Round-pole swing sets and play sets are a highly competitive market, with many online-only retailers competing primarily on price. Because most of these products are purchased without customers seeing them in person, there has been an industry-wide trend towards shrinkflation—reducing material sizes rather than increasing retail prices.

Over recent years, this has made it increasingly difficult for Plum Play to compete on price against pure internet sellers who have been using smaller timber dimensions for some time. As a result, Plum have taken the decision to reduce the size of the timbers used in their round-pole swing sets, with the change introduced at the end of the 2025 season and carried forward into the 2026 season, in order to remain competitive. This should not be seen as Plum becoming a lower-quality option; rather, the new specification is now broadly in line with the wider online market.

Wicken Toys continues to stock and sell the original larger-dimension Plum Play round-pole swing sets. In fact, we have committed to purchasing Plum’s remaining stock of these larger timber models.

If you purchase a Plum round-pole swing set directly from Plum’s own website, you will be supplied with these newer, smaller-dimension timber frames. In fact, if you purchase from the vast majority of other online retailers supplying Plum products, it is highly likely that you will also receive these newer shrunken-timber swing frames.

This is because most retailers do not physically stock round-pole swing sets themselves. The large package sizes mean that many courier networks either will not carry them at all, or charge extremely high delivery fees. As a result, when many online sellers make a sale, the order is passed back to Plum to be delivered directly to the customer. Due to the high volume of consignments Plum ships, they are able to use specialist carriers willing to transport these large items.

Wicken Toys is different. We are able to supply the larger-dimension round-pole swing sets because we stock them ourselves and deliver them using our own in-house delivery team. We do not rely on third-party carriers for these products, as this significantly reduces the risk of damage, delays, and lost deliveries.

Because we also operate a large outdoor display site where customers can view play equipment before purchasing, we have historically found it much easier to demonstrate the differences between Plum’s round-pole swing sets and those sold by pure online retailers. As a result, the slightly higher price of Plum’s larger-timber sets did not deter customers, as they could clearly see the quality difference in person.

As we sell through the remaining stock of larger-dimension round-pole swing sets, we will then transition to selling the latest smaller round-pole models now supplied by Plum. To ensure full transparency, the larger-timber models will be clearly identified with “Premium” in the product name, and comparison images will be included within the product descriptions.

For clarity:

• Premium Giant (larger timber) round poles: approximately 2.6m long, with a diameter of around 8 cm and around 22cm circumference)
  
• Premium (larger timber) round poles: approximately 2.34m long, with a diameter of around 8 cm and around 22cm circumference)
  
• New standard round poles: approximately 2.2m long, with reduced diameter of around 7cm. This gives a circumference of 18cm.