About TheToyZone
Our Team
TheToyZone’s team all have extensive professional experience in their fields and are equally obsessed about toys. Meet the people behind the site:
Danny Ashton
Founder
Danny is the father of a very active 2-year-old and has made plenty of mistakes buying toys over the last couple years so hopes his site can help others avoid the same fate.
Gisele Navarro
Editorial Director
Gisele is a proud mom and has been leading the creative team at NeoMam Studios since 2015. She joined TheToyZone as Editorial Director, where she oversees content strategy and operations.
Amy Ashton
Content Manager
Amy works with the writers, researchers and editors to produce high quality content for our site. As an auntie to a 9-year-old, 7-year-old and 2-year old, she loves to play with many different kinds of toys.
Daniel Booth
Content Producer & Toy Reviewer
Daniel is our primary content producer here at TheToyZone. He is a big kid at heart and a self confessed geek. His mission is to find toys that kids will treasure, researching and writing about toys he wants to play with himself.
Mónica Agüero
Child Development Expert
With a Master’s Degree in Psychopedagogy, Mónica is our go-to expert in didactic toys for facilitating learning and special needs toys that support the individual needs of kids with different abilities.
G. John Cole
Resident Toy Blogger
John is our resident blogger at TheToyZone. He is a filmmaker and author, and dad to one tiny villain – so, all in all, he spends much of his time in a world of make-believe.
Molly Ashton
Resident Toy Tester
Molly is a huge toy and games fan, and enjoys testing out and reviewing new toys. She is a big board game and Nintendo Switch fan.
Vadym Skakun
Web Developer
Vadym is the web developer behind TheToyZone. He has a 14-year-old boy and a 7-year-old boy, so he also knows a fair few things about toys for boys.
Flor Costantino
Project Coordinator
Flor is the project coordinator who helps make sure we get our content out on time and to a high standard. She loves to play board games and still treasures her most beloved toys from childhood.
Our Mission
Do you remember walking around Toys R Us and being blown away by the sheer amount of toys on every aisle?
It’s even worse online.
A search for “toys” on Amazon, it will show you over 1,000,000 results.
With so many new toys released daily, it’s impossible to know the difference between a toy your kid will love and a toy that will get thrown into a corner.
TheToyZone’s mission is to help more kids end up with toys they love.
Unlike most other review sites, we don’t just give you a list of the best rated toys based on user comments with no regard to the possibility that those “honest” reviews may be artificially “adjusted.”
That is why whenever we are evaluating a toy, we utilize the latest score from Fakespot.com to identify if vote manipulation exists.
Many retailers are working hard to uncover these bogus reviews but for popular products it will always be an issue, that’s why we think it’s important to identify fake reviews early on.
This enables us to filter those toys that are regularly being praised on retailer review sites and those that are not.
By utilizing a variety of public data sources, we are able to discover toy trends before they happen so we can show you only the toys that kids are playing with and truly enjoying.
We also work directly with an expert in child development and educational psychology to ensure that the toys we recommend are age appropriate and support a child’s development.
If you want our team to review a toy you have found, be sure to get in touch.
Our Methodology
There are many toy sites out there recommending products to help people see what toys are on the market and whether it is worth a purchase or not. If you spend time on these sites, you’ll notice a lot of the same products appearing time and again. These regularly seem to be toys from the same companies that have heavily invested in marketing their toys, or even tried to manipulate reviews to make sure they appear well rated even if they are not.
At TheToyZone we do things differently. Here’s how.
1. We find out what toys real people recommend.
Many sites simply use Amazon search functions, and recommend the most popular or best rated toys and write about them. We don’t think this is good enough as these reviews can be manipulated in many ways. It’s becoming a common practice on Amazon for companies to pay for false reviews that boost their rating, making it hard to take reviews at face value.
Instead, we do research to find out what toys people truly recommend. We take an indepth look into active community forums such as Mumsnet, Reddit and Metafilter, which contain open discussions from users willing to share their experiences and give an honest review. We find out which products are being recommended over and over, and which products should be avoided.
2. We filter out fake reviews on Amazon.
When we have our list of recommendations, we find the toys on Amazon. We use a tool called Fakespot, which helps us to decipher which toys have reviews that may have been tampered with, discarding them from our list if they have been forged. This can seem like a lengthy procedure but it ensures that the reviews are as accurate as possible.
3. We have a team that reviews the recommendations carefully, and only includes the best.
Our experienced team reviews every single toy recommendation to make sure it fits. Our team has gained knowledge from hours of research and understand the minefield of buying toys online for their family and friends. This method gives us an extra level of quality control.
4. We only recommend 30 toys or less.
We cut our lists down to 30 or less. Our own encounters of toy lists have taught us that long lists can be overwhelming and can make choosing the right option even harder. In fact, studies show that users only read 28% of words they are exposed to on their first visit. By narrowing down the options, we give only the best selections with no filler.
5. We offer options for all.
At The ToyZone we understand that everyone is different and just because one person may like a toy, it doesn’t mean it’s suitable for everyone. Taking this into consideration, we make it our goal to find toys that will match many different personalities and preferences. We want to make recommendations inclusive so that no matter what your budget or preference, everyone can find something that suits them.
Editorial guidelines and quality standards
At TheToyZone, we take great pride in the quality of our content. Our team creates accurate, engaging, creative content that is free of ethical conflicts. If you ever come across an article that you think needs to be improved, please get in touch.
Our toy reviews are independent and based on our own research and experience — if you visit links within our content, we may receive commissions from your purchases.
Company information
TheToyZone is owned and operated by NeoMam Studios Limited, 60 Windsor Avenue, London SW19 2RR, United Kingdom. A company registered in England and Wales (Company no. 08190412).