Britains Big Farm toys review

When I mentioned to Madhouse Daddy Mike that we'd be receiving some farm toys to review with the kids, he didn't seem particularly impressed and my statement barely registered a flicker of interest as he continued surfing online.

But when they arrived, his little eyes lit up and he instantly set about taking them out of the boxes and showing them to 2-year-old Pierre !

When my mum and dad arrived, Madhouse Grandad also instantly honed in on the Land Rover toy, oohing and aahing at the realism and the detail and pointing out that it was much too good to be played with and wrecked by the kids and should be out out on show on a shelf instead ! Aah men and their toys !

Needless to say, 2-year-old Pierre was having none of that and immediately started pushing it along on the floor, taking off the canopy at the back and making the headlights flash on and off or pushing the buttons to get engine noises and beeps. He may not have known it was a perfectly scaled-down Land Rover but he did instantly have a lot of fun playing with it.

But Juliette decided to show all these men that it's not just boys (and their dads and grandads !) who can have fun playing with cars and got in on the action too ! She's not usually all that interested in toy cars but she really liked this one, maybe because it looks so realistic or quite possibly because of the lights and sound effects.

As Juliette and Pierre had taken possession of the Land Rover, Madhouse Daddy Mike moved on to the other little gem that we were sent to review - a very realistic, scaled down Bobcat excavator. I've never seen him so keen to get hands on with the testing before !

Juliette again had great fun playing with it, making the mechanism work, showing that they don't just appeal to little boys. I was again impressed with the realism and detail of the model.

The kids had great fun playing with both toys but they did ultimately end up on a shelf in Pierre's room, safely tucked away "for when he's older", according to Madhouse Daddy Mike - although every time the girls go into Pierre'sroom they take them down, put them on the floor and start playing with them again !

To be fair to the grown-up men in the house, it does say on the box that the models are not designed to be played with and they are very impressive for their realism (they're scaled down 1:32 or 1:16 size, depending on the model). Even so, they are very resilient and have survived a lot of fairly rough-and-tumble play with no problem at all.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : around £20, depending on the model

for more information : http://www.britainsfarmtoys.com/   

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