Tough Toys for Tough Kids

Green Toys Tractor vs John Deere Tractor

There are only 9 more Mondays until Christmas!

My boys are tough on toys!  Very few toys last long in our house.  Sometimes, it's a good thing that the toys have a short lifetime.  Other times, you just need toys that will last.  The toys on this list of "tough toys for tough kids" are the gold standard of excellence.  Most of them are not extraordinarily expensive, but they have all survived months of rough play.  Any of these toys would make great gifts for tough kids!

Green Toys

Green Toys Dump Truck from Amazon.com

I honestly can't believe that I've never written about Green Toys (GT) before!  We have loved GT for years and have had nothing but good experiences with them.  My boys are rough with their toys and will disassemble a lesser toy in minutes.  Not so with Green Toys trucks!  They last!

Green Toys are made with recycled milk jugs, in the USA.  We love that- but what we really love is their customer service!  When my boys finally do break a wheel, I only need to email the company, and they will send us replacement toys for free!  I know of no other company with that sort of guarantee.  If you're looking to make your toy dollars stretch, there is no
better investment than Green Toys.

Green Toys Airplane from Amazon.com

We love our red and yellow dump truck, our pink and purple dump truck, the firetruck, the regular plane and the sea plane and the helicopter, the train, and the bus.  All of these toys get played with frequently and most of them get played with every day.

The "Alice" tractor in the picture is our latest Green Toys addition.  It's been in the house for two months.  The John Deere tractor has been in the house for 2 weeks.  The "Alice" on the GT's tractor was added by my mom to make it match great-grandpa's tractor.

Green Toys makes other toys besides vehicles.  We don't own their play food sets yet, but I like the dish set.  The farm and fire station are cute, too.  Green Toys is adding new products all the time.

Duplos

Green Toys are newer on the toy scene, but Duplos are a classic.  We played with them when I was a kid, and my mom still has a huge bin of them at her house.  They're made by the Lego company, but are larger than Legos to make them safe for younger kids.  The smallest Duplo block is about one inch cubed or so.

We love the Cars and Planes sets, as well as the generic first cars set.  And, of course, you can never have enough boxes of bricks.

On my list is a larger toy box for our Duplo collection.

Safari and Schleich Animals

Schleich zebras from Amazon.com

I have written a lot about how much I love Safari animals.  For a long time, we only bought Safari toobs (mini animals) and bought Schleich figurines for our large animal collection.  In a lot of ways, Safari Ltd animals are a lot like Schleich.  They both make large, plastic figurines that are quite durable for tough kids.  Our animals get left outside, have been run over by the car, take baths, play in the mud, get brought to bed, and are well loved.  I'm including them together, because they are both quality toys, and we buy them both.

Schleich animals are atomically correct, so it's easy to tell the boys from the girls.  They can also be found in families which is very great for kids, like this herd of zebras or this pack of lions.  Schleich has mammals, dinosaurs, and reptiles.

Safari Ltd Bubblebee for Amazon.com

Safari makes miniature toobs, life cycle sets, and larger figurines both real and fantasy.  We love the detail of the Incredible Insects bumblebee and the texture of the dragons.  The kids have many of the Safari animals on their Christmas lists.

I could probably come up with a few more good toy brands for tough kids, but I'll leave you with this list for now.

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