the range of about 5 inches tall (or long, in the 
case of the owl), and they are the same sort of toys that you would find for 
sale at the zoo (animals, of course), or dinosaurs at a museum. Plastic, but 
with realistic colouring. They look pretty good, in my opinion. And seeing as 
my 4-year-old son has a huge collection of dinos and other animals, it was 
very easy for me to convince myself that I was buying them for his 
collection. (I think you can all gues the truth about that, though - Get away 
from those Connor, they are MINE, MINE, MINE!). <G>

Anyhow, I imagine they'll be for sale at any ELC in the United Kingdom - 
don't know if there are ELC stores outwith the UK? I know that I used to see 
certain ELC toys in some toy catalogues in the US, but I'm not sure if these 
sort of toys would be included in that.

I thought they were pretty cool, and that it was post-worthy. I hope no one 
posted about them earlier - I didn't *see* a post about it, in any case. We 
also have a brand new Warner Bros. shop in our local shopping centre (I live 
near Edinburgh), where I spent £100 on a variety of lovely HP rubbish, so 
that was a nice surprise, as well. I thought WB stores had gone out of 
business. I know all the ones in the US closed a couple of years ago, but 
apparently they're back? Or are they just in the UK now? 

In any case, I was tickled to see these obviously Harry Potter creatures at 
the toy shop! 

:-)
Wendy


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]