Boys Toys
These dispiritingly colorless toys are from an outfit called Nova Natural Toys and Crafts, whose smug little catalog arrived here over the weekend. I'd never seen them before. My initial response is to hate them, since in my experience children care little about sustainability and toxic run-off and really like color (not to mention noise). But these trucks are actually pretty groovyonce you really take a look at them. They look a bit sturdier than the similar ones from Plan Toys, and the real working parts look like they might just really work. At sixty bucks a truck, they had better.
So I suppose I would have been leaning toward "Expensive, but they look like fun, plus you could always paint them" before I even got to that last one, on the bottom right there. But do you know what that is? That is a Unimog. They make a Unimog!
No, I'd never heard of them either until I started hanging around with my husband, who always has the right tool for the job, except, well, he doesn't have an expensive German heavy-duty high-clearance off-road vehicle* to go desert-ratting in. But I do believe he would like to. So if Nova Toys and Crafts, the kind of outfit I'd otherwise have suspected of valuing virtue over fun, understands that a (certain type of) boy** needs a Unimog, I'm putting them on the "cool toys if you can afford them" list. Just like the Unimog itself.
*(from Wikipedia, and not my bad grammar): New Unimogs can be purchased in either of three series:
- Medium series 405, also known as the UGN ("Geräteträger" or equipment carrier), is available in the U300-U500 model.
- heavy series 437, also known as the UHN ("Hochgeländegängig" or highly mobile cross country), is available as the U3000-U5000 model.
- U20 is the smallest Unimog. It is based on a shortened U300 frame and has a cab over engine compartment from the Brazilian Accelo light truck (Caminhões Leves) series.
Hochgeländegängig!
**Yes, yes, girls too. But I don't happen to be married to one.
The comments to this entry are closed.
Comments