And My Terror of the self assembly ride on toy
Self assembly really isn’t my strong point although I am getting better.
Even though the instructions show what you need and how to do it for some reason I still end up doing it wrong. My worst self assembly to date has to be the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe and that four hour nightmare still haunts me.
When the Great Gizmos Tractor and Trailer arrived in a somewhat smaller box I felt a sigh of relief that this box was nice and small however part of me was still wondering how much time this ride on would take to assemble. Having become more accomplished since setting up ToyBoxLive I was determined not to be defeated and quickly got on with emptying the contents of the box like an excited child.
The small box caused a little concern, would the Great Gizmos Tractor and Trailer be substantial enough to take the weight and vigour of a child? I laid the parts out on the kitchen work top and have to admit I didn’t think it looked up to much.
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I needn’t have worried this was clearly one of those toys where “the best things come in small packages” apply everything about it exudes confidence and that was clear once it was fully assembled and put to the test by a ferocious two year old.
The dreaded assembly
I set to work following the instructions and getting everything made up.
The first lot of instructions involved constructing the tractor which was a pretty straight forward task. I used the following tools, Philips screw driver and a hammer, you might also want to find a short Philips screw driver as fastening some of the screws requires you to have tiny hands and this was difficult.
There was a little fiddly screw that you had to put into the steering wheel shown above in the picture that was quite easy to miss. Make sure you put the base pole in (which the front wheels attach to) before putting the screw into the steering wheel hole. I did this wrong to begin with and then had to do again. The instructions really aren’t clear.
This picture demonstrates how difficult it was to screw in the screws I had to get a smaller Philips screw driver to do a bit and then use a normal one to finish it off. There are four screws in total which fasten the seat to the base.
The next bit was a lot trickier so I got my hubby to help out as he hammered on the hub caps which fixed the wheels in place. I personally found these really difficult to hammer on.
Assembly of the Tractor took just 30 minutes which I think is quite reasonable for a ride on toy as sometimes you can spend hours on these things.
If you decided you want to hire the Great Gizmos Tractor and Trailer from ToyBoxLive as part of your toy hire package it will come fully assembled so you don’t have to waste any precious playtime and can get straight on with enjoying it.
Once the tractor was built my little one couldn’t wait to get on it and with some guests arriving with their two children, I thought I’d leave the trailer part till later to avoid losing any of the parts. The little ones boy (3) and girl (2) were so obsessed with playing with it, a good 2 hours passed as we all managed to catch up on some adult conversation.
Despite it being what you might consider a boys toy it was a good all rounder even just as the tractor without the trailer.
There’s the obvious role playing benefits but also children learn hand eye co-ordination and balance with ride-ons.
The instructions clearly say that shoes should be worn however my daughter currently has a thing about taking her shoes and socks off and has subsequently ran over her feet so make sure shoes are worn, they are supervised by an adult and is only used as single passenger.
A few days later after the tractor had been on numerous journeys with us (“is tractor coming to Grandmas” had become a non stop question), I finally convinced the hubby that he should tackle the trailer which he did with in just 15 minutes.
So here’s the summary…difficult to assemble so make sure you have some help handy, once assembled it’s light weight, slim and sleek in design and perfect to take with you when you are out and about visiting friends and family. Suitable for children aged 1 – 3 years and is available to buy from BrightSparkToys for £45.98. Or you can hire it from ToyBoxLive as part of your toy rental package.
