Plan City toy vs. Fagus Trucks

[justKate]

Forgive my ignorance. First baby and I have no experience with this.

I know its early, but I'm thinking about getting DD a Plan City garage or train set for Christmas. Plan City Toys She'll be 22.5 months. I'm thinking Plan City is something she could grow with--add stuff to it, etc. She likes vehicles a lot right now (especially cranes, planes and trains). My concern is the size of the cars/people. Are they choking-hazard-small, or more like matchbox car size?

My other thought was a couple of Fagus trucks, but they are EXPENSIVE, don't have cool trains, and seem to require more imagination (which is good, but I'm not sure DD is there yet). Fagus trucks @ carlandme.com

What do you all think? I'm making it a poll just for fun.

[funnygrace]

Oh, Fagus! I was dreaming about Fagus for quite a while. I think I really want a few of those! But I had to skip them for DS because of the price. I think the Plan City stuff has all of the benefits you describe--not terribly expensive, can add on to it, can use it with other wooden train systems and building blocks. They are also better for smaller spaces. The trains and people are matchbox sized. DS is 24 months and plays fine with them--I'm not too concerned with choking though. The plan toys are labeled "3 and up" because they are strictly speaking of choking size. Have fun shopping!

[ellemenope]

I voted for fagus, but it has a lot to do with my personality. I think she would love the plan set. I think you just need to use your own judgment on whether or not it would be a choking hazard for your child. There have been a couple of times I got something for DD that I ended up putting up for piece of mind. She never put things in her mouth (except for crayons,) but she plays by herself unsupervised a lot.

DD has the fagus unimog and we all love it. They are so well made (DD can use it as a roller skate), and you can feel realy good buying them. They are made in germany and adults with special needs help make them.



DD puts her many sets of haba blocks in it, gives her Holztiger wooden animals rides around the family room. She does have a nice set of Playmobil 123 figures she uses as people (we never used the things that came with the truck as people. they were too small IMO). They are also really nice and on the cheaper side. She used to give her Tolo People rides, too, but I am afraid she thinks they are a little babyish right now. She will also just throw her pegs in from another toy.

She does have a small animal train and a couple of tracks and like I said the Playmobile 123 set, but other than that, I try to avoid sets and encourage puting everything together creatively.

I am already thinking about christmas, too. As far as toys, I think we are going to add a lot from the NIC creamobil line. I want to get a couple sets of these modular houses along with the terrace and these people, and this wooden minivan. That is kind of looking like a set right there, but I am really smitten.

[ZeezMom]

Ohhhh, Ellemenope, you feed my addiction. I have two little boys, and a bad wooden toy habit.

I've never heard of the Carl and Me website. :

[justKate]

Originally Posted by ZeezMom

Ohhhh, Ellemenope, you feed my addiction. I have two little boys, and a bad wooden toy habit.

I've never heard of the Carl and Me website. :

The carlandme website is something I found locally (to me, in Austin, TX). I'm not even sure if it's still open, but I really liked the owner's situation. I found these that I really like on etsy: mikebtoys and this plane from stumppondtoy

This is really addictive....

[AKislandgirl]

Kate, we have a couple of the smaller fagus cars that get a lot of use. Really well made and lots of fun. I think a bigger truck would be really cool too.

[shanniesue2]

the fagus trucks are cool... but personally, I can't bring myself to spend that much money on ONE truck. Last year, my brother got DS a really cool large wooden recycling truck and a small wooden front end loader from Pottery Barn for around $25 for both. Yes, it's pottery barn and not an independent seller. But he got 2 good quality toys for 1/3 the cost of a fagus truck. However, we have to watch our budget pretty closely... so cost does have to be a consideration for us. I would personally rather spend the money on the plan set because I think that for us, it would last longer as we can add to it over time.

[rightkindofme]

Honestly... I would hunt for something that is less of an investment. My daughter was pretty into vehicles/trucks/trains from the 18-24ish month period. She stopped touching them recently. She's only 28 months. So we bought several and now they are gathering dust. I think I am forming the opinion that I won't spend more than like $30ish on a toy for a kid that age because if you blink they will stop playing with it and not touch it ever again. (Ok, maybe she'll come back to it... but so far our train set is getting played with by the boys in our playgroup and that's it.)

[JudiAU]

We have the PT garage and train set. Most toddlers love the garage. DS didn't really get into it until about 2.5 but I don't think that was common. I really love the PT train sets too. They hold up to a lot of abuse; good design; safe manufacturing; not "character". The new run of trains have non-magnetic connectors so they are easier for little hands. I expanded with some open stock M&D (sigh, many pieces broke) so I replaced those with hard to find open stock PT (carried by Kangeroo Boo). We don't do train table type stuff so it is all gets built and rebuilt daily. Both are played with all the time.

The PT cars are more or less matchbox size. My DD (13m) plays with them and the people all the time. She wouldn't if she was a first child but...

We don't have Fagus trucks but I've seen them in person and they stand up to a ton of abuse. I would guess that some kids would prefer those trucks at that age rather than the finer motor skills orientated toys... But, unless you have several anxious grandparents who are gifting, I'd probably pick something less expensive off etsy instead or get the smaller scale little PT trucks..

Also, duplo does a train set as part of their block set. You can pick up the tracks on ebay. If you already have duplo consider getting some of those tracks first. They are much easier to put together than wooden tracks.

Other favorites at that age: little schliech farm animals and later dinosaurs, the Grimm & Spiel Four Elements, introductory puzzles