With just over a month until Christmas Day, the Dad’s Choice Award winners have been revealed. The annual awards – designed to “celebrate and recognise that dads like to play with different toys and games with their children” – are aimed at helping parents pick out kids’ Christmas presents with the confidence that they’ve already made the grade. The 2021 winning products were chosen because each had creativity and “fun factor”, offered value for money and impressed a selection of dad testers and their children.
Dad’s Choice Awards have named 11 Top Winners for 2021. Each of these winning products grabbed the attention of the testers and was deemed worthy of the highest award. A further eight products have been given a Highly Commended Award and six received the Commended Award for 2021.
The eleven winners that impressed across the board are:
Scalextric ARC AIR GT Challenge (Mercedes GT3 v Ford GT GTE)
Little Tikes T-Rex Truck
Trends UK Science Mad Digital Metal Detector
Golden Bear Windy Bums Panda, Monkey and Unicorn
Orchard Toys Wiggly Words Game
Build Your Own Mini Build – Ladybird
HUE Animation Hue Animation Studio
Marvin’s Magic Marvin’s 30 Amazing Magic Pens
Viga Toys Balancing Game – Space
McMiller Entertainment UpRoar!
Tig Tag’s Tig Tag
The Highly Commended Winners are:
Asmodee BrainBox: Football
Scalextric’s Micro Scalextric Batman vs Joker Set Battery Powered Race Set
Trends UK Big Box of Magic Set
Alpha Animation Safari Park Track Set
Little Tikes Cozy Coupe Shopping Cart
Zuru Rainbocorns Fairycorn Surprise (Series 4)
Exploding Kittens Exploding Minions
Golden Bear Smart Ball Counter Football
The Commended Winners are:
Asmodee Ticket to Ride Europe
Zuru X-Shot Excel Crusher
Hornby/Airfix Small Starter Set NEW Supermarine Spitfire MkVc
Playmonster UK My Living World Bug Photography Kit
MGA Entertainment Rainbow High Fashion Doll – River Kendall
Corgi CS90629 Flying Aces F-35® Lightning®
“We are delighted our Small Starter Set Supermarine Spitfire MK.VC has been chosen as Commended Winner in the 2021 Dad’s Choice Awards!” says Dale Luckhurst from Hornby/Airfix. “Thank you to the ‘Dad testers’, judges, and entire team for helping us spread the joy that is model building by selecting our product as one of your winners. What a fantastic selection of toys and games you have chosen for this year’s awards. Sometimes the best ‘dad gift’ is one he gets to share with his children and this starter set is the perfect choice for that. This easy-to-build Spitfire is ideal for modellers of all skills and a great starting point for anyone wanting to get involved in the hobby, not to mention fun for all the family!”
‘The Windy Bums Team at Golden Bear Toys are so happy to hear that we’re a winner at the Dad’s Choice Awards this year!”, a Golden Bear spokesperson commented. “Everyone knows Dads can be a little gassy… so we aren’t surprised they are drawn to our brand-new giggling farting plush. We hope that Windy Bums are providing lots of fun, laughs and giggles to Dads and their kids everywhere and continue to do so with our new characters in 2022!’