Jumping Toaster Productions

It’s bath time! Yay! Who can take a bath without one of these friendly faces in the tub? Of course they make all sorts of squirting toys of various sea creatures, but none as classic and sought after as the rubber ducky. I’m not quite sure it this is the real rubber ducky, if it is don’t tell Ernie!

Bite, Bite, Bite!

Ah yes, wooden toys! Where baby teeth and cedar meet. The boy is teething, therefore anything and everything is going in his mouth! I had passed down some wooden toys I had when I was a lad, but they had to be removed quickly. It’s not that he can’t play with them, it’s just that he’s trying to eat them. Like my toys from the past we bought new wooden toys from Brio, but they’ll have to stay high up on the shelf until he’s ready. Brio is just one of those trusted brands I grew up with which is why I pay the higher dollar to own their toys.

Play It Again Schroeder!

The lil man sure does love to make music. He sits in his Bumbo chair shaking his rattle and playing with his bells all day long, or as long as dad can take it. My wife and I bought a little Fisher Price piano with bright colored keys which made a lovely pinging sound when he went at it! He loved playing on it so much I decided to upgrade his piano to a miniature baby grand. Janod produces a number of different pianos of kids, but this is the one for my boy!

The baby’s room sure does look pretty cool with the storage bins we bought from 3 Sprouts! Check out their products here!

Toys Go In Here!

I was shopping for storage containers for the baby toys and came across these super cool ‘Ikea-like’ storage bins. They’re from a company called 3 Sprouts and they’re bright, colorful animal and fantasy characters made out of felt. They fit in pretty much any Ikea bookcase/shelving unit and they certainly add that ‘pop’ of color to the baby’s room. I was able to find them in a number of independent baby and kid stores, but not at your major retailer as of yet!

Excert from ‘Chugga Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!’ post 2014-07-25

Now when I was a tot, I had a different kind of train. A Brio wooden train that had freight cars made out of stacking blocks. A fantastic train with metal hook connectors and bright colors simply made this train ‘pop’! I use to run around the house on my knees driving the train into pretty much anything that got in the way.

Chugga Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!

 
Recently I became a parent and with that new role came a whole new world of toy shopping! Granted I love toy shopping, but mainly for myself in mind. I couldn’t believe how far toys have come since I was a child and much changed. It was strange to judge a toy on safety and whether or not the baby would have ‘fun’ with it. It was no longer a matter of “Hey that looks cool!” But now it’s a matter of “Is he going to put that in his mouth and if so is it safe?”

For the next few posts I’m going to share past and present takes on similar toys and how they evolved over the years.

Starting off, what boy didn’t love playing with trains? This is a photo of my dad’s toy train from the 1930’s. Tin-plated, sharp corners and a very fast wind-up toy train indeed! My understanding is that he had to build the train before he could let her rip around the track. Unlike today where the train is pretty much ready to run out-of-box! Can you imagine his delight when he opened that train on his 1st birthday??? He loved that train dearly and I was fortunate enough to have it past down to me.

Now when I was a tot, I had a different kind of train. A Brio wooden train that had freight cars made out of stacking blocks (Shown below in the Blog). A fantastic train with metal hook connectors and bright colors simply made this train ‘pop’! I use to run around the house on my knees driving the train into pretty much anything that got in the way. Good thing it was heavy wood and strong to with stand my abuse! I know Brio still produces wooden trains, but they certainly are not the same caliber as the one I had.

Going forward thirty some years, I buy my boy his first train. A Duplo plastic ‘Number Train’, bland colors, stackable, but not very exciting at all. However, it’s safe (for his mouth) he gets to build it and basically it’s the only thing out there on the market for babies. I know there’s a huge market for Thomas the Train and other wooden train sets, but he’s not at that stage yet. Regardless this post is about comparing trains from different periods when parents were in the same position I find myself in. It’s interesting how the period we’re in is focused on safety, if it’s made from eco-friendly material, cooperate branding, mentally stimulating, everything but fun!

In the end the parents have the final say in what their child plays with, they’re the ones paying for it.

Bally Jerry Pranged His Kite Right In The How’s Your Father!

The other day I blogged about Metal Earth from Fascinations and mentioned you should really start off with an easier model kit before you blow your money and end up pitching the whole thing in the garbage because of the frustration you get while building the bloody thing. Well here’s the second model I built which should’ve been the first, the Fokker VII and again the kit looks amazing!

Enjoy

Round And Round She Goes!

I’ve always enjoyed building models, from snap together cars, Lego, anime Gundam robots and now Metal Earth from Fascinations! I first ran into Metal Earth kits in a little knick-knack store down in the states and immediately fell in love. These cool 3D laser cut model kits were super pricey, but hey when you build the model the finished product looks amazing. They say no tools necessary, but trust me you want to use some tweezers and perhaps needle-nose pliers to get the small bits out of the frame.

My first kit was the Ferris Wheel and holy cow I thought I was going to pitch the whole thing in the trash before I could finish building it. The little carriages the riders would sit in were almost bloody impossible to fold and connect to the wheel itself. But persistence paid off and as you can see the finished product DOES look amazing!

If you are able to find the Metal Earth kits, I encourage you to pick up some of the easier models before you dive into the more complex kits available.

Enjoy

More Than Meets The Eye!

Awhile back a good friend of mine gave me the Masterpiece ‘Thundercracker’ Transformer from Hasbro. I’m talking about it because the toy itself is a piece of art. I really wanted to avoid discussing things off the topic of art, but when you really look at this mold of plastic and screws it’s kinda hard not to talk about it.

The level of detail is what sets this particular toy apart from the other Transformer toy line(s). Instead of stickers which were on my Transformers back in the 80’s they actually painted the detailing right onto the robot. There are also a few ‘Easter Eggs’ to look out for, one being Soundwave painted on the tail and the other the original creator’s name. Besides the Transformer itself the packaging that is comes in show cases it quite nicely. There’s some cool graphics on the sides and back illustrating the figure in all its Decepticon glory.

If you were lucky enough to have found one, it’s a tough decision to take it out of the box and play with it!