This year, TOMY is celebrating 70 years of being John Deere licensee – a tradition that began with the first Ertl toy tractors back in 1946. Growing up in the 80s, my cousins and I had a pretty nice assortment of Ertl John Deere farm equipment – the big metal ones – and we played with them hard, in the sandbox… in the mud… in rain or shine. A few years back, our oldest daughter had a little John Deere hat that said “Dirt Makes Me Cuter,” a statement that still rings true (though the hat is outgrown), and seeing that little yellow and green logo always made me recall my teen years living in the Quad Cities, not far from the John Deere World Headquarters in Moline. Living in Illinois, and having farmers in our family, in a lot of ways it feels like John Deere may be a part of our DNA, so it’s always cool to see our little ones playing with toys that capture some of the same feeling from when I was little… and lately that feeling is back with some new items from the John Deere Preschool collection, sent to Rock Father HQ for review by the folks at TOMY.
Having just graduated from the now-retired Turtle Sandbox and into a proper “Big Kid” Sandbox, The Rock Daughters™ were due for some new tools of their sand trade, and the John Deere 15″ Big Scoop Dump Truck with Sand Tools certainly fit the bill. Built from rugged plastic, TOMY’s new Dump Truck carries on the Ertl heritage with the famous logo right there on the walls of its tires…
The perfect size for fun…
And if you’re gonna have a truck in the sandbox, you need some roads. A little bit of water was just what they needed to use the pattern roller to start laying down some fresh “pavement” for their mighty John Deere to cruise around on…
And the sifter always manages to bring a smile to Addie’s face…
Now, while this one is admittedly a little young-skewing for my girls, TOMY also sent us their Johnny Tractor Bumblerfriends electronic plush tractor. Geared toward little farmers ages 18 months+, we did play around with Johnny for a bit before passing him along to the girls’ baby cousin, Hank – yet another new generation to enjoy the John Deere fun.
Soft and snuggly, Johnny Tractor (there’s also Corey Combine, sold separately) also rumble (or “bumble?”) around with vibrations, cool engine sounds and music.
No matter what your age, from kids to grown-up collectors, TOMY has a huge assortment of John Deere toys for all ages. See them all at TOMY.com, or at John Deere Gifts.
