Park this in your home! (ELC Wooden Garage)

Member Name: mummy2harry

Product:	ELC Wooden Garage
Date:	18/04/09 (242 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Encourages imaginative play, hours of fun, sturdy and robust, aesthetically good

Disadvantages: Expensive

My Harry is absolutely car mad, he can name almost any car that he sees on the road, and has a huge box of Matchbox cars that come out every day without fail. So when it came to choosing a 3rd birthday for him, my Mum and Dad thought that they had a simple job because they wanted to get him a garage, somewhere he could use his precious cars every day. After a lot of searching, they decided upon this wooden garage from Early Learning Centre and had it sent to my house in time for Harry's birthday. The morning of his birthday came, and the huge gasp that came from Harry when he saw his garage said it all, and it's quickly become his favourite toy ever!

The ELC Wooden Garage is a toy aimed at children from the age of 3 and upwards due to some small parts. It is available both in-store and online from the ELC website, so is pretty easy to come by. The garage came flat-packed in a rather large cardboard box but was not too heavy which was good. The box had a huge picture of the garage on the front of it so I had to quickly hide it in my bedroom so Harry wouldn't see it before his special day. I had a scan in the box to check everything was there and then left it until the evening before, too risky to do before that! So when it came to the night before, I set everything out on the carpet, luckily not too many bits to tackle, and was sure I could do it myself. Wrong.

It looked easy, the instruction leaflet was simple enough with step by step guides on what went were, and how to fix it in. The first thing to attach was the tall lift column to the base, and thats where I came unstuck. It was ridiculously hard to screw the screws into the holes because a) the column wasn't steady and there was no easy way of holding it and b) the screw seemed too big for the hole! I had to call daddy2harry to help, and even he struggled to do them up tightly enough to make it secure. Eventually he managed it, but it did take 2 of us to fasten the remaining floors of the garage because of small parts and fiddly catches, but when it was done, it looked fantastic and we just knew Harry would love it. We set it up with lots of his cars (none are supplied but Matchbox type cars fit perfectly) on all floors and put it down ready for the morning.

Well, his face said it all when he came down, he was so pleased to finally have a garage of his own! It does look so brilliant, and ELC have clearly thought about what a child wants from a garage. This garage features a 4 "storey" wind-up lift that is manually done by the child using a knob on the side, which winds the lift up and down according to which way you turn it. There are doorways to the lift on each floor of the garage so your child can pop the cars in and out easily. Harry likes to sit them in and on top of the lift car, and loves winding it up and down, and finds it easy doing so as well. The lift is definitely the best feature of the whole thing, and the novelty of it is very appealable to young children.

As you can see from the picture, the garage has 4 different levels for cars to drive up and down on, and the 4th level is a helipad for your rescue helicopter to land on if you own one! There are removable ramps up to each of the levels, but there is a minor problem with these. They are slotted on using a bit of string on the garage itself, and a slot of the underside of the ramp, so if they are knocked they fall off quickly and easily, but Harry soon figured out the knack of getting them back on. It's a shame they didn't make them permanently fixable but I suppose it saves breakage this way. The ramps have road markings so do look authentic, and the other levels have parking spaces and roundabouts marked on too, so attention to detail has been paid with this product.

There is a small "shop" at the back corner of the garage base, a red box with a doorway which isn't too well situated if I'm honest. Your child will generally sit in front of the garage which is where the entrance to the lift is and the first ramp too, but the shop doorway is at the back of the garage so can often be ignored. As well as these things, the garage has a sign that can be put on in front of the shop that has "Petrol", "Shop" and a few other things on it which is a nice touch. There are also 2 wooden petrol pumps that aren't stuck down so can be put down or used in anyway that a child wants to do so. Harry loves these and loves filling up his cars with the petrol. It's little details like these that make this product fantastic, and such good value for money. Aesthetically too, it's great looking with a bright red lift and shop, dark grey roads and light beech wood trim so it does look expensive and nice to look at.

As for durability, we are very impressed with it so far. Harry plays with this every single day without fail, and for sustained periods of time as well. It hasn't shown any signs of wear and tear yet but I must admit he treats it well because it's a prized possession. We always store it safely away at night but he treats it well and loves to polish it with a baby wipe too, bless him! The helipad level isn't particularly secure and I feel if Harry were to lean on it with a bit of force, it might snap but we've warned him to be careful and he has been so far. The levels are set with wooden posts so are secure, the ramps come off easily to avoid breakage and the lift is sturdy with a thick string to elevate and lower it with a sturdy wooden knob too. It seems robust, and being wooden, we expect it last a lot longer than anything made of plastic would do.

My parents are thrilled with their present choice for Harry, and its probably been his favourite present so far. As I said, he plays with every day and gets so much fun from playing with it and his cars. It makes me smile so much to see him and his Daddy playing together with it, and they do every evening and Harry has so much fun with it. Yes, it is quite high-priced but for the amount of use Harry's got it, its worth every penny and I expect it to last for much longer as well. If your child loves car, I can definitely recommend this product to you because its just fab. There are lots of things to do on it, its been thought through well by the creators and children will be excited by touches such as the working lift and petrol pumps! It's a super product, great value for money and comes recommended from both me and Harry!

Current selling price (April 2009) is £45, but for the enjoyment Harry has had, and still gets daily makes it worth every penny! Highly recommended for young petrol-heads!

Dimensions: Height: 50 cm, Width: 50 cm, Depth: 37 cm

Website: http://www.elc.co.uk
Product Code: 114368

Thank you for reading.

Summary: A superb garage toy