As most people know Little Tikes is a well known brand of Children’s toys. Their toys are renowned for being very robust and lasting years, as well as being on the pricey side. But hey as someone famous once said, "You get what you pay for".
So you may be asking yourself from what prospective ... Read review
Advantages: Robust, large range, longevity Disadvantages: expensive disapointed with some products
As most people know Little Tikes is a well known brand of Children’s toys. Their toys are renowned for being very robust and lasting years, as well as being on the pricey side. But hey as someone famous once said, "You get what you pay for".
So you may be asking yourself from what prospective am I writing this review and how much does she know about Little Tykes?
Well I got a son whose nearly 2 and he’s one ... ...
Now Little Tikes is probably most famous for its outdoor toys, they are quite distinctive and can usually be spotted a mile off because they are the major producer of plastic garden toys. Each Toy will have a white plastic rectangular logo on it with a red edging to it and the words “Little Tikes” written in blue letters. If you are looking for them in a Toy Shop the outdoor toys will be in large thick brown cardboard boxes, which ... more
As most people know Little Tikes is a well known brand of Children’s toys. Their toys are renowned for being very robust and lasting years, as well as being on the pricey side. But hey as someone famous once said, "You get what you pay for".
So you may be asking yourself from what prospective am I writing this review and how much does she know about Little Tykes?
Well I got a son whose nearly 2 and he’s one of them typical little boys who loves climbing things and is generally a bit rough with his outdoor toys! And in our household we have a small slide and swing set (£100), a 2nd hand log cabin (£75), rocking horse (£10), sand and water table (£50), picnic bench (£40), a police car coupe(£30), a trike (c.£25) and a range of indoor toys too. Yup they do them too. We mostly got a few musical things, including a drum (silly mummy).
Now Little Tikes is probably most famous for its outdoor toys, they are quite distinctive and can usually be spotted a mile off because they are the major producer of plastic garden toys. Each Toy will have a white plastic rectangular logo on it with a red edging to it and the words “Little Tikes” written in blue letters. If you are looking for them in a Toy Shop the outdoor toys will be in large thick brown cardboard boxes, which will have a large sticker covering most of one side with the usual cheesy picture of a kid playing with a toy that the box contains. Now in my experience the box will usually look partly damaged or have been opened, but where I shop that is the norm, and I have never had any problems with the goods I have received in that respect and the instructions are always in the plastic bag intact. The indoor toys are usually in white boxes with part of it cut away so you can actually touch the toy (yippee – non of that see through plastic stuff), the little tikes logo will be in the bottom part of the box in the centre. Packaging for the indoor toys is minimal and they seems to have only own a small share in the company who make sellotape and them really annoying wires covered in plastic. So that gets a big thumbs up from me!
So let me start with the OUTDOOR TOYS, they are all made with high quality, tough durable plastic. So they are absolutely brilliant to leave in the garden on a long-term arrangement. They are relatively easy to maintain, a simple wash with a cloth and soapy water whenever needed is sufficient. I personally wash the slide and picnic table every couple of weeks just cos they need to be relatively clean otherwise I spend long hours getting stains out of his clothes, bird poo can be a real pain you know!
So what about the range?? Oh well I spent hours recently looking through their catalogues, and there is so much in them you could spend a fortune. (Believe it or not you can even get a bed!! and they are in more than one style as well as the popular racing car bed, in America you can now purchase a Noah's Ark bed!!! ) One thing to keep in mind though is that some products are not available in this country but are in the catalogue. Its usually best to ask your Toy shop for more info on this. I unfortunately decided that my son “needed” quite a few items, but was disappointed to find out I couldn’t have them. So what is there to choose from? Well I can’t mention them all, but for outdoors the most common ones they do are the popular coupe car and a few variations on its design, climbing frames, cabins, slides, swing seats, sand pits (like the one shaped as a turtle. You must have seen one of them…) and even picnic tables. All these items are available in the UK.
Thing to take into account when buying these are:
You will probably need to put the item together if this is a house or climbing frame you will need more than one person to do this and it will take time. Sometimes as long as 2 - 3 hours (that was the police car...)
The instructions are good but sometimes a bit hard to follow, I guess that you could say they were comprehensive. If your going to put together something large with lots of bits I would really recommend you get all the kids out of the way. And also not a good idea to do it when your tired or stressed, cos you’ll end up pulling your hair out.
Large items are heavy, and if on grass need to be moved regularly to stop killing the grass. It will take more than 1 of you to move something as large as their log cabin. Myself and my mother are pretty strong for females, we struggle to lift this between us. Although i must admit this isn’t all because of the weight its because its very hard to get a grip on it. Little Tikes brain masters obviously didn't think about this at the time of the design. If you are a gardening freak beware they will ruin your lawn no matter how careful you are and how often you move it.
You’ll need a screwdriver to put most toys together, a Philips one would be ideal, this may also cause you to pull your hair out! The toys have pre drilled holes on both pieces that need attaching – however lining them up can be a problem and can take more than one go at it.. The good thing about these toys though are that they provide sturdy plastic nail covers so your screws heads can never hurt your little man/girl.
Mothercare also do a small range which is useful cos you can order it by phone, pay on your mothercare card and get it straight to your door. We brought the slide and swing set from there when they had a special offer on it, and saved £40 off the RRP and it was £30 cheaper than my local toy shop. (also to be noted if you live offshore where VAT is not payable. Mothercare stores charge VAT on goods (to cover extra transport costs they say!) if you order by phone though they deduct VAT so its worth doing, and if you like you can get it delivered to your local store or get it delivered to your home.)
The little tikes range last forever, they are really durable and robust, so if you are thinking about splashing out on something, it may be worth looking in your local papers classifieds list. We recently brought the log cabin 2nd hand for £75 and that’s 7 years old. However for a new one it would have cost about £250. So it was a big difference. To prove how well they seem to last is that the only difference in ours and a brand new one was that one side of the shutters were faded cos of the sun, and the previous owner had said all of her 4 kids had used it a great deal.
Now my only disappointing buy in the range has been a sand and water pit. We brought it brand new. The style of the toy is that your kids stand up to play with it, so its on legs and there are 2 separate compartments. The part that holds the water is designed to fold on top of the sand bit so that the sand is protected when its not being used. Now the water side has a plug in it so it can be drained, but because of the contours of the plastic it doesn’t drain as it’s at the top of the mountain so to speak, and plug then when I do eventually put enough water to cover the mountain it then leaks!! Also trying to fold the whole thing out flat is a bit of a nightmare too and often needs a bit of brute force. So maybe in some cases you can be a bit one sided and think that obviously little tikes is best but they do have their bad faults too!
Now the indoor toys are the just as good with a range of small toys for children, mainly toddlers and young kids. All of the toys are brightly coloured and playable. However they have forgotten to put on/off switches on some of them. We have a set of stacking pans, and they make cooking noises, but we can’t switch them off. Can’t wait till the batteries run out. And talking of batteries, the kids are safe from them as you need a screwdrivers to get into them. They seem to be robust to as I haven’t had a problem with any of them and they get stood on, kicked, thrown about something rotten. There are lots of what I would call babies toys suitable for 6 to 18 mnths and then we get into the instruments and stuff. The xylophone is brilliant! And not too noisy so a brilliant buy for a budding musician.
So all of this would I recommend buying anything? Definitely, the fact that their toys are so durable and tough and long lasting, makes most of the toys really worthwhile. Ok so they are expensive, but there is a good 2nd hand trade in them and are very easy to sell on. And they last forever, other makes cheaper versions probably never last as long. In fact I’ve never, never heard of someone telling me that they have thrown something of little tikes away cos it broke, BUT please do let me know! Oh and they must be good cos they keep the kids happy. The only thing I would say would be to keep your options open! Never buy it just cos its Little Tikes.
Advantages: Bright coloured toys that will last for years. Disadvantages: More expensive than other toys
...toddler group. The new Little Tikes kitchen had arrived and after 20 minutes fixing together and adding the pictures it was ready for use. It was not difficult to put together; I had come equipped with my screwdriver! Children were soon crowding round washing clothes, ironing and cooking meals. I regularly saw 5 children around it having fun.
I then looked around the room at the toys being played with and it struck me that the toys with the longest ... ...apart from having lost it's little Tikes label it is as good as new ready for the next decade’s use.
We have a Tunnel which has been crawled through, climbed on, sat on and generally abused by lots of children over the years which still looks as good as new and I am sure it will be in use for many more years.
There is the Vacuum cleaner bought when a boy who is now 10 was about 2 as he loved using the vacuum cleaner, the floor has been cleaned ...
mjbarkley 29.04.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Little Tikes
Advantages: Robust, Reliable, Lots of Fun, Long Lasting, Safe Disadvantages: Can be pricey, once hooked - you'll want to buy more!
...end of the landing…as the Little Tikes sports car speeds up as it zooms down the Little Tikes slide. As it goes a little tike of 15 months tries to climb the slide from the front, slips down and climbs onto the Little Tikes Rocking horse as he develops his skills as a stunt rider ready for the circus…..and all in less than 5 minutes.
OK so my little tike (Boy now 16 months), has a few Little Tikes toys – but they are so robust, reliable and lots ... ...his Little Tike toys was in the silage clamp (used as a play area), where we place a play mat with the slide at the edge, and his rocking horse at another. Yes theoretically he was too young for these toys, but the age range is only a guide. At 10 months there is nothing better than when mum goes to another part of the smallholding to find out you can pull yourself up using the slide steps, and so when mum comes back you can be standing there grinning ...
oddbit 02.11.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Little Tikes
Advantages: Durable, robust, outstanding quality and after service Disadvantages: Large and expensive
Little Tikes How many times have you heard the saying” That’ll last a lifetime” as your small child is given a wrapped present containing a toy, that you know very well will broken by the end of the month. No so any more. On the scale of durability, a balloon is obviously the least durable, but you have to look no further than your local toyshop to find something made by Little Tikes in order to reach the other end of the scale. ... ...be working in practice. Little Tikes Toys that last a lifetime. The use of these 5 words was brought home to me very recently when one of our children was bought a Little Tikes truck at Christmas last year. At the beginning of this week my child dropped the front part of the truck on the carpet at our home, causing a small piece of the bumper the shear off, and cracking the underneath. Fearing that all was lost I initially contacted Toys’r’us, ...
headgardener 08.02.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Little Tikes
Advantages: robust, inexpensive, lots of fun Disadvantages: none
...too!
I recently purchased Little Tikes Road & Railset for my 18 month old son. It cost £24.99 and is available from most good shops that stock toys. You are also able to buy extras and add to it, although I don;t think there will be much need to.
It is rather large and takes up a fair bit of floor space but the kids love it and it keeps them occupied for ages.
It is made from sturdy plastic and is very robust. It is in the form of a mountain with ... ...a car, helicopter and 3 little tikes people who are all different in age, gender and colour (they even do litle tikes people in wheelchairs which is good for young kids to learn about all types of people)
It dosen't take long to make up although you do need a screwdriver. Whatever you do, don't forget to add in the funny brown lookingthing which is actually the chute (like I did) or you have to take it all apart and start again.
Happy tiking!! ...
kimborob 14.02.2001 (13.02.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Little Tikes
Advantages: durable Disadvantages: cars only hold one passenger
...years later, I bought another Little Tikes vehicle for our second born. Truth be told, I have bought many Little tikes products, and I have never been disappointed. They are durable, sturdy, and designed to please children. The plastic wipes clean easily, is fade resistant, and stands up against UV damage in general. No rust has yet to appear on any of the metal components such as the wheel bits on the cars. The prices I have seen on second hand ... ...My sons are too old for their toys now, and the new baby way too young, but those Little Tikes toys have not gone. Oh, no! They are safely stored for the next young driver ready to Fred Flintstone their way into a tree! These toys are modern classics. ...
Shroud 07.11.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Little Tikes
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Advantages: kids love them Disadvantages: parents hate them
For every parent that takes their children shopping at Tesco’s.... my deepest sympathy.
l am living in hope that the store that l use in Cambridge is being used as a guinea pig. But it could be widespread already.
Some blithering idiot who sits at Tesco offices has pulled out all stops to produce the biggest way to put people off shopping.
For behold a nightmare that can attack any parent at any time...... Why not turn a trolley into a car! These amazing things are about as much use to humanity as a chocolate teapot.
It’s basically a littletikes coupe car that’s been slapped onto what can only been described as something larger than a shopping basket stretched into a funny shape.
Here’s an example of two mothers accompanied by two children of similar ages (3 years olds). The car trolley was spotted as ...
nitebabe 03.04.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Tesco (Shop)
Advantages: Very cheap and good fun Disadvantages: None
excellent condition.
Obviously some sales are better than others depending upon what is being sold but very rarely have we come away with nothing nor have we bought something and thought that we shouldn’t.
Some of our most recent bargains include a LittleTikes Slide for £1.25, a big box of Lego for £1, a scooter for £1, a childs wheelbarrow for £1.25 to name but a few. At this rate we are going to have to get a larger house and garden just to accommodate all our daughters new things!
Car boot sales are a fantastic way to shop while saving enormous amounts of money. There is no entry fee normally and they make a good way to spend a few hours, even our 2 year old daughter loves going to them, usually she comes away with something.
A word of warning go early and take cash with you. ...
Advantages: Lots of parking spaces Disadvantages: lack of trollies
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The clothing section is mainly for children from toddlers to older children of 11 or 12 and provide a small school range.
The store has ladies and gentleman's toilets as well as disabled toilets which are easily accessible. They also provide (in the bigger stores) LittleTike's pushalong's for toddlers which have a basket on the roof to put your shopping.
The chemist can take prescriptions and there is always a pharmacist on hand to help you if you have any questions.
The baby range is very good. They stock the Pampers range of nappies, their own brand and also their "Value" brand. They also stock all the Heinz baby food and baby milk, SMA etc.
Fruit and veg is always fresh that morning and you can nearly always get what you went in for.
Customer Services are very helpful (well in our store they are). If you have a problem ...
allyb2003 14.11.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Tesco (Shop)
