Little Tikes Riga Swing Set From ASDA Review

Some review items are far more exciting than others, and the Little Tikes Riga Swing Set is incredibly exciting! My boys spend a lot of time playing outside, but the only large equipment they've ever had has been passed down from their big siblings, and they have never owned a swing aside from an old baby swing.

What arrives is a large box that isn't heavy, and 5 large wooden poles which really weigh a lot. They're sensibly too heavy for one person to lift. Taken apart the 5 individual poles aren't very heavy at all.

Inside the box we have the 2 seats with ropes and fixings, the rope ladder and a bag of fixings, as well as the 2 large dark green powder coated metal brackets.

You will need to start by preparing the ground for your swing as it has to be secured in place. Little Tikes clearly suggest concrete to hold the poles, but for us this wasn't really possible, so we researched online and bought 4 x 52cm ground anchors. This should be far more than enough to secure our swing.

I was out, as were the boys, and my partner put up the swing as a surprise....and all credit to him, he even wrote it up and took photos as he did it...

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Pre drilled holes thank you! And they line up nicely.

Note that the sockets for the legs aren’t 90 deg to the line of the top pole, get them the right way round. And use the shiny bolts not the screws. The legs have a pre-drilled hole at each end, but they are not in the same place. If you put the wrong end in the socket you won't find the hole or the leg will be too long.

Putting the pole into the socket sticking up means you can reach the bolt hole without faffing around. Then flip it over and do the same with the other leg. Surprisingly putting both legs in one end first made the whole thing much easier to manoeuvre by myself.

Putting up this or any swing is strictly speaking a two person job, everyone else was busy sleeping or tarting themselves up.

This is me wishing I’d attached the hooks first, no idea if that would have caused an issue as I didn’t, and then had to prop the whole wibbly contraption up or have no fun at all losing washers and nuts in the grass. You can turn the spanner all the way around like this too!

Put these carabina bits on before you bolt it up, getting the hooks back out is a pain. I've removed the swing to make twisting the hook onto the hole easier. Noting how the rope attaches before removing them all, it’s nice that little Tykes already put the carabina on the rope. It means you can have a look without having to borrow a boy scout to decipher the knot instruction.

Not sure if I need a deeper socket or if I’m doing them up too tight. Doesn’t look like a deep socket in the book. The hooks aren’t the best quality broken thread on this one and the gap too wide to quite fit the holes on four out of the five provided. This is the only quality issue I have with this swing set, everything else is spot on as I would expect from Little Tykes!!

Putting the two carabiners on facing opposite ways nearly broke my heart, but I’m going to pretend it was deliberate and I’ve done the same on the other swing. I'm tall enough (6ft) to hook these on without standing on a box.

Trickiest bit this as there doesn’t seem to be any guidance as to exactly where the side supports go, no pre drilled holes *sadface*. I did it by eye and tried to make sure the screws went into the pole where it touched. This is where you get to add your personal squinty touch if you're that way inclined.

Tada! Obvs I didn’t stand it up there on my own, that would have taken a block and tackle as I’m not that tall and it scared me I’d break it. One of the kids came out and helped, there are no photos of that as it’s heavy and I really did need both hands.

All the tools I used. The instructions suggest more and some of them would probably helped.

The instructions say to leave the swings attached throughout the build, but I’m contrary. The carabinas make for easy removal of both swings but not the ladder. This is a double edged sword if things go missing from your garden on a regular basis.

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It's safe to say the boys were quite pleased to see the new addition to the garden...and somewhat keen to test it out...

They do need more practise at getting onto swings though...

The Little Tikes Riga Swing Set has a fair rrp at £200, but is currently reduced to a stunning £100 at ASDA - which makes it incredibly good value. Suitable for children aged around 3 to 8.

It looks gorgeous. The quality is excellent, the attention to detail is all there, it goes together beautifully and it's going to give my two boys and their friends many hours of pleasure this year alone. It even comes with a 10 year warranty against the (FSC certified) wood rotting, so this year is only the beginning.

Start to finish my partner built the swingset in around 90 minutes including placing the ground anchors. There's very little I can say that isn't positive. A brilliant swing set at a brilliant price.

We were sent our ASDA Little Tikes Riga Swing Set to review.