ISO Inexpensive Cars/Trucks for 9-12 Month Olds: UPDATE

[August Mom]

UPDATE: Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, we don't live around IKEA, so I couldn't check those cars out. I tried the BK kid's meal plan. That showed my inexperience with kid's meals. I never thought about getting a different toy. But, I bought the kid's meal and wound up with an LT miniature turtle sandbox instead of a car. Oh well. I wound up with the Tonka Jr. trucks recommended below. They are very nice and relatively inexpensive. I bought them at Meijer. They were $3.99 each or $10 for a set of 4.

Other possibilities (in case anyone else is interested) are the Parents Ready Set Go cars, a set of 4 for $15 at Target and the Playskool Rumble trucks (I think that was the name - you pull a string and the truck rumbles), a set of 2 for around $7 at Target.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1_5/qid=1092367551/ref=sr_1_5/602-4010633-6747042?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B000068P9S



DS is having a transportation themed birthday party. We have 2 cousins coming who are under 1 year old. I would like to give them each a small car or truck as a favor. I would like something safe for that age group and not too expensive. Any thoughts?

[NEVE and TRISTAN]

I bought Tristan a match car at about 12 months from walmart that was a "special" match car. It is only slightly larger than the mc that we are used to and are in SUV shapes. You push down on the back of it and a door opens to reveal a dog (big hit here) and then that action actually causes it to "drive".

He loves it more today than he did then, but he has always liked it, he just couldn't work it himself till recently.

I think it was $2 something (hi $2s)...and it is Match box brand!!!!


Neve and Tristan born Feb 25, 2003
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EDD with #2 March 18, 2005
heartbeat and "looking great" so far
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Traveling in Jan insearch of the rest of our family-adopting in Ukraine
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[muskiesusan]

I am thinking of a construction theme for DS1's birthday and will be picking up some of these: http://tinyurl.com/46hmn I know it says 18 months+, but I don't see any reason why a younger child couldn't play with it (we have a few already from this series).


Susan
Mom to Nick 10/01/01
& Alex 04/27/04

[darby24]

I just bought that truck for my nephew (age 2) but don't see a problem for the younger kids. The trucks are nice, same thick plastic as the bigger trucks.

I was able to get the dump truck in a set with the jr. force loader for $10 canadian at my toysrus. Now on toysrus.com it's much more expensive, $5.99us each! Though at the price I got, $5 each is still not cheap.

There is also the option of a dollar store, we have a truck from one of them but it's pretty flimsy and probably not appropriate for under 1.

And one other recommendation. I was just at Ikea and they now have soft cars made out of foam. I can't seem to find them on their web page, but they were some sort of foam with a flocked outside and rubber type wheels. The cars were kind of squishy when you squeezed them. I think they were under $2 canadian each. They also have a 3 pack of wooden cars for $3.95 canadian. Solid wood car with the same rubber wheels. These might be appropriate for under 1.

HTH

[August Mom]

That's cute. Where did you get them, TRU?

[August Mom]

One other thought. Would this be lame? My dad got DS a kid's meal at Burger King and the under 3 toy was a Little Tikes car. It's really nice and has a rattle element to it. Would it be really weird to buy 2 kid's meals and give the prizes as favors at his party?

[JElaineB]

I think that's a perfectly fine idea!

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

[darby24]

Not lame at all, sounds perfect

[MelissaTC]

Have you seen the Viking mini chubbies cars/trucks/helicopters? They are made for small hands and are rather chunky. DS has quite a few of them. I purchased them at Learning Express but have seen them at other independent toy stores. They come in different sizes. The very small ones were recalled last year but like I said, they come in all sizes.

http://store1.yimg.com/I/silly-goose_1802_17285935

[C99]

IKEA! They have the soft cars and trucks for $1.49 each, or you can get packs of wooden cars for 3 for $3.