Competitions in children’s comics & magazines
If you have children, entering the competitions in kids comics and magazines is a great way to pick up prizes and Christmas presents. If you have to send off artwork, letters, postcards or an entry form it reduces entry numbers dramatically and means a good chance of a win.
In this post (which is a work in progress!) I’m featuring a handy list of publications with their competition entry methods – so when you’re in the shop you can decide which ones might be worth buying.
Quite a few of the prizes featured in our Prize Unboxing videos come from children’s comics and magazines, often without warning! I buy a magazine for Ryland every couple of weeks and we regularly win prizes – the only problem is trying to squirrel the odd one away for Christmas before he spots the parcel…
If you buy magazines for your children, try to buy the ones with an entry form in. Because of the cost and effort required, these magazines will give you the best chance of a win – most non-compers won’t even bother to post off the entry form! Post off the form either in an envelope or stuck to the back of some colourful card – get the kids to do as much of their own writing as possible, and use stickers and fancy stamps. Make your entry stand out from the crowd!
Some magazines ask for parental permission – add a line to the end of your email ‘Permission to enter from mother Di Coke’ for example, or a signature on a postal entry. Lots of magazines ask for reader contributions – sending an email, letter or photo can result in a feature on the letters page and a small prize!
Tip: If you buy kids magazines in Tesco, look out for stickers advertising exclusive prize draws. There are often small entry forms stapled in the centre of the magazine to win games consoles or Merlin passes!
Magazines with entry forms
You must post off the entry forms to enter comps from these magazines. Some also feature drawing or colouring competitions where you need to post off the magazine page.
- Busy Time
- Cuddles – also do giveaways on Twitter & Facebook
- Cute – also do giveaways on Facebook
- Disney Princess
- Disney and Me
- Doc McStuffins
- First News (mainly email, occasionally postcard & entry form)
- Get Busy
- Kick – also do giveaways on Twitter
- Kick Extra
- Kraze – also do giveaways on Twitter
- National Geographic Kids – extra comps also on their website
- Num Noms
- Pink – also do giveaways on Facebook
- Scooby Doo
- Shopkins
- Sofia the First
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Toxic – multiple entry forms in the mag, you can send them in a single envelope – also do giveaways on Twitter
These magazines have an entry form but you can also enter by email
- Adventure Time
- Barbie
- Epic
- Fantastic!
- Footy!
- Gunge
- Milkshake
- My Little Pony
Magazines with no entry forms
Because no purchase is necessary, the competitions from these magazines may be found on competition forums or in Compers News magazine, so there’s a much smaller chance of winning than the ‘entry form only’ mags.  If entry is postal, a postcard handmade by your child may get you an advantage!
Tip: If the magazine isn’t in plastic wrap, flick through and snap a photo of the competition page discreetly!Â
- Action GTX (email)
- Allstars Christian Kids Magazine
- Angel Princess (email)
- Animals and You (postcard or email) – also do giveaways on Twitter
- Beano (phone or text)
- Cartoon Network (email)
- Disney Junior (email)
- Fairy Princess (email)
- Favourites (postcard or email)
- Fireman Sam (postcard)
- Fun to Learn First Friends (postcard or email)
- Fun to Learn Friends (postcard or email)
- Girl (email)
- Girl Talk (text or email)
- Girl Talk Art (text or email)
- Go Girl (postcard or email)
- Horrible Histories (text or email)
- Katie (email)
- Lego Club (free quarterly mag, join up here)
- Lego Friends (text or email)
- Lego Nexo Knights (text or email)
- Lego Ninjago (text or email)
- Lego Star Wars (postcard)
- Match (web entry)
- Match of the Day (web entry) – also do giveaways at @MOTDmag on Twitter & @MOTDmag on Instagram
- Mega! (text or email)
- My Beautiful Princess (email)
- Peppa Pig (postcard or email)
- Princess (email)
- Skylanders Universe (text or email)
- Sparkle World (postcard or email) – also do giveaways on Facebook
- Splat Mag (email) – free digital mag, download via mobile app!
- Star Girl (email)
- Star Wars Adventures (postcard or email)
- Star Wars Rebels (postcard)
- Thomas & Friends (postcard)
- Top of the Pops (email or text)
Free family magazines with competitions
Free family magazines can be found in schools, nurseries, libraries and shopping centres. Many have local editions, so the entry numbers for competitions will be low.
- Primary Times – local magazines plus national/local comps on the website
- Raring2Go – local magazines plus national/local comps on the website
- ABCÂ – local magazines
There are lots more kids magazines not featured on this list – and new names are published all the time. You can have a browse of the Egmont, Kennedy, and DC Thomson websites to get an idea of the titles they publish – official BBC magazines rarely feature giveaways.
If you have the details of a magazine/comic NOT on these lists, comment with the entry methods – and I’ll add the details. Also, do comment to let me know if you’ve won a prize with kids magazines!
Thanks – and good luck!
(information correct March 2016)
Magizines r fun
Hi my Name Is Erin Stephen.
And my Favourite Mag Is Disney Girl ok.
Really struggling to figure out the Star Wars Lego entry. Nowhere does it say what info they want. I am more used the the email entry where they specify what they want. I can guess they want a name and some contact details, but which details. I would rather not give them too much info, but don’t want to invalidate the entry.
Really appreciate this list! Di do you mind if I ask how you send entry forms all together for Toxic? Each competition has a title? Would you write something like “All competition forms” before the address or just send to the address with no title? Tia
I just write TOXIC on the envelope. I wasn’t sure if we could send together but a few of us contacted Toxic and they tweeted back to say it was fine. Quite a money saver!
This is a great list. I’d love to see a similar article on magazines for ‘grownups’! I often try to look through and cherrypick the ones that are purchase necessary/entry form onlys, but I don’t seem to have much luck.
Sadly there are very few entry form ONLY comps in mags now – there are forms in a few home magazines, but with email/text entry options I’m not sure it gives you any advantage to post off the form! Slimming World is an exception – that features two entry forms (with a tiebreaker question) per issue and the winners are usually a member of one of the comp clubs I’m in! They are usually nice weekend breaks or holidays too.
what a brilliant list! Annoyingly my son’s fave mag is beano which he subscribes to but i don’t enter text comps so i always feel it is a shame that i don’t get the ‘comping’ benefit from it but he loves reading it which i suppose is the main thing. My son had a Toxic win a few years back so that was great.
I’ve not subscribed to a kids magazine, but I do wonder if they get all the same ‘gifts’ (chewy sweets and plastic tat!) that you get if you buy in the shops? Ryland loves all that!!
The beano one doesn’t have the plastic toot when it comes by subscription but i think some mags do as the boys used to get moshi mag when that was available by subscription and that did come with all the gifts so i guess it varies by magazine. x