Little Big Friends

Little Big Friends — the whole range, and how to pick from it

A French design house making soft sensory toys for babies, built around a small cast of characters rather than a catalogue of unrelated products. Tim the tiger, Gina the giraffe, Vincent the elephant and Jackson the lion turn up across the range in different forms, so a comforter bought at birth, a rattle at four months and a pull-along at a year all belong to the same family.

That is most of why we stock them. A nursery assembled from one of these ranges looks considered rather than accumulated, and a toddler who is attached to Tim the comforter will recognise Tim the pull-along without being told.

🧸 What the range is made of

  • Comforters — flat, light and suitable from birth, with ribbons, cords and a teething ring sewn in. The piece most likely to become irreplaceable.
  • Tiny Friends bell rattles — pocket-sized animals with a bell inside and a loop on the back leg, for a play gym or a changing bag.
  • Musical animals — a mechanical music box worked by a pull cord on the front, and each animal plays a different tune. No batteries.
  • Pull-alongs — soft bodies on real wooden wheels with a detachable double cord, from 12 months. The cord comes off, so they work as soft toys too.
  • Soft books and activity toys — cloth books with a high-contrast side for newborn eyes, an activity cube with something different on all six faces, plush balls with a different bell sound in each, and a spiral that winds round a pram handle.
  • Gift boxes — three pieces boxed and ready to give, in three themes.
  • Bigger things — a reversible jungle playmat and a wooden activity arch and baby gym.

🎁 Three gift boxes, three characters

Each box holds the same three pieces — a comforter, a squeaker rattle and a sensory soft book — so the choice is about the character and the colours:

  • Jungle — Tim the Tiger, the boldest and highest-contrast of the three, which suits very young eyes best. It is also the only theme whose pieces we sell separately, so it is the one you can top up or replace.
  • Forest — Bruce the Moose, in the most muted palette. For a nursery that has already been decorated, and the character nobody else will have given.
  • Ocean — Martin the Penguin, bright and blue-led. Penguins are the animal almost every small child takes to without being asked, which makes this the safest guess of the three.

👶 Where to start, by age

  • Newborn — a comforter, or the high-contrast side of a soft book. Flat, light things a baby can be shown and can hold.
  • Around 4 months — the bell rattles and the activity cube come into their own, once a hand can grip and turn something over.
  • Around 6 to 9 months — the plush balls, the activity side of the books, and the musical animals once they can work the cord themselves.
  • 12 months and up — the pull-alongs, for a toddler who has just worked out that walking has a point.

If you are buying a present and don't know the baby's age, a gift box or a comforter is the safe answer — both are suitable from birth and neither needs the parents to find room for anything large.

🌿 Also worth knowing

The jungle theme is the deepest part of the range by a distance, and the only one sold piece by piece, so it has a collection of its own: Little Big Friends Jungle Collection. Everything across the brand is PVC free, nothing in the range needs batteries, and the only sounds anything makes are bells, squeakers and a wind-up music box — so there is nothing to switch off at bedtime.

Most of it is surface clean only, with the comforters the exception — those go in the machine at 30°C on a delicate cycle. We say so on each product page rather than making you guess.

Free UK delivery on orders over £25.