Miele Mini Kitchen

 - Cooker, washing machine, dishwasher and vacuum cleaner
  all with sound and light effects (LED lamp)
- Microwave, refrigerator and dishwasher all with accessories

 Miele Minis for budding gourmets.

Oven, dishwasher & Co. in doll's-house format

Battenberg cake, quiche or succulent chicken legs straight from the microwave – enough to make anyone's mouth water. Miele guarantees perfect finished results – in this case somewhat smaller than you might expect. The reason is: We're not talking here about regular Miele machines but about toys – scale-size replicas of ovens, microwaves, dishwashers and refrigerators.

And as the model railway or a knight's castle doesn't quite set the scene for serious cooking, Miele is now offering a built-in kitchen backdrop which, with an overall width of 120 cm, offers ample space and a true-to-life setting for all those toy Miele appliances. And there's even room for the washing machines and vacuum cleaners which already adorn so many kiddies' rooms as miniatures.

It is always a pleasure to see children operating the knobs and pushbuttons on their prize toys. The big appliances in the kitchen are of course 'out-of-bounds' for inquisitive fingers but these scale models are a true reflection of their big brothers – just smaller. Dishwasher, oven and refrigerator are 18 cm wide and 26.5 cm tall. In the interests of improved handling, the microwave oven is not built to the same scale: it is 25 cm by 16.5 cm. The operating noises, for example the sizzle of sausages cooking, from the battery-operated machines are as real as they come – recorded under real-life conditions in the Miele test kitchen!

Unlike most doll's houses where nothing much happens, there's never a dull moment in the Miele mini kitchen. It goes without saying that the oven doesn't heat up, but the rings on the ceramic hob do light up – just like mummy's in the kitchen downstairs. At the push of a button, the light in the microwave goes on and the turntable turns the (all-inclusive) plastic chicken until it is done to a T. The dishwasher features a second and transparent door through which the man about the house can see how water is evenly sprayed over cups and plates. But no fear of flooding – the amount of liquid in the machine is less than the contents of a glass of water and, if needs be, the machine works perfectly well without water.

Whether boy or girl – pre-school kids simply love playing around with knobs and switches and simply pretending. The real-life design in stainless-steel look ensures that these miniature appliances retain their good looks. And, hopefully, these toys will one day lead to grown-ups experiencing the true joys of cooking in a real kitchen.

The new Miele toy appliances are available from reputable toys stores and will soon be on sale at your local Miele specialist dealership, along with the washing machine and the vacuum cleaner. Distribution is in the hands of the Theo Klein, a specialist toy manufacturer from Ramberg in Germany. For over 50 years now, this company has been a leading manufacturer of 'role-model' toys, i.e. miniature copies of real objects from in and around the house – just the job when your offspring want to emulate mummy and daddy!