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We love hearing what you think of our products and now you have the chance to win £50 worth of Hawkin’s Bazaar vouchers. Each month we will pick the best review, so make sure you let us know about your favourite products and any anecdotes about playing with them. Just click on the ‘add a review’ link at the bottom of any product page on our website - we look forward to hearing from you.
We had enormous fun reading the letters and playing with all the puppets and would like to thank everyone who entered our Sock Puppet Competition. The end has left a void in our lives and the postman is no longer greeted with the gleeful anticipation that he has come to expect. We were so overwhelmed with the clever ideas and amount of work put in by the entrants that we immediately knew we couldn't just pick one winner, so in addition to the £75 (in Hawkin Vouchers) first prize, we spontaneously created a second prize of £25... and then decided to give everyone who entered a £5 voucher because, basically, they were all brilliant.
And the winner is...
Puppet punch-ups were narrowly avoided as the judges fiercely defended their favourites. Special mention has to be made of 'Silence of the Lambs' - a woolly sheep, with Hannibal Lecter style mask (scary) sent in by the Heath family and 'Michael Sockson' - a Michael Jackson look alike puppet, entered by Sian Pilkington. There were many others that amazed us with their ingenuity, but a socky consensus had to be reached: the winner of the first, £75 prize goes to Elizabeth Saunders (aged 13) for 'Slurpy the Snail'.
Points had to be awarded for Slurpy being a sock puppet in every sense - even the shell is made of two rolled up socks. Simple, but very effective.
The runner up, £25 prize had to be awarded to Mrs S Ward for Henry the Caterpillar, who turns inside out to become 'Henrietta the Butterfly' - not only is it a fantastic idea, it's also beautifully made from two socks, sewn together.
Click here to see more of our favourites. 
The judging panel (we'll leave you to work out the puppets from the judges).
Thanks once again to everyone who entered and for giving us so much entertainment. Your vouchers will be in the post shortly, and don't worry - we couldn't bear the idea of parting you from your puppets any longer, so they will be returned to you at the same time. Don't forget to keep an eye on this blog for details of more competitions in the future.
It has come to our attention that some of our products have been appearing in the movies. Ok, it's not exactly Hollywood, but the You Tube mini movies made by our customers are even more fun. Lots of them are shot in our stores, and are very amusing, but we are particularly impressed with these budding Jedi Knights, enacting light saber battles using our Paper Lazers. The acting might not be Oscar winning, but everyone seems to be having fun and as long as the the good guys win, we're happy.
If you've taken a funny video in one of our stores or using one of our toys, let us know so we can add it to the blog.
We've had masses of brilliant letters and emails in response to our request for stories about your favourite childhood toys, games and gizmos. This message from Brian Light has echoed several other requests to bring back the fabulous Sipping Bird:
"Last Christmas I thought I would try to find something I had fond memories of in the 1970s - a Happy Drinking Bird - a glass tube with a bulb at both ends, decorated as a comic bird, that drinks perpetually as long as it has a glass of water to drink from. It's fascinating and mesmerising as well as technically clever.
Surely I thought, Hawkin would have them. No, but not only that, they cannot be sourced in the UK. I had to order mine from the US. Perhaps you could consider correcting this unhappy situation."
We would love to bring back the Sipping Bird, especially now we know how many of you remember it. Unfortunately, the constantly changing toy safety regulations currently prevent us selling the liquid inside the bird. We won't give up looking for an alternative, but it's likely to be a longer term project. We will keep you posted.
We've had so many great letters and stories about toys you would like revived, we've had to create a whole new blog to accommodate them. Click here to read them and don't forget to add your own comments - we want to know what you would like revived most.
So far April is really living up to it's reputation. Hawkin HQ has been battered by an awful lot of 'weather' in the last few days. But it did result in one of the most perfect rainbows we've ever seen. We only managed to photograph a bit of it, as it was so close - ending in the field just beyond our car park. Sadly, no pots of gold were forthcoming. There was a brief skirmish when someone claimed to have caught a leprechaun, but it just turned out to be Sue from our warehouse, who is rather...uhm, vertically challenged.
We've had lots of lovely letters and emails about the first edition of the Bazaar Times and we appreciate the time everyone has spent in telling us what they think. Whilst it's always good to receive confirmation that we are doing something right, in some ways we value your concerns and complaints even more. 
Tessa Miller has written, highlighting a concern shared by lots of customers that the Bazaar Times may be replacing the Hawkin catalogue. We'd like to lay all such fears to rest by confirming that the Times is additional to our full catalogue which will be published in September as usual.
Click here to read what other customers have been telling us and don't forget to tell us what you think.
Following our entry in the Bazaar Times requesting ways that the Times could be recycled, we've been delighted to receive this suggestion from Bryce Reynard in Inverness. Apparently he would normally make baskets from birch bark, but it seems strips of the Bazaar Times work equally well.
Add your own suggestions to the comments below.
Every day the post brings us exciting little packages filled with weird and wonderful sock creations for our competition. We've been overwhelmed by the amount of effort that everyone has put in - today we had two particularly impressive entries.
The ingenious stripy puppet is a Caterpillar, that is turned inside out to become a beautiful butterfly. We've also been impressed by this transformation of a sock into Lightening McQueen from the Pixar film Cars - it's got wheels and everything.
Click here to see more of our favourite puppets.
If you haven't managed to get your hands on a copy of the Bazaar Times yet and can't wait any longer, you can now read the whole first edition online. You can select by article, zoom in and flick between pages.
Click here to read the Bazaar Times
Please enter a comment below and let us know if you find the online catalogue useful and don't forget to tell us what you think of the Times.
