Being a blogger has brought both me and the kids some amazing opportunities – things that money really can’t buy – and today was one of those days.
Imagine being a child and going in to a shop full of things with all your favourite TV characters on them. Imagine that happening when the shop is closed to members of the public and you’re there as special guests. I’m sure you can imagine just how excited Little Miss C was therefore this morning when exactly this happened at the new Nickelodeon Store in London’s Leicester Square.
The Nickelodeon Store opens to the public tomorrow (Saturday 30 May) but today the store was just opening its doors to special guests and this morning that included a group of UKmums.tv bloggers and their children.
After meeting Dora the Explorer we got to have a personal tour of the store and see all the fantastic merchandise that they’re going to be selling. The kids also took part in a treasure hunt and made hats whilst the mums got to do their blogging thing and take loads of photos and tweet manically about all the great things we were seeing. The visit culminated in a giant game of pass the parcel which resulted in some lovely prizes. We were also lucky enough to come home with some fantastic goodie bags too. Take a look at what they included.
The Leicester Square store is the first Nickelodeon store and over two floors they have a huge range of merchandise featuring their best known stars – Spongebob Squarepants, Dora the Explorer and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles along side other favourites like Paws Patrol and Bubble Guppies.
The ground floor of the store also has a huge range of London merchandise, featuring some great London landmarks and plenty of Union Jacks. There are also some very cute Spongebobs dressed as guards.
Little Miss C was in absolute heaven running around and has already asked to go back to “buy everything”. We may need to manage her expectations a bit, but in fairness there was a huge amount of lovely stuff in there.
The selection of clothing – both children’s and some adult – was vast and in particular there were some adorable Dora the Explorer dresses that I know she really liked.
There were also some lovely Spongebob play sets that I’m sure Master C would love and I was personally rather taken with a Spongebob Vrum suitcase that I spotted.
The store is beautifully styled with a slime staircase taking you up to Bikini Bottom where there are some lovely bubble lights over the staircase and lots of projected bubbles all over the floor. Up a few more steps and you’re into Dora’s empire with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle area beyond that.
There are also a few other stand out features like a pineapple shaped iPad bar where children can play games and a Dora colouring bar for those children who just love a spot of colouring in.
Overall I was really impressed with the store. There’s a great range of products for children of all ages and I can definitely see this as a real destination for Nickelodeon fans when they come to London. The Leicester Square location is ideal for slotting in to tourists itineraries and children will certainly love a trip there. You just may need to limit your children’s expectations about how much you can buy whist there!
Nickelodeon Store can be found at 1 Leicester Square, London. Nearest underground stations are Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus. The store opens to the public on Saturday 30 May 2015.
Disclaimer: We were invited as guests to this special UKmums.tv preview event at the Nickelodeon Store and received a goodie bag each whilst there. All opinions are my own.
I never knew that there were Nick stores.I think my lot would be falling over themselves for the SpongeBob goodies.I loved my Pez.I remember getting it from Woolworth’s.I’m off to see where else you get them from now.