A Brio wooden train set.

But the toy he likes best is a wooden train set made by Brio, a 123-year-old manufacturer based in Sweden.

"I like to see the train go round and round the tracks that I have made. You can't transform robots into anything else. But with the train it's different every time," says Lucas, who was born in Italy but now lives in Denmark.

The recent recall of millions of hazardous toys made in China has alarmed parents across the world.

 But it has also highlighted an ongoing shift by affluent European consumers towards more traditional playthings made with natural products.

And while Toy Industries of Europe, a Brussels-based lobby, says that there is little evidence to suggest that imports of cheap toys from Asia have been affected by the scare, manufacturers and retailers of old-fashioned train-sets and dolls' houses are rubbing their hands in anticipation ahead of Christmas.

"We are very optimistic about our Christmas sales," says Graziano Grazini, the managing director of Citta del Sole (Sun City), an expanding Italian franchise that specializes in traditional, environmentally-friendly toys.

The first Citta del Sole shop was opened by entrepreneur Carlo Basso in Milan in 1972. Today, there are about 50 such shops across Italy - 20 having opened since 2000 alone, doubling the franchise's overall turnover in the process.

Basso still personally selects the toys and games sold by Citta del Sole shops.

This Christmas' best-sellers will be time-honoured favourites: dolls' houses, rocking horses, the Brio train-set and "a colourful nest with lots of things for children to touch and play with", Grazini says.

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