List Price: $84.99
Sale Price: $82.99
Today's Bonus: 2% Off
My almost 3-year old son had been asking for a crane truck for Christmas, but the only versions we saw in stores made noise and looked cheaply constructed. We received a Nova Naturals catalog in the mail and he fell in love with a $180 crane truck within its pages. We don't spend that sort of money on...well...anything elective. But our little guy had one thing on his Christmas list and it was... a crane truck.
I was on Amazon three days before Christmas and saw this truck. It was over 70% off of its list price at $27 which made it $3 more expensive than a junky plastic trailer truck monstrosity I had found at a big box store. With Amazon Prime it was able to arrive here on Dec. 24. I was, however, a little concerned as to whether it would be a quality product with such a deep discount.
We were AMAZED by the weight, construction and quality of this truck! It is a solidly built, heavy product, though it is not so heavy that a little one cannot tote it around. The truck comes in two pieces and snaps together with a great deal of pressure (i.e. a strong parent will have to put it together). The two pieces allow the truck to, say, fall down the stairs and the crane part of the truck does not break off permanently; it simply unsnaps. (This construction also requires that Daddy has to fix it when it comes apart.)
The wheels are attached with bolts and are made of wood with unremoveable wide rubber tires. The crane itself is just plain cool with a mechanism that elevates both the crane and the boon. It makes a pleasant little clicking sound. I find that it may be a tad complicated for our little guy, though with more play, I have no doubt he'll master it soon. Right now, Daddy sets the boon and our little one drags things around with the hook, which is sturdily attached to a weighty cord.
The dyes of the paint are very pleasing -orange, but not garish orange. There is plenty of room for little characters to sit behind the wheel which turns easily. Four stablizers flip down for those heavy duty crane truck jobs, then flip up nicely wiht a pleasing click.
In short, this is one of the most wonderful toys we have ever purchased! We are eager to find more Plan toys and hope that Amazon will again offer deep discounts at other times of the year. I only wish I would have thought ahead during that pre-Christmas frenzy to my little guy's February birthday and ordered another excellent Plan product!
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This is a beautifully made toy at first glance. Solid, nice wheels, looks like something you'd keep for generations. It's a little disappointing to play with, however. I have a 1, 3, and 5 year old and none of them interact much with this toy because it's hard to use. My complaints focus around 2 specific areas.1) the crane arm rests on a little wooden "flap" for lack of a better word that only holds it up part way -my kids like the more dramatic and fun angle that the crane arm can extend to, but there's no built-in way to hold it there. So it's only raises a couple inches when in use. Not so exciting.
2) The string doesn't stay put on the spool (tackle?) that holds the hook. When my 3 year old tries to work the crane, he has his hands full trying to align the string, hook an object, crank the string, then inevitably have to realign it on the spool, by which point whatever he's trying to raise has fallen off the hook...you get the idea.
Finally, note that the turning ratio is 1-to-1 when you're winding the string. If you look at the gray knobs on the photo, these are what the child turns to wind the crane string. It takes about two dozen turns to wind it fully. That's quite a few turns for young users.
If your child has the coordination to deal with some fussiness, then this toy might be satisfying. My husband and I are in our mid-30s and really like it! My kids don't like the fact that it's not something they can do easily by themselves.
UPDATE: if you're looking for a great crane, take a look at the Playmobile Maxx7. We have this one now and we all love playing with it! Very sturdy, dramatic angle, and great stabilizing arms. Fun to hook all kinds of things on this and put it to work.
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Before ordering this, we had the Plan Toys Excavator and blocks, and were already HUGE fans of this company. They create toys that are environmentally sustainable, truly non-toxic & SAFE for kids, AND they leave room for kids to use their imaginations. In place of cheap plastic, recorded sounds, and flashing lights (all of which take away from imaginative play), you get a quality wooden toy that gives the child the opportunity to create and imagine. This crane is our favorite of all because it has several mechanisms for my son to work on using a pulley system, an extending crane, a swiveling base, and braces on the truck to flip down when lifting heavy objects (We do lots of serious railroad construction and the hook really does allow my son to lift his bridges and carry them to his construction sites!) I can't recommend this enough it is worth a few extra bucks because of the quality and educational value.Honest reviews on PlanToys Crane
This is an amazing little toy... I searched for wooden toys because they reminded me of my grandfather. Thought my kiddo would like something like that... I realize this seems to be expensive but I swear it is worth every sent. My little one loves this A LOT! Cant get enough of this one. Really well built. I was shocked when it arrived.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for PlanToys Crane
We purchased this for my son for Christmas. He's enjoyed playing with it so far and it was a nice replacement for the junky plastic crane he'd been given previously. It rolls smooth but the action for moving the hook can be a little awkward. Some sort of handle crank would have worked better there, I think. The action to extend the crane arm is also very stiff. The crane comes with four wooden legs that mimic the stabilizing legs of a real crane. One of them has broken off. Looking at where it was connected, it seems like the connector was some sort of plastic dowel. That's really disappointing and I don't see any way to fix. It doesn't really affect the actual playing with capability for the toy since the feet seem to be solely decorative, but actual metal hardware would have worked much better there. My son enjoys using the crane, but it's not one of his favorite toys. Sadly, he liked the plastic crane better.
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