Wooden Activity Boat

Wooden Activity Boat – a review for The Toadstool

Wooden Activity BoatOver the last week Monkey has been having lots of sea-faring adventurers – we’ve been tackling bubble bath icebergs, fishing for star fish and turtles and working as salvage men, recovering a wreck from the bottom of the bath!  All this action has been thanks to a lovely wooden Activity Boat from Plan Toys.  Yes, this has been our latest mission from The Toadstool.  The set is aimed at children over the age of 3 years, so perfect for Monkey, who was 4 in December.

Wooden Activity BoatNow the first thing that will strike you is that I’ve used the word Wooden and Bath in the same sentence!  I was rather surprised myself when The Toadstool first mentioned this new range from Plan Toys.  We have had countless plastic bath toys over the last 4 years.  No matter what I do, they all seem to end up with ‘gunge’ on them, and get thrown away. A false economy. I’d never heard of wooden bath toys.  I needed to investigate!

The Activity Boat comes neatly packaged in 2 paper bags inside a sturdy packing case.  No plastic bags in sight.  As you may remember from my previous Plan Toys review last year, the company has an ethos of sustainability, eco-friendly packaging, colouring and products.

Wooden Activity BoatPlan Toys use 100% rubber wood in their products, giving this toy a really tactile feel.  I was surprised that the base of the boat is actually quite heavy.  Would it float?  As you can see in the photograph above, the set  comprises the boat base, a mast, cotton sail, a fishing hook (AKA as a crane – this is Monkey after all!), a removable cabin, a sailor/fisherman, a fish, starfish and turtle.

The sail fits neatly and easily over the mast.  There are plastic connectors to secure the mast and fishing rod in place.  I did find these connectors a bit tricky to fit in the first instance, but they are easily removable, so think it was just me!

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The paints are all non-formaldehyde, organic colours.  No nasties here.

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Our Activity Boat arrived the day before we flew to Spain, so I packed it in the suitcase as a surprise for Monkey.  We assembled it at Granny’s house – it was an instant hit, before we could even get it near water!

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He loved the details and the feel of the pieces, and the fishing hook went down really well, although as Monkey is construction mad, this soon became known as a crane!  That’s my boy.

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As you can imagine, Monkey couldn’t wait for bathtime.  We’d been looking through one of Gramps’ books – a photographic depiction of Scott’s ill-fated trip to the Antarctic.  So Monkey wanted icebergs and glaciers in his bath, the Activity Boat was going to be an icebreaker.  This all made for rather difficult photography for Mummy.  Monkey was working at brake-neck speed so my photos are not very good unfortunately!  But I can tell you that the Activity Boat does float, until a 4 year old Monkey decides that it’s the Titanic, and should hit a fatal iceberg.  My son does love factual books and his imagination has run riot with this new toy!

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We’ve had lots more Activity Boat fun since we’ve been home.  We’ve gone fishing, been on more polar expeditions and used our hook for a wreck salvage operation.

At £30.00 this wooden Activity Boat from Plan Toys is not cheap.  But if you think about the amount of plastic toys you buy and throw away, this is a better investment. As with so many products in the Plan Toys range, this boat makes a wonderful display item when it’s not having aquatic adventures.  I can see Monkey having lots of paddling pool fun too, if we get a summer. The Activity Boat has already sailed across our Living Room carpet to join in a treasure hunt with Monkey’s Pirate Ship.

It’s really fired his imagination.  The fishing game element is great, helps with hand eye coordination and colour recognition.  Just detach the hook from the boat and away you go – catch your turtle, star fish and fish, all in different colours.  As I’ve already mentioned, Monkey has used this hook as a crane, and has even hooked it through the cabin on his salvage missions.

You can see the full range of Plan Toys stocked by The Toadstool here, and why not join us tonight for the latest #ToadTest Twitter party at 8pm.  I’m linking this review to our #ToadTest linky for Plan Toys too.

We’re really pleased with this wooden Activity Boat and it’s already provided so much entertainment – it’s been a big splash in our bath!

19 thoughts on “Wooden Activity Boat – a review for The Toadstool

  1. What a fabulous bath toy!! I’ve never seen a wooden one before but this is gorgeous and looks like amazing quality. What a lucky Monkey!! Hope he has lots of fun playing with this.

  2. We love this boat so much, my little boy was just the same…playing with it before it even made it too the bath. Glad your little one enjoyed it too!

  3. We’ve an ancient Tupperware boat that is very similar, although obviously plastic as opposed to wood, which I feel must be gorgeous to play with. Although they aren’t cheap, they don’t end up in the bin like cheap plastic toys!

  4. It looks fab! Plastic bath toys just waste away don’t they? This looks like it will last Monkey ages!

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