As I may have mentioned on twitter a few hundred times, Smallest is a big fan of Mike the Knight. So when I saw him on twitter offering T shirts for review, I leapt at the chance. They are available through Tesco, and unlike many other branded T shirts, didn’t appear to me to be desperately expensive. The one we were sent for Smallest, age 2-3, was marked at £5 which seemed reasonable.
It’s a decent size, so it will fit her for a while, which is good as she’s already extremely fond of it. You might be able to tell that from the expression on her face 😉 It’s a decent quality, and has washed well (already been through the wash three times!) although it doesn’t compare to the heavyweight branded T shirts we’ve had from Next in the past. They are of course twice the price, so I’m guessing it’s one of those get what you pay for moments.
The only complaint I have about this series is that there seems to be little recognition that at this age both boys and girls are fond of Mike the Knight and most of the merchandise I’ve seen appears to be being marketed directly at boys. This includes the toy playsets I saw at Christmas in July. They all seem to be aimed at the knight wannabes – jousting playset, Hairy Harry’s horse wash (I don’t recall that being a particular feature of the series, and *please* believe when I say I have seen every episode multiple times). Where’s Evie’s wizard workshop? Or the maze caves with Trollee? What I saw is a range of good quality toys, at reasonable prices – playsets with multiple figures and plenty of scope for imaginative play, but limited in their appeal. (Which is not to say that Smallest wouldn’t adore pretty much any one of them, or indeed all of them, but there’s so much more scope than is being explored.)
There’s a Knight set with helmet and sword, but no Evie hat with wand. You could think of this as a gender issue, but tbh I think it’s more lack of imagination/awareness around the series. There should be a Mr Cuddles plush toy – I bet there are loads of children who would drag that around. (Come on, I’d drag that around. I want a Mr Cuddles!) And I’m fairly sure there are boys who would like a wand. But the series is called Mike the Knight and that is, at least currently, where we’re stuck. Come on merchandisers, look at what you’ve got with a bit less pigeon holing and a bit more imagination.
And at some point, I would like it if we could stretch the stereotyping of all these series a little. Why not make an ensemble program that doesn’t pigeonhole girls into nurturing roles like gardening and baking? Or insist that boys are adventurous types who want to save the world or nerds who do science stuff? In fact, why can’t we recognise how real life works?
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