The Tonka Fire Station. Keris Says It’s Great – But Where Are The Girls?

Posted By Laura in Childrens, Review, Toddler, Toys | 1 comment

The always-lovely Keris helped out by volunteering to review the Tonka Fire Station for us…

When I brought the parcel through the house and told Joe it was for him, he jumped up and down, shouting “I’m going to poo my pants!”
He doesn’t get much post.
When I opened the parcel and he saw the Tonka Town Fire Station Play Set he was, if you can imagine this, even more excited. He ran up and down the hall screaming like a firework. Frankly even if he never played with the toy, it would’ve have been worth getting it for that reaction. But he did. Play with it, I mean.

Once I’d wrestled it open, that is. It wasn’t actually as bad, packaging-wise, as a lot of toys. Everything was held in place with little string ties that I could easily undo with my fingers, so it was a lot quicker and made me much less stabby than those horrible metal twist things (and don’t even get me started on the little plastic bits you need a screwdriver to remove) (a screwdriver!).

Straight away both Joe and his brother (who, at 9, is a fair bit out of this playset’s age range) were pressing the buttons, driving the car in and out of the garage and sliding the two firefighters down the pole. The fire station has flashing lights and a siren, both of which were appreciated by the boys (not me so much). Later, Joe had one of the firefighters fall from the top of the training tower only to reappear later as a zombie (“Brainssss!”).

Joe asked me to play with him and I found the playset pretty limited. Once I’d set off the lights and siren, made the little plastic fire appear on the training tower, and slid the firefighter down the pole, I was pretty much done. But it’s not aimed at me and Joe seems to really like it.

One complaint I do have is that the firefighters are both male and the box features a further eight male Tonka Town characters. I went on the website and found that Tonka Town has seventeen characters and they are all male. Joe and I emailed via the contact form and suggested this was, you know, completely ridiculous and we received a reply assuring us that a female character will be introduced next year. It’s a start. As long as she’s not, say, Bruno’s girlfriend or the tea lady. Joe suggested she could be a doctor. A zombie doctor. You never know, it could catch on.

(The Tonka Town Fire Station is available on Amazon for £26.66 currently)

You can find Keris here – go say hello. She’s lovely:
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