A lovely, practical piece of furniture (Pintoy Wooden Natural Toy Chest)

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	Pintoy Wooden Natural Toy Chest
Date:	10/09/09 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Colourful, safe, robust

Disadvantages: Not cheap

This review is a bit of a departure from my usual shower gel, lip saver and travel reviews. Since my niece gave birth to her son and made a great aunt of me I have been looking at gifts and toys - I didn't realise there was so much choice!

One thing that I did find was a lovely toy chest called the Four Friends Toy Chest which is made by John Crane Pintoy and sold by John Lewis amongst others and it is ideal for all the toys that young children seem to accumulate from birth (and before!)

This chest is made from solid rubberwood and measures 64 x 40 x 37.5 cm. There are brightly painted pictures on each of three sides of the chest; on one end there is a red mouse, on the other end there is a blue cat and on the front there is a green frog and a yellow bear. The whole thing is then smartly finished off with varnish.

If you aren't keen on the pictures this chest is also available with farmyard animals round the sides and is called the Farmyard Toy Chest.

When we bought the box it was flat packed but my niece's husband found it easy enough to put together - it is only a bottom, four sides and a top so it isn't going to be rocket science is it? The lid is hinged and incorporates a safety system which prevents it falling shut whilst the toys are being removed by the children or replaced by mom and dad. As one of the comments so rightly points out it has what they call a soft close lid which means there is no danger of it ever catching little fingers - or big ones for that matter!

There are also carrying handles cut into each end so that the box can be lifted and moved, although being solid wood it is fairly heavy so please be careful when you lift it.

As with all John Crane products the toy chest is very well made and robust enough to suffer the excited play of children and importantly there are no rough edges or sharp corners to cause damage to little people. It is also quite strong enough for the children to sit on when the lid is closed too.

We bought the chest for a little boy but the design and colours are such that it would be just as suitable for a little girl and there is also a matching table and chair set available so you could make a nice matching nursery set for the youngster.

As I said earlier we bought this chest from John Lewis and I have to say that it wasn't cheap costing us £53.50 but it is a quality product and I am sure that it will last for many years as Jacob grows older and the toys change.

It might be worth doing a bit of investigation on the Internet if you do want to purchase one of these as John Lewis are not exclusive suppliers of John Crane products and there may be cheaper ones to be had elsewhere although having said that I wouldn't expect to find it a lot cheaper because of the quality of the product.

The full range can be viewed at www.pintoys.com and although there aren't many details on the site the photographs of the products are very good.

Summary: A great way to store those toys