A Look Back at 2021!
This last year saw the launch of the Tickly Tapir brand including our online store and our first physical retail location at Blackminster Park in Worcestershire. Let’s take a quick look back at our fondest memories from 2021!
May
The BRAND NEW Tickly Tapir online store was launched and coincided with the arrival of exciting new lines from prestigious brands including Melissa and Doug, Sharpie, Orchard Toys and Papo!
June
The lease was agreed on our first retail property at Blackminster Park, near Evesham. Joining 40 other businesses at one of Worcestershire’s most beautiful retail destinations, the Tickly Tapir store opened on 12th June 2021 following a soft opening a week earlier. Our opening date coincided with the opening of My Cookie Club also situated in the Park’s Cadbury Courtyard. The opening day was celebrated with a Schleich celebration cake and an incredibly busy weekend with customers travelling from across the region. We were also delighted to welcome Nigel Huddleston MP to the store in late June to celebrate our opening!
August
We were delighted to host our FIRST EVER Tickly Tapir event at our Blackminster Park store with our inaugural Schleich Fan Day! With Schleich Fans travelling from as far away as Bristol, Hertfordshire and Nottingham to see the Giant Golden T-Rex, Horse Club Zone and get their hands on the elusive Golden Lion figure! We also had a large selection of retired figures available just for the event with collectors getting their hands on retired flamingos, guitarfish and much more! The arrival of some rare vintage Schleich also gave us the opportunity to host our first Charity eBay auction, raising $400 for our charity partner the Grevy’s Zebra Trust. The charity is committed to the safeguarding of the world’s most endangered species of Zebra and this summer supported supplementary feeding programmes in Kenya and Ethiopia during a prolonged period of drought.
In late August, we hosted a very special ‘Unipiggle’ event in conjunction with Usborne books. Author Hannah Shaw hosted a Unicorn and Mermaid themed craft morning outside our Blackminster Park store before taking time to sign copies of her books for all of the families who had visited!
September
Following the overwhelming success of the Schleich Fan Day we took over Blackminster Park with a PLAYMOBIL Fun Trail! Floods of people came to the event to make the most of the incredible opportunity to snap selfies with a whole host of GIANT PLAYMOBIL figures! We were even blessed to welcome Her Royal Highness, the PLAYMOBIL Princess and The PLAYMOBIL Knight to the event!
October
To celebrate Halloween, we were honoured to see a very special guest visit our Blackminster Park store. In conjunction with our Tonies Spotlight event we were privileged to see Zog the lovable Dragon fly in to meet our customers! Zog was mesmerised by the Julia Donaldson themed pumpkins which filled the Cadbury Courtyard for this very special occasion. At the end of the event the contents of Zog’s Pumpkin Patch was donated to Vale Animal Sanctuary and our Director, Martin was able to visit some of the long-standing residents including the gorgeous Valais sheep!
November
The Blackminster Park late night shopping event was an overwhelming success as Santa’s favourite Toy Shop received a visit from some very special guests from the Arctic Circle. It was also a genuine pleasure to welcome Nigel Huddleston MP back in to store and also his colleague Mike Rouse from Worcestershire County Council!
A blanket of snow provided a very interesting start to our Schleich Black Friday event. Despite the horrendous weather conditions we were grateful to be the first Toy Shop in the world to welcome the Schleich Giant Black T-Rex! Once again there was a queue outside with Collector’s waiting to get their hands on the latest Limited Edition Schleich release.
December
With Christmas preparations at the forefront of everyone’s mind, we amassed a huge waiting list for the Schleich Candy Cane Reindeer figure with interest from Cornwall to Portugal and beyond! To celebrate the launch or the latest Limited Edition Schleich figure we welcomed back Santa’s reindeer for their second visit in quick succession. It was wonderful to see so many happy faces just a week before Christmas! Did you join us to whisper your Christmas wish in to Rudolph’s ear?
Year Ahead
After a first year of trading which has exceeded expectations we can’t wait to see what the next year brings us. With more exciting product releases from our favourite brands including the BRAND NEW Tapir and Baby from Schleich, we just can’t wait to see you back in store in the New Year! Make sure you sign up for our newsletter so that you can be alerted to all of our latest news including Special Events, Competitions and Giveaways!