How we check
Drop Radar checks the shop before we ever ping you. You hunt the drop. We make sure the shop is one you'd actually buy from.
Official UK distributor
The manufacturer's or brand's own named UK distributor. Bigjigs Toys holds this tier for NeeDoh in the UK — it's the reference price we compare other sellers against, and it is on the drop wall. NeeDoh listings there belong on the squishy hunt even when the rest of that shop is toys for younger kids.
A seller the brand or distributor has named as an authorised stockist, with evidence we can point to and a date we checked it. We'll name one here when a shop earns it.
Independent retailer, checked
A UK retailer we list as a genuine stockist. We look at what the shop publishes about itself — who runs it, how to contact it and send things back, and where it says its stock comes from — and keep the date and what we found. Currently: FunkyFidgets, Jukupop, My Small World, The Kid Collective, Boo's Toy Shop, Learning SPACE, The Dyslexia Shop, The Fidget Works, Science Museum Shop and Fledglings; for Pokémon: Titan Cards, Eterna Cards, Total Cards, Zatu Games, Pixel-Hub, Sports Cards Direct and Hokey Poke Games; and for Jellycat: Fenwick, Southbank Centre Shop, London Museum Shop, British Library Shop, National Museums Liverpool Shop, Royal Parks Shop, The Baby Cot Shop, Hoopers, Kismet, Maia Gifts, Bunka, Bonkers and Plymouth Garden Centre.
Seller not yet checked
These shops can still show a price on the wall. We do not email you about them, and there is no buy button. Currently: NDA Toys, 1LUX, Asmodee UK, BuyMyBricks, Candymail UK, Collectors Kingdom, Hadley Bricks, Hype Locker UK, Knock Nook, LoveJojo, Luxural, Mega Cards, OG Kicks, Perfume Direct, RetiredSets, Scribbler Cards & Gifts, Side Kicks, TokyoToys, Toys 4 You, Trotters Childrenswear, toot garook.
Shops we added by hand
Wynyard Toys is a small UK shop selling squishy and sensory toys. We added it to the wall by hand, so it has not been through the checks above. Treat its price as a starting point and check the shop's own page before you buy.
We've looked at the shop: a real UK business you can reach, and a listing that matches what it says, on the date we checked. That's why a Pro alert is worth opening. Finish the buy on their site. We don't hold the toy in our hands.
How fast alerts actually are
We check most shops every 5 minutes, so a Pro alert reaches your inbox in 1–6 minutes of a restock going live there. Shops we added recently are checked every 30 minutes, so an alert from one of them can take up to about 45 minutes.
We'd rather say that plainly than call it instant. On a hyped drop, that window is enough for stock to go before the email lands — which is why every alert names the minute we spotted it and the minute we sent it, so you can always see how old the news is. A fast sellout can beat the email; the timestamps tell you when it did.
We read each shop's own public listing, on a schedule rather than all day. That's how we stay welcome at the shops you hunt. NeeDoh at checked shops gets one extra public products.json page between full crawls — one page per shop, not a second walk of the whole catalogue.
When a shop goes quiet
A quiet week at Bigjigs is still a week we were there. That's the point of the Monday email: you know we looked, so an empty inbox isn't "they don't have any". One or two returns is a sniff of life, enough to keep watching. After a handful, we start to see when that shop likes to move, and that's what the drop windows on the wall are built from.
Not yet checked, and you think this is wrong
If you run a store shown here and think the tier is wrong or the description is unfair, email hello@dropradar.co.uk and we'll look at it.
Get the Monday round-up free
Free is one email a week, every Monday, naming what came back and at which shop. It is not an alert for every restock.
For an alert each time a toy you watch is back, with the shop's basket link, get a pass or Pro. Alerts arrive in 1–6 minutes at most shops, from a day pass.
Check your inbox and click the link in our email. Then you are on the list for the free Monday round-up. You join the list when you click the link. Unsubscribe any time. See our privacy notice.