Our 8 year old son had loads of toys when he was toddling, too many to count, so we know that our 15 month old second son is going to have no problem using a lot of the hand me downs the poor thing is inevitably going to get. One such toy is this little collection of handy ELC toys. We have a few of them, truth be told, probably 5 or 6 in total, and as you can see they come in packs of 3.

I honestly can't remember how much they cost when we first got them, or even if they were a gift or we bought them ourselves, but one thing I do know is that they have lasted until now and are still very good toys to have. Our youngest first started playing with them a couple of months ago, and he loves the little features they have.

A set comprises three construction vehicles: a skip truck, a cement mixer and pickup truck. Each one has an interactive element to it and is very sturdy. The cement mixer's mixer turns round and round, and although demonstrating to your kid isn't so easy because it's hard to see it moving, once they work it out it provides fun and amusement. When you turn it, it makes a clicking noise, another indicator it's moving. The same goes with the other two. The skip on the back of the truck tilts back, with clicks, and the pickup truck's winch also goes up and down. It's very well designed.

They're also very sturdy as well. The hard plastic nature of them means that you won't get any metal broken bits like you can with car sets, which we still have waiting second hand for when he's a little older. The vehicles roll around the floor just fine, and at each end there is a small connector which is also magnetised. This allows the three of them to link together, and it's so funny watching him slowly put two of them together and try to work out why the front bits of them move without him making them do so. We haven't had any confused noises, but there's a look of confusion and a definite pause every time he tries, as if he's trying to work it out.

The ones we have are so durable they have lasted us longer than nearly all of the other toys our first son had when he was this age. A lot of them got sold a long time ago at a car boot or were too damaged to keep or resell, but of those that have been retained, these are some of only a few. As he got older he took a little more care of things, but even so these were durable enough to withstand being flung across the room occasionally, despite assurances that pickup trucks don't tend to fly and no, cement mixers don't have wings...

I think these, like most ELC toys, are great. They're handy for motor function skills with the deft little fingers needing to work the three interactive elements, and the extra added durability gives a reassurance that they can play with these for a long time quite safely. They currently retail for around the £10 mark but are often on offer as well. Recommended.