iCandy Raspberry Final Production Model at the Harrogate Nursery Fair 2014

We love, love, love the iCandy Raspberry. The Raspberry looks like it will be a great pushchair. It is lightweight, is highly manoeuverable, has a huge basket with the extra storage pod. The seat parent and forward faces, and the Raspberry folds into a very nice neat freestanding fold which locks automatically. The Raspberry is suitable from birth and there is a lovely Baby Nest. There is plenty here on Best Buggy about the pre-production Raspberry already, so we are going to focus here on the new information we gleaned about the final production model, at Harrogate.

iCandy have had the Raspberry out on trials for 3 months in 4 countries – the UK, New Zealand, China and Spain to give a good variety of weather and user conditions. They asked for feedback from these testers, and iCandy have improved a number of features based on that information.

What the testers liked?

The testers liked the manoeuverability. The chassis is sold with precision bearing.

The light weight was noted, and it is this light weight combined with the manoeverability which makes the Raspberry super whizzy!! The agility is one of the first things you notice when pushing the Raspberry.

The Raspberry users loved the storage – the large basket and the enclosed storage pod.

The compact and freestanding fold.

The hood size; the adjustability of the handles and seat; and the seat size.

What has changed?

The seat has been made softer and more padded using thermo formed PU foam.

The users felt that the hood was not protective enough, so the lycra fabric has been thickened and has been made to be SPF50 standard.

The footrest was difficult for a child to access. Thus iCandy have moved the whole seat backwards to allow room for small feet to rest on the footrest.

The fold lock was felt to be not strong enough, so iCandy have redesigned it, and the materials used.

The fold buttons on each side have been enlarged to make the fold easier.

What we liked

We had not appreciated how huge the Raspberry seat is!! It is absolutely massive! We have had a quick look through at the heights of some of the biggest pushchair seats, and we believe, that to date, the Raspberry is joint equal for the tallest pushchair seat with the Baby Jogger City Versa and TFK Joggster Twist in height. It is easily taller than the M&P Armadillo, Joolz Day, Bugaboo Buffalo, Bugaboo Bee, the Stokke Xplory and the rest of the pushchairs we have on our website!

We posted some photos here a few days ago of the Baby Jogger City Mini GT with our 5 year old in (Have a look at these as a comparison). We were surprised how tall she looked in the Baby Jogger City Mini GT seat. At 113.5cms tall, her head was over the rim of the GT hood. So very nervously we sat her in the Raspberry seat, but she sat with her head under the rim!! She looked very comfy. The seat seemed plenty deep enough for her. The footrest is narrow, but both children were using it rather than dangling their feet.

Master BB is 3 years 7 months old (93cms – the size of a typical 2 and a half year old), and look how much room he has above his head! LOADS of room to grow. He can just about reach the footrest. Bear in mind that this purple – Wisteria – coloured pushchair also has a thick liner inside it. Thus, the children would probably have had more space in the seat if that had been removed.
We will admit that we were amazed…..absolutely amazed!

Please note that Miss BB was used purely to gauge the seat size. She asked to sit in. The children were not strapped in for the photos because the pushchairs were being used constantly for demos.

We liked that the seat ‘grows’ when it is reclined – thus the gap between the seat back and the seat pad gets ‘filled in’ with additional fabric. This gives a total flat lie flat bed space of 86cms to the very end of the seat.

We liked that the seat can be popped off one handed. There is a button underneath the seat on each side, and one can be depressed whilst the button on the other side button is depressed and the seat then simply pulls off.

The hood is huge – it can be pulled a long way down to give good coverage over the child. It is great that the hood fabric has been thickened and is SPF50.

The raincover has been completely redesigned, and new raincovers will be coming out for all the iCandy range. We were delighted to learn this, because iCandy raincovers have been notoriously difficult to fit. The new raincovers are made from super flexible soft plastic. iCandy have thought a lot about the Raspberry raincover, and they have ensured that it will fit well, even when the seat is reclined, as well as upright. They have included a flap to secure the raincover underneath the seat at the front, and there are ventilation holes on each side. It was actually a pleasure to put the raincover on the Raspberry!!! Of course, the raincover can be easily stored in the storage pod, so that you never leave home without it, and it is not filling up valuable basket space!

We loved the Baby Nest. We liked the addition of the toggle to pull the head piece snuggly around a baby. The outer nest removes as the baby gets bigger, to reveal the liner (in the Wisteria pushchair photos) which gives extra padding to the Raspberry seat. The foot pocket tucks underneath the seat to secure the liner. iCandy have also listened to feedback and have added a non slip backing to the nest to keep it in position. Personally we think that having a baby harnessed into a pushchair is a good thing. You can never be too careful with a small baby on wheels!

The Raspberry is absolutely superb, and it is a pushchair which we absolutely can not wait to see in use here at BBHQ.

The iCandy Raspberry retails at £460 in a choice of 2 chassis colours and 7 flavour pack colours. The Baby Nest is £70. The Raspberry is due in the UK in late spring 2014.