My daughter recieved an awful lot of toys for Christmas, this was bought by my my mum. My daughter likes cars, her older cousin has this garage and she loves playing with it. I don't believe in toys for boys and girls and don't see anything wrong in her wanting a garage!

This costs around £40 from Toys-R-Us. In the box you get the garage and a recovery truck, so you do need to get some extra vehicles, I got her an emergency vehicle pack which contains a fire engine, police car and ambulance, these cost £14.99 but they all light up and sing and come with batteries. The good thing about most Vtech toys is they come with batteries.

The garage is for ages 12 months and over. My daughter is almost 11 months now and plays with this no problem.

The garage is very sturdy and strongly constructed. I know it's a strong build as my 18 month old nephew has sat on it a few times. The garage has several features depending on which mode it is set in. There is a sliding feature on the front which allows you to select off, music mode or learning mode. There are three buttons on the front of the garage which when in learning mode tell you the weather and when in musical mode plays sounds and songs. The garage features a sliding lift which your child can drive up and down in, in learning mode this tells your child the difference between up and down, in the musical mode it just plays tunes and flashes. There is a car wash button which in learning mode says about going to the car wash and in musical mode just makes the noises of a car wash and plays a jingle. The garage also features a turntable which plays songs that your child can learn the words to sing along to and in the musical mode it plays various songs including row row row your boat and skip to my lou. Finally there is a magic sensor which recognises the vehicle place on there and activates the vehicle.

The vehicle that comes with the garage and the ones you can purchase separately can also be played with independently, the vehicles have a switch on the bottom for on/off, they can also be activated by pressing the windscreen. The little vehicles are so much fun, they flash and sing little tunes, a particular favourite of my daughters is the police car, which has flashing sirens and a tune that says about 'catching the burglar to stop the crime!' I have heard it so many times now I find myself singing about crime and burglars randomly throughout the day. All of the vehicles and the garage speak in an British accent which I prefer for my daughter.

This garage is excellent for learning, at the moment my daughter is just interested in pushing the cars along and pressing the buttons for the tunes which she then likes to dance to. However for an older child this would be great for introducing weather concepts as well as the different types of vehicles as the garage can tell you which vehicle has been placed on the spot. There are also songs that can be learned by your little one there are words printed in the instruction booklet. I have also seen on the Vtech website that you can get aditional road sections to add onto the garage so it can be extended for older children.

This is one of the best toys my daughter recieved for Christmas as it is fun and doesn't take up too much space. I can see this toy becoming a firm favourite unlike other which get shove in the corner. It is fun and exciting and has so many different activities and features it will keep most children entertained.