Parents rave about £12.50 bargain colour-in unicorn playhouse slashed by 50% at Hobbycraft as kids have ‘hours of fun’

HOBBYCRAFT has halved the price of its colour-in cardboard unicorn house, bringing it down to £12.50 from £25 – just in time for the summer holidays. The house arrives flat as five printed cardboard panels, covered in fairies and flowers and ready to be coloured in with pens, crayons or paint before it’s built. Colour-In Cardboard Unicorn House, £25 £12.50 from Hobbycraft That means one buy does two jobs, keeping children busy at the table first, before giving them a hideaway to sit in once it’s assembled. Sign up for the Money newsletter Thank you! It’s £12.50 in Hobbycraft’s half-price colour-in playhouse range, down from a full price of £25 — a saving of £12.50, or 50%. Delivery is free on orders over £25, or free with click and collect on orders over £10. That means a single house on its own may incur a postage cost, but if you buy a pair, delivery is free. The cardboard house is made for ages three and up and aimed at parents who have an afternoon free and need something that doesn’t need much setup. Built, it measures roughly 87 x 98 x 71cm, which is big enough for a small child to sit inside, though it takes up a fair bit of floor space while it’s up. One reviewer described using theirs to keep “family time screen-free and practical”, which is exactly what it’s designed for. There are other designs available, like this 3D rocket More summer holiday deals at Hobbycraft Colour-In Cardboard Rocket, £25 £12.50 – buy here Colour-In Cardboard Train, £25 £12.50 – buy here Kinetic Picture Wooden Model Kit, £50 £25 – buy here Terracotta Air Drying Modelling Clay, £5 £3.75 – buy here Multicolour Alphabet and Mini Bead Box, £6 £5 – buy here Hot Rod Wooden Model Kit, £23 £11.50 – buy here Reviews are mostly warm, with several five-star ratings and a recurring theme of children colouring for days rather than minutes. “Hours of fun had by all,” one shopper wrote, adding that their child was “still colouring it in after two weeks”. It isn’t flawless, though — one buyer marked it three stars after their kit arrived missing the chimney, so it’s worth checking that all the panels are there when you get it. Assembly is tool-free and follows printed instructions, and at least one reviewer managed to flatten and store theirs for reuse later. The unicorn house is one of several colour-in designs at the same price, so if unicorns aren’t the draw, there are other options. There’s a Dino Safari for younger dinosaur fans, a rocket for the space-obsessed, and a train that some reviewers found their cat enjoying. If you’re buying for more than one child, you could mix the designs rather than double up, since half the appeal is in decorating something different. Stock in the half-price range tends to thin out once schools break up, and there’s no confirmed end date on the offer, so if a wet-weekend activity is what you’re after, it’s worth deciding before the designs are gone.