“This selection of vehicles from Farm Toys is just about everything a little boy who loves tractors could wish for.”

Buy online from Farm Toys Online

Price: Various – but lots of under £10

*****

Initial thoughts: An online toy retailer specialising in tractors, trucks and diggers? For a tractor-mad boy like Charlie this was surely too good to be true? Well, no. Farm Toys Online  does everything from ride-on tractors to country-style rocking horses, JCBs and money-boxes, mini-farms and books and DVDs.

They sent two of their smaller toys for me for Charlie to play with: the tractor and trailer gift set and a JCB dump-truck.

We liked: The attention to detail in the German-manufactured tractor set makes them almost collectors’ items. They’re scale-models rather than just toys, and really look the part.

With two tractors and three trailers the combinations covers almost everything on a would-be farmer’s to-do list. Hooking and unhooking trailers, changing tractors, the play options are enormous. The bright and chunky JCB truck has big wheels, an articulated cab and working dumper. Everything a little boy could wish for.

We weren’t so keen: On some of the tiny parts included in the tractor gift-set. Both toys, in fact, state clearly that they’re suitable only for children aged 3+ but I can see some of the tiny plastic tractor tyres being a potential hazard even then. These models look superb, but are they toys?

No such reservations about the dumper-truck, although there are some tiny plastic details like wing-mirrors and exhaust pipes that could easily be broken off.

Overall: These two toys are a great little taster from a company I’m sure I’ll be doing business with in future. Specialist retailers like Farm Toys Online make shopping so much easier; the range of toys is larger and the choices greater. At £6.99 for the dump-truck and £9.99 for the tractor set, prices are competitive as well. I’ll just have to make sure Charlie’s nowhere near the lap-top when I’m browsing.

[By Tim - Bringing Up Charlie]