Harvey Harvester and Penny’s Pooch ’n’ Ride
Approx. price: £19.99 and £9.99
Age range: 18 months–5 years
Website: www.wowtoys.com
WOW’s toys need no introduction – the company has been producing bright, imaginative toys for over a decade, with the added benefit that they do not require batteries.
Harvey Harvester and Penny’s Pooch ’n’ Ride slot neatly into the Farmyard Vehicle and Holiday Adventure ranges. They offer the familiar combination of real-life themes and characterful vehicles (the names refer to the vehicles rather than the drivers), and each is designed to encourage imaginative play.
Farmer Phil is on hand to ride in the combine harvester, but you can use any figure from the many WOW sets as they are all compatible. A friction motor lets Harvey move along with a helping push, and this also sets his thresher whirring, with the ears of corn thrashing around inside.
Perhaps the neatest feature is the automatic baler. Drop the three bales of straw into the top and they will be dropped out one at a time as Harvey rolls along.
Penny has bright pink colouring to appeal to girls and has four passengers – Chloe, her dog Roxy and two puppies, curled up in the dog bed. Penny has the same friction motor as Harvey, creating a realistic engine sound when pushed along.
The first thing to jump out when playing with these toys is their durability. Made of tough plastic, they really are sturdy and can easily stand up to high-speed impacts with skirting boards and other toys.
The bright colours catch the attention of youngsters at the bottom end of the age range and we found that even children over five were happy to play a while with these engaging toys. However, the combination of design and playability seems to appeal most strongly to the (roughly) two-to-four age group. Our testers in this range became absorbed in loading the bales and watching them pop out of Harvey, or putting the dogs and Chloe in and out of Penny.
There are no fiddly little pieces that are asking to get lost, which means it’s relatively easy to keep these sets complete and the crossover potential is welcome as it encourages children to play with an older WOW toy when a new one arrives (something we saw when the arrival of Harvey and Penny caused one of our testers to go and get the Sam’s Safari Adventure set we reviewed some time ago).
It’s clear to see that WOW has a proven formula in its designs. These toys really appeal to children – and the fact that they won’t ever run out of batteries is a plus for both the environment and your pocket.
Durability: 5/5
Longevity: 4/5
Value: 4/5
Score: 86%
Conclusion: Solidly constructed toys with real appeal.
