Great fun, no batteries!

I walked past a display of WOW Toys some time ago at a local toy store, I was quite surprised as well, um, its rare that I find a whole line of toys I had previously knew nothing about as I seem to be a walking infomercial for toys these days. On top of that in big letters the boxes say "No batteries required!", and seeing as these were big brightly colored plastic toys I had to stop and do a double take. I guess I just find it quite unusual to see a plastic toy that does not eat batteries.

So when my first WOW Toys arrived I was anxious to get it out of the box. The toys claim to have realistic sounds and are friction powered. And believe me your kids will NOT miss the batteries, WOW toys really do make plenty of noise and have tons to do without using a single battery.

The first toy we tested was Flip n Tip Fred, a friction powered recycling truck, he comes with two people figures and a set of recycling bins. The bins can be loaded into Fred two ways, the back offers a flip up loading station which allows you to sort your recyclables and then dump them into the back of the truck as well as you can use the bucket on the front of the truck and turn the lever to dump them into the top opening of the truck. You can then retrieve your recycle bins through the flip up panel on the side of the truck. The truck itself is friction powered, meaning if you give it a good push it just keeps on going and the friction actually makes a pretty satisfying "truck" noise. The design of the truck itself is really genius. It says from 1.5yrs to 5 yrs which at first I thought was quite a long age gap for a toy. Well I tried the truck out with Connor and he uses it as a push toy and though he doesn't really understand the point of the recycling bins yet the work out really well as a sorting toy. Each of the bins has a picture on the top which coordinates to a spot on the truck. He spends a good amount of time matching up the bins and putting the bins in and out of the truck.

We also got a d which may just be in contention for Connor's favorite toy. It features the same great friction powered motor. Duley has a handle on the top of him that makes him super easy for little hands to push. Dudley features a dial on the side that causes the truck to dump. It almost looks motorized but again as with all WOW Toys there are no batteries! I'm not sure I've met a boy yet that doesn't love dump trucks and Dudley is just at home hauling blocks as he is hauling construction equipment.

The real beauty of boy of the trucks is though Connor loves them both now, he will appreciate them more as he gets older and his play style gets more complex. I'm so impressed that I'm going to add a few more of the pieces to Connor's wish list for christmas. I really think he needs Police Chase Larry, Larry Lorry and Pickup Pete, and of course Ernie the Fire Engine!

WOW Toys also makes a great line of toys for infants. You can check out their entire selection of toys over at their website!