When the crew at Toy State welcomed us into their Family of Test Drivers back in July, we were excited. Having already been a fan of Toy State’s growing line of licensed vehicles, the prospect of checking out a fleet of new ones and issuing detailed thoughts was right up our alley. Recently, our assortment of Fall vehicles arrived for testing here in The Rock Father’s State-of-the-Art Toy Testing Facility (in this case, the dining room), and the first one to strike Addie’s interest was the CAT Construct Dough Deluxe Excavator. Let’s take a look…
This free-wheeling (ie: Battery-Free, non-motorized) CAT Machine immediately elicited a response of “Let’s take it to the sandbox, Daddy!” – but it’s not a sand toy (officially, though it could be). Instead, it’s one of two available “Deluxe” extensions of the Construct Dough line (the other is a Dump Truck), that blends together imaginative, vehicular play, with creative, arts-based modeling. Along with the vehicle comes one can of gray dough – shaped like a Construction Barrel, along with four plastic inserts that can help your little builder stamp-out 8 possible road signs. Kids can load some dough into the hopper, then move the Exacavator’s arm like a lever to push the dough out the back in one of three shapes – each creating a piece of a construction site… and I-BEAM, PIPE, or ANGLE BAR.
Even though she didn’t play with it like Addie did, Little Finley was intrigued as welll…
Having played with this several times over the past couple of weeks, the CAT Construct Dough Deluxe Excavator scores high marks, despite a couple of minor concerns that I have as a parent. There is a slight risk of pinching should your little ones put their fingers in the hopper while pushing to extrude the shapes, and keeping the moving parts clean is extremely important. As with any dough-based toy, left-over dough residue will harden, potentially jamming up the mechanism. Watch the finger and clean-up when you’re done, and the Excavator should be tons of fun.
The CAT Construct Dough Deluxe Excavator should be rolling into stores and onto your little one’s job site this Fall. Check out ToyState.com for details.
The Rock Father Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
For more rock delivered daily, including the latest in great music, cool toys, and fun for the whole family – “like” The Rock Father on Facebook.
