apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My boys (who are 4 and 16 months, respectively) love these wooden cars I found on Etsy. They're made out of poplar wood, and the stain and finish are child friendly and non-toxic.

Whoops, I meant to say my boys are 4 years old and 16 months, respectively.

plan toys are fantastic:
www.plantoys.com

i've been seeing them in a lot of stores recently and our whole foods even carries them. here is their vision:
"We create toys that inspire children's imagination as well as promote their physical and intellectual development. We're also proving that it is possible to maintain superior quality standards while steadfastly following a path of environmental and social responsibility."

We just bought our little guy this truck and he loves it:

http://www.oompa.com/baby-toys/item/BJ42110RY/Bajo-Wooden-Truck-with-Tipper,-Red-Yellow.html?oompaItem=Bajo_Wooden%20Truck%20with%20Tipper,%20Red/Yellow

He especially loves putting things in the dump truck part of it (like blocks or finger puppets).

Also, my brother would play with those Brio wooden trains when he was little. He played very rough with them for years and they're all in one piece today packed away for grandkids at my parent's house. Can't beat that on quality.

My son LOVES Automoblox. I bought one for him last Christmas because I loved the design and I am happy to say he plays with it regularly. Before he knew how to take it apart (and put back together), he just zoomed it around. I've since purchased a couple minis and he loves them just as much. Please keep in mind, this is not a toy for the under 2 year set though.

www.automoblox.com

automoblox are great, and can be found at target

oompa toys has a great selection of wooden trucks by haba & plan toys
http://www.oompa.com/baby-toys/category/wooden_whe/Wheels-&-Wings.html

allmodernbaby.com also offers wonderful wooden trucks in large and mini sizes. Dump trucks, emergency trucks, etc.
http://www.allmodernbaby.com/Toy-Vehicles-C62205.html

ikea has a great little wooden train and railroad set, too.

And toys r us carries a line of earth-friendly wooden vehicles by Sprig. http://www.sprigtoys.com/

We invested in a Fagus truck for our son's second b-day (he is almost three now). They are made in Germany in a workshop for the disabled. We found it our local toy store but they are also here: http://thewoodenwagon.com/woodentoys/fagus-trucks.html. The quality is **excellent** and I love how it really requires little ones to use their imaginations. It's the kind of toy you would want to keep and pass down to the next generation.

He also adores his Schleich 4x4. It's made of plastic but is well made. Because many of the pieces naturally pop off, it doesn't break when dropped. After a year of really rough play it still looks so cute. Our guy spends hours taking the spare tire, doors, and top on and off and now making the driver do things. There is also a matching horse cart.

http://www.amazon.com/Schleich-SUV%252f4x4-Vehicle-with-Driver/dp/B000MQYZ5S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248981882&sr=8-1.

We love Plan too. Also I will just say that buying used cars & trucks is environmentally friendly. :) If your son is like ours, you can never have too many and there are so many out there already!

Green Toys has a dump truck and a recycling/garbage truck.

Sprig Toys makes some Eco-Trucks, and my son loves all these.

With train sets and tables, maybe look at those wooden ones although I think Brio is closing down and going out of business.

We bought two buckets of Chubbies vehicles after reading this review on Zrecommends. My daughter loves them and so have every child who plays with them. They're inexpensive, durable, and sparsely detailed to promote imaginative play.

We have an amazing fire truck that our son loves:

http://www.pintoys.com/catalog/search/#03527-FIRE-ENGINE

I highly recommend Pintoys -- they have many other wooden toys for boys (and girls!)

As well, we are huge fans of Vilac toys -- we have their wooden sailboats, which we use at bath time (no soap bubbles though!). They also have a great range of well made toys:

http://www.blueberryforest.com/vilac-toys/vilac-wooden-sailboats.htm

Also, Habitat has a range of wooden transportation toys designed by Dylan Freeth. They are gorgeous, and loads of fun! The range includes a Tuk Tuk, Tito (and Indian truck), a London bus and black cab, a cargo ship and jeep, an ice cream truck, fire engine, ambulance...

http://www.habitat.co.uk/fcp/categorylist/browse/kids/toys/

I think there is a Habitat in the U.S. (there used to be...)

There are really wonderful options these days!

Vilac has many different types of sailboats, as well as cars and other vehicles.

I would like to recommend Brio's wooden toys. Link to the US website: http://brio.knex.com/

Anything by German maker PLAYMOBIL is a wonderful investment. Their realistic toys are brilliantly designed to come apart instead of breaking (so you can just snap doors and wheels back on.)
We got our toddler the big bus (he was obsessed with buses) and it was his favorite toy for at least a year. We also have the jet plane. They have taken all kinds of abuse lasted several years and look like new.
(Some sets come with small pieces such as luggage, etc, that you can just put away until your son is old enough for them.)

We just found local store that sell Viking toys. They are great and fun to play with:
http://www.vikingtoys.se/uk/index.html

Also my son loves his Playsam car:
http://www.playsam.com/

Ikea train set is a hit too.

In addition to what has already been mentioned, we also like the scoots and trains stuff from Maple Landmark. It's made in the US too! http://www.maplelandmark.com/

saw these great eco friendly transportation toys at potterybarn kids. i wanted to buy them for my self!

http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/ww80/index.cfm?pkey=cboys-toys|k

k.