ELC farm or Le Toy Van farm?

[luv2shop]

I'm after a toy farm for 4yo DS and have seen this Le Toy Van one which looks great but wonder if the ELC one is more practical (DS can move buildings around and I can tidy it away!). Would be interested to hear if you have either of these or if you could recommend another one? Thanks

I have the Le Toy Van one it's a pita as is humungous so has to live on top of a cupboard. Wish we'd got the ELC one as it has a pulley too.

Hi, Other than the size of Le Toy Van, would you recommend it? They also do a smaller one. Do you think this would be better? I've just read some of the reviews on ELC's website and quite a few people have mentioned that it falls apart. Thanks

Definately not the small one,wouldn't be played with past 3 imho.

The thing with the Le Toy Van one is it isn't fiddly enough iykwim, not enough to do with it other than put animals in barns. We added a few Playmobil bits to ours and they play with it far more, I also bought some felt squares to use as fields. They have the Playmobil
henhouse,farmer,haybales,combine harvester,animal foods,rabbit hutch etc. They now do farming jobs with the tractor and trailer,feed the animals and plough the fields.

My twin boys always loved the ELC tractor we had with it,they'd have adored that pulley. Don't know how old your dc is but Playmobil do a farm with a pulley too.

The thing with Le Toy Van is they are lovely toys but very simple kids like things to fiddle with and detail as they get older imho. We have the Le Toy Van pirate ships,they play with them far more now they've got some Playmobil pirates and treasure.

Hope this helps

Thanks very much for your help MllaMae. I think I'll pop down to ELC tomorrow to see how flimsy their farm realy is. DC already have quite a lot of Playmobil so I didn't really want to get anymore but it sounds like that may be an option as well. Thanks again.

I have to say my ds has broken every elc toy he's ever had really quickly. I don't think he's particularly destructive either as I can't bring to mind any other broken toys. The doors on their toys just seem to damage really easily. I haven't seen the other one though so can't comment on that.

I like the ELC one. It's really just plywood that slots together.
Packs away flat, which is great for me

Should have opened the link to the other one before posting as ds has that at my mums. He does like it though she does let him spread hay round her lounge to put in it. Needless to say it stays at her house!

Does anyone have the Le Toy Van farm playmat? Wondering if this would be better to get, instead of an actual farm?

We had a Le Toy Van pirate ship and it fell apart pretty much from the day we bought it. Looked lovely but was useless .

we were given the le toy van one with a dovecote....big but quite sturdy...dd never really took to it as a farm but moved her fairies and dolls house furniture and bob the builder vehicles in....helps if there's space around it so that vehicles can visit and boxes (sorry, extensions) can be added on.

The ELC one is made of wood if you are wanting it to be a bit sturdier I always recommend using a dab of wood glue to keep them together. To be honest the one in store has fared well considering how much its played with everyday.
The Farm is a popular toy, one of our top 30 and you can buy some nice little add-ons for it. Its more than likely I'll buy it for my own son when he has grown sick of his HappyLand one!
feedthegoat - unfortunately that seems to be one of the customers biggest bugbears, but the doors of the products have to come off easily due to health and safety, many other brands of toys might not be as bad but ELC "prides itselfs in exceeding, not just meeting, the UK toy safety standards" lol.

DS has the ELC one, been a while since he's played with it but its wood and quickly flat packs again (not pully version) - its well made and I'd recommend it.