I love requests to road test Hape toys, but this time Hape have surpassed themselves with the remote control engine. Merging traditional toys with modern technology, they have created a young boy’s dream (and quite a lot of fun for parents and grandparents too).
The neat looking train is light-weight and easy to handle for a toddler. It has easy-use controls on top, which my grandson loves, to make the engine go forward and backwards and make various fun noises and – importantly, it has a neat USB charger so that adults are not wasting time changing batteries every five minutes.
But it doesn’t end there – now comes the cool bit. A simple smartphone app allows you to move the train backwards and forwards, accelerate it, turn the headlights on and off and sound alarms and a whistle, all remotely via bluetooth.
Now here’s the dilemma – do you let your toddler use your smartphone and have the thrill of controlling the train by himself – after all, the app is designed to be easy for a child to use? Or you could just keep quiet – and make the train run off in all different directions as your little one tries to pick it up – trust me it can be a lot of fun. Yes, my grandson has a lot to deal with when he visits me.
The train has a magnetic coupling, so carriages and trucks from other sets can be linked up and it runs on standard wooden train tracks, thus can be integrated with your child’s existing toys. It also runs quite happily along a wooden floor.
I simply love it. My grandson loves it too, when he gets a chance to wrestle it from me. At a little over £27 from Amazon this high-quality toy will be treasured for years.
By Dr K Thompson, author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q