Anyone have the plan city garage elevator NOT break over time?

[RunnerDuck]

OK first - this seems like a toddler question but looking the toddler 411 doesn't seem to get a lot of love, people with kids older than babies are posting stuff here mostly - am I right???

Second - I am going to go to my grave obsessed with the Plan city parking garage. I got one for my girls for Christmas and the elevator broke in one day - the knob stopped ratcheting. Plan sent me a new part but it wasn't put togethter right - I couldn't put it on. I tried to fix the one I had but it broke again (basically I got that black knob off and saw the clicker underneath had broken off - I replaced it with a piece of starbucks card - worked for a while and then it broke, too)

I only had a day left to return to Barnes and Noble so I did and have been regretting it ever since. SO I ordered it cheap from constructive playthings and it should come tomorrow and I feel like it is my mission in life to fix this thing (I returned the garage with the backwards piece, planning to work on the other piece yet...)

Any way so many reviews mention the ratcheting part breaking - I am wondering if anyone has NOT had it break??? This thing is SO cute and my kids loved it so much but the elevator was the best part!!!! TOo hard to work for little hands when it doesn't ratchet.

(Also if anyone has ordered from constructive playthings - is it the old model, like they have pictured??? I want the old model - I am afraid I will get the new one, just becasue I am hoping for the old one!!!)

editing to add when I say BREAK I mean break in a way that can't be easily fixed and can't be blamed on user error - ie the clicker stops clicking :) Fix it yourself stuff I don't mind - it's that clicker that bugs me.

[fivi2]

Our plan toys garage elevator broke early on. I called plan toys and they sent me a whole new garage! (I just asked if there was a quick fix). We actually haven't gotten the new garage out yet (it has been a while, we just haven't opened it) so I don't know if it will break. Sorry!

[RunnerDuck]

I have heard of people getting the whole new garage which is so laughable - they claim to be a green company yet they throw product around like this. They just sent me a new roof/elevator. Which one do you have, the one with the bigger elevator hanging off the side or the tower, or the smaller elevator more in the center?

What they need to do is make the ratchet component easy to get at and replacable. That is how I am trying to fix it. It's a piece of plastic smaller than my pinky nail - it is just SO lame to have that break and the whole thing be useless.

I am wondering though if I dare to let my kids play with the new one when it comes or if I should wait to come up with a better fix. (I have an idea in mind but we ordered a dremmel, I will need the dremmel to pull it off...)

[sewarsh]

we gave the garage to our DS on his 2nd bday which was in august. its played with probably every other day by my 2.5 YO & 4.5 YO. nothing has broken on it yet, fingers crossed. i didn't realize the elevator was an issue.

just being the devil's advocate here, the age on this is 3+ maybe becuase it can be broken easily and shouldn't be played with by little ones younger than 3. i don't know though. it could also be a design flaw on Plan's behalf.

now i'm afraid i'm jinxing myself and its going to break!

[RunnerDuck]

It's not an accessible part that broke so it's not something the kids can do. Dunno if you have the new model or the old model but we had the old model where the elevator hangs off the side.

http://www.cptoy.com/cgi-bin/pf.sh/2.0/product.htm?dept_id=Sale%20Cars%20Trucks%20and%20T rains&pf_id=KRP-83L

Like that

Under the big black knob is a hard plastic gear that clicks against a white plastic peg that pokes out of a wooden dowel. The white plastic peg broke off. You're not supposed to be able to get in there, the knob is glued on, but since Plan was sending a new part (they send the WHOLE roof and the elevator - they really don't want you getting in there!) - I decided to take the old roof apart. Got the black knob off (whacked the underside with a rubber mallet to break the glue) and tried to replace the white clicker with something else.

Starbucks card snippet broke in a day.

Giant Eagle cookie club card breaks under repeated stress as well (I just flexed a snippet back and forth in my hands for a while to test it, didn't actually install it)

Milk jug plastic is strong, but too light to support the elevator.

I thought I would put the new part in while I figured out the old one, but the elevator roof was on backwards and I jumped the gun and just returned the whole thing to Barnes and Noble, with the backwards elevator. But have been regretting it ever since, wishing I had tried harder.

I think I can fix it - but I was down to one day to return... so.

I think 2 layers of plastic from a Ziplock container might work. I am trying to find a way to be able to slip the clicker in and screw it in place, so it can easily be replaced in the future if need be. I still have the one broken roof, that's what I plan to work on. I am also wondering if the clickers from the radio flyer walker wagon might work... Of course we threw ours out but I can order those from RF...

I don't have an engineering degree or anything, I just tend to obsess over weird things, and being pregnant and hormonal means I am extra insane. My husband says I shouldn't be allowed to make decisions when I am pregnant.

So um... not something my kids did. If you look at it you'll see it can't really be broken from the outside or by misuse. I just don't know if it was a fluke or not. There are a lot of reports of the elevator stopping clicking - I just wonder how many people's didn't break.


The only person I know in real life who has this, hers also stopped clicking - I thought maybe her kids just abused it and mine would be gentler. But it's not a matter of being gentle, it's a matter of the part not being strong enough.

I do wonder if the new version is made differently.

If anyone has the new version and can put up pics of the underside of the roof of the elevator that would be AWESOME.

[ThreeofUs]

Ours never broke. I love it, the kids love it, DH loves it.

[RunnerDuck]

Can people please chime in which model they have??? :)

Old where elevator hangs off to side, or new with smaller elevator between two posts?

This is encouraging... as the new one is supposed to come today...

I just don't know if it is old or new. The old one is pictured and I am hoping for the old one... but if I get the new one at a great price we do have serveral plan cars and at least I know I can get parts for the new one easier...

[alirebco]

We have the newer one and our elevator is still working. DS got it for his 2nd birthday.

[ThreeofUs]

Can people please chime in which model they have??? :)

Old where elevator hangs off to side, or new with smaller elevator between two posts?


Sorry! Elevator between two posts. Gave it to my then 1 and 5 yo last Christmas. They've been beating it up ever since.

[RunnerDuck]

Hmmmmm interesting. Maybe the new one is made better...

I wonder if the lighter weight of the elevator, or central positioning, has anything to do with it, or if the mechanism is the same. I have downloaded the manuals for both but can't really tell what the underside of the new one looks like from them. Maybe I can post pics of mine and you can tell me if it looks similar... not sure if I can post pics...

I tried emailing plan usa about it but never got an answer back. Maybe I should try the global division... I'd really love to know if the inner workings are the same, and why the design was changed...

My husband insists weight has nothing to do with it since the piece isn't exactly load bearing, but I wonder.

I'd love to find someone with an OLD one that still works!

Hazlenut Kids claims to have had one in their store under use for 5 years and it still works. So I dunno.

I wish someone local sold them so I could see it.

[billysmommy]

We've had ours (old style) for 4.5 years now and have never had a problem with it. We got it for DS1 for Christmas when he was 3. It was been played with very heavily by him and now DS2 plays with it pretty much every day for the past 2 years. We have pretty much all of the Plan City pieces and haven't had any trouble with any of them.

[RunnerDuck]

OK good to hear someone has an old one and it hasn't broken. :)

If you have a new one - here are pics of how the old one works - the black knob is removed from the top. That wooden dowel is where the white clicker was. As you turn the knob the ratched keeps the spool from slipping - the spool underneath winds up the rope. Is this more or less how the new one works???

I hope these are a decent size.

[Multimama]

We have the new one (smaller elevator). It stopped making the racheting noise recently, so DH thinks it's going to break soon, but it still works fine right now. We've had it for less than 6 months.

[RunnerDuck]

Is it mean that in the same vein I am glad to hear of the new one breaking? LOL (just because it means buying one isn't better than buying the other...)

I need to work on the solution...

Did you look at my pics? Do you think it works about the same?

Would you mind giving me the dimensions of the inside of the elevator??? I called Plan and they didn't know, all they could say was it was smaller and meant for plan cars.

[fivi2]

Mine was old style. Perhaps they've fixed it because I remember a lot of threads back in the day about them breaking. I haven't tried taking it apart, etc. so I don't know how to answer all your other questions!

[Multimama]

Did you look at my pics? Do you think it works about the same?

Would you mind giving me the dimensions of the inside of the elevator??? I called Plan and they didn't know, all they could say was it was smaller and meant for plan cars.

I haven't tried taking it apart, so I don't know if it works the same. My DH will be interested in your pics though. He wanted to take it apart, but said he couldn't figure out how to get the black piece off.

We are not with our garage right now, so I can't measure it. The elevator can fit matchbox cars, but you can't put the gate down so it's a bit challenging for my 2 year old to get them to balance in their correctly.

[RunnerDuck]

I turned the roof part over and whacked at the spool on the underside with a rubber mallet to break the glue. They use some crazy strong glue. I guess the problem with just screwing the black knob on is then the knob can spin on the screw if the wooden part underneath is just round - luckily ours broke off with a little of the bare rood still inside so it wasn't round any more, so we just screwed it back on. But our fill-in clicker broke - we need to come up with a better clicker.

This has become an OBSESSION...

I have also discovered (the new garage came) that our train table is not level. The cars won't stay in their parking spots. The garage works on the floor so I know it's the table. When I mentioned this to DH he got a nervous look in his eyes. I think there MIGHT be an easy fix for it, though...

I've heard stories of my mother maniacally ripping out carpet while my dad slept, when she was pregnant with me... maybe going crazy while pregnant is genetic.

[Tondi G]

We have the old model and our elevator fell off within the first few days of owning it. years later, my now 5.5 yr old still won't let us get rid of it. He recently told me he really wished that the elevator could be reconnected somehow.

[Melanie]

Hmmm...ours was the old. Never broke.

[RunnerDuck]

We have the old model and our elevator fell off within the first few days of owning it. years later, my now 5.5 yr old still won't let us get rid of it. He recently told me he really wished that the elevator could be reconnected somehow.

Can't it just be glued back? Or did the wood actually break? I have read a few reports of the elevator breaking off but that seems like it should be a straightforward fix. It's the clicker that's driving me nuts...

So far so good though. Maybe we did just get a dud first time.

[Naranjadia]

Our kids busted ours early on, but it was 2 years ago and they were too small to understand the mechanism. They wanted to put their weight on the elevator to make it go down. We have the older one and the cord itself broke.

We fixed it recently. We would have done it earlier, but it didn't seem to matter to the kids. That toy has received more play than any other toy we own. How many times have I looked at DD & DS kneeling next to it and thought "bless this toy!"

[RunnerDuck]

Broken string I can handle. If I can see how it broke and know it's in our control (not that you can control kids but ...) - it doesn't bother me as much as that clicker.

I snagged the delux roadway set on amazon last night - my son really wants it - for cheap - now the store that carries it says they are out of stock, wonder if it will really show. All the plan stuff looks so darn cute but so pricey. But it seems like something all the kids would love to play without together which is the kind of toys I need...

[RunnerDuck]

... aaaaaaaand it's broken already. :32:

[Multimama]

I snagged the delux roadway set on amazon last night - my son really wants it - for cheap

Just out of curiosity, how much did you pay? I have been waiting for that to go on sale forever! :) FWIW, my son loves the garage and doesn't seem to really care about the elevator that much.

[RunnerDuck]

$59 w/ free shipping... My husband is probably going to have a coronary. I'm not convinced it is going to happen, though - it is supposed to ship from kindertrains and they claim to be out of stock and have been for a while but somehow it appeared on amazon and it says my order is being prepared...

I'm really irate now because there is an OLD plan garage on Ebay for 100 w/ a bunch of road/bridge - with the wooden shaft elevator that can't break...

I would totally buy it if I had not bought what I already have. But it would mean returning two heavy items and I am already fit for the loony bin here.

I am wondering if I could get someone in DH's family to convert ours to a turn screw. He has family that builds and restores antique cars so that have lots of tools and skills ... Seriously this has become an obsession!

My son is standing beside me demanding to know why I never use smilies so I will stick this in just for him LOL :waving4:

[climbingx]

Hi - I just got one of these (old style, elevator to the side) 2nd hand. The crank seems to be working, but that's probably because the elevator itself is not! Can anyone with this style *please* send me a picture of yours, so I can try to fix mine? The elevator box tilts to the side so it doesn't slide up and down smoothly. As a result my son keeps trying to force it down, and the wheel axle is now pretty bent. :(

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61134337@N08/5563004787/