I've found a lovely toy garage, but the reviews are conflicting can you help?

[LittleMissBliss]

ds1 aged two loves cars and trains. He has a small wooden ikea train set which he loves. So for Christmas we'd like to get him a wooden toy garage.

This one is lovely but some of the reviews state it isn't very robust. I have two ds's so would like something that will last a good four years.

Please help me locate a robust garage. Or a review of a garage you own.

TIA

I've been looking at wooden garages for my 2 year old and have chosen the Early learning Centre one. I used a discount code bc1109 and it gave me 20% off.

My dds have a little people one which I got second hand from a toy sale for £3

It's fab, my dd2 likes to sit on it and pretend to ride it, although she's only 14 months and a tiny little thing, it so far is surviving it, and it's on of their favourite toys.

here

That's lovely but we had bad experience of a similar one at our toddlers that was wooden with plastic ramps. After about 2 weeks (light) use the ramps snapped off and when we phoned (I think it was letterbox) to complain they said it was a recurring problem and they'd send us spares!!! We managed to get a refund instead and bought the Fisher Price Little Peoples one with noises which may be a lot less tasteful but IME FP things are made to last.

Hope you find a nice one. Maybe all wood (ie not plastic ramps) might be better? Plan toys? nice wooden one in John Lewis?

Haha caterpillar, my dd (17ish months) does the same with our FP one!

The one you linked to looks rather expensive... My mum bought DS an all wooden one from (I think) Toys R Us. Has a couple of levels and a lift that you wind up on a cord. Think she found it in a sale. It is still going strong after 18 months or so, and now DD is using for climbing practise.

lots here:

[[http://www.toygarages.org.uk/wooden-toy-garages.htm]

We have a wooden Plan City one and although aesthetically pleasing, it's frankly dull and isn't played with at all. 2 boys later I'm seriously contemplating selling and getting a FP little people one for boy 3 this Christmas.

LittleMissBliss - we have that one and we have found it very robust. It is expensive but I bought it the week after DS had an operation and I had this desperate need to buy him something expensive He doesn't really have any other expensive toys.

One of the reasons I liked it is that a toddler can practically stand on it (except right at the edge behind the lift) although we don't encourage that obviously.

DS loves sending stuff down the ramps and it is the magnet toy for visiting children.

Also, if you do get it, ask me how to make the lift work a bit better (Dh put a bit of cardboard in somewhere and it worked better)

I think DS would get just as much fun out of a plastic one, having said all that!

dont have the garage, but dd does have a few other big le toy van toys and they are all excellent quality and have lasted well.

Sorry to post an run ds2 needed settling.

Thank you for all the responses!

I know the garage is a bit on the pricey side but i was looking for something that will last, an investment toy. Also i'm only getting ds one main big present as he has so many little toys as it is.

It was his birthday this month his brother was born two months before so he has received a steady stream of new toys and now Christmas is coming up!

Bellabear a few of the reviews on amazon were like yours very robust but then others contradicted this by saying the plastic attachments came away. All did say how lovely it looked.

mumface (love the name!) I will have a look at the ELC one now. Thank you for the code!

The little people one is getting a glowing review but i'm drawn to wooden toys, and they seem to be ds's favourites at the moment. But will keep it in mind as it seems to last well.

Nancy thanks for the review on the toys as i was going to suggest a set of extra cars as present to MIL if we were going to get the garage.

right off to look at the suggestions.

one of the yellow plastic rims came off but DH glued it back and it is fine... this does't sound like much of an endorsement, does it? But we all really like it.
No way the plastic ramps would come off.

Hi littlemissbliss

We have a levantoy castle and its fab. No broken bits and it copes with being played with. It wouldnt cope with the towers etc being chucked about but its fine being played with properly

It cost loads but is loved. DS doesnt play with his a great deal but when I asked him if it was a keeper for the loft he said yes! (he is 8)

We have the wooden ELC one and I wouldn't reccommend it to be honest. Looks great but the ramps aren't actually fixed they slot onto a piece of string which is stretched across. One of the strings snapped on ours, was very fiddly to fix and has broken several times since. Also the heli pad is not very strong, my boys are not particularly rough but this has also broken several times.
Ours is down in the cellar - my boys just got fed up of it in the end.

Well in the end I ended up ordering The ELC garage last night. on the basis that if something does go wrong i can take it back to the store, which is much easier than re-packaging and sending back through amazon. Also the 20% off code and free delivery allowed me to get some wooden cars and some bits for ds2!

The reviews on ELC on the whole were very positive so fingers crossed.

Thank you all for the advice and it good to know for the future that le toy van toys are robust as they are lovely and like said i'm a big fan of wooden toys!