Our Team
Danny Ashton
Danny is the father of a 5-year-old who loves video games and a very active 2-year-old who is always playing outside. He has made plenty of mistakes buying toys in the early years of parenthood, so hopes TheToyZone can help others avoid the same fate.
Gisele Navarro
Gisele is the mother of an adventurous 2-year-old and a creative 5-year-old. When buying gifts for her kids, her number one focus is finding toys that they will both have fun with. She joined TheToyZone as Editorial Director, where she oversees content strategy and operations.
James Booth
James loved anything Star Wars related as a kid! These days he uses the force to make sure TheToyZone is consistently publishing articles our readers will trust and find real value in. On his off days, you’ll find him in the woods searching for Ewoks.
Teddy Booth
Teddy is a big kid at heart and a self-confessed geek who loves all things LEGO, Nintendo and RC (drones included). His mission is to find toys that kids will treasure, so that is why he spends A LOT of time curating the perfect list of toys and games that include options for everyone without putting kids inside boxes.
Paul Allen
From train sets to Tamagotchis, Paul would spend hours as a kid playing with anything he could get his hands on. Nowadays, he researches the latest and greatest toys featured on TheToyZone, while dividing his free time between his Playstation and his Nintendo Switch.
Molly Ashton
Molly is a huge board game and Nintendo Switch fan, so she REALLY enjoys testing out and reviewing new games. She also likes to channel her inner kid to curate the absolute must-have items for our gift guides.
G. John Cole
JJohn is one of our senior writers here at TheToyZone. He is a filmmaker and author, and dad to one tiny (but super cute!) villain – so, all in all, he spends much of his time in a world of make-believe.
Vadym Skakun
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
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
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).