I have not been able to get over how much my little boy loves cars, diggers, bikes, in fact any vehicles! I know we shouldn’t say that there is a difference between girls and boys but my eldest daughter was bought a pack of noisy cars as a baby and barely touched them. Her baby sister a little but her baby brother is obsessed with them. He loves their Barbie car, the Peppa Pig vehicles we have, anything that moves. I knew when we were asked to review the Cat Junior Crew Construction Vehicles range from Funrise International, he would love them!
Now I had to be sneaky, as we wanted to save them for one of his Christmas presents. So one afternoon when he was out for a walk, his 3 year old sister and I excitedly checked out each of the products we were luckily sent! He is little younger than the recommended age of 2 at 18 months old, so would be closer by Christmas.
More About The Cat Junior Crew Vehicle Range
We were very lucky to be sent three products from the Cat Junior Crew Vehicle range. These products are currently available from Smyths Toys. All are aimed at children aged 2 years and over. All the products make the unique Kid-Vroom Sounds™ and sound like your child is making them!
Firstly we were sent the Cat Junior Crew Construction Pal Assortment. These RRP at £7.99 and the 7″ Cat Construction Pals are designed to make learning fun and develop your child’s fine motor skills. Your child presses the helmet and each vehicle springs to life with an animated face and the Kid-Vroom Sounds™. There are 7 unique sounds when your child presses down the head to see the face change!
The second item we were sent in the range was the CAT Junior Crew Construction Buddies Dump Truck. These RRP at £19.99 and you load up the truck and watch it go to work! The 10″ Cat Construction Buddies mimic real Cat construction vehicles. Your child places the included boulders into the vehicle to trigger the sensor and watch the vehicle drive forward and dump out the boulders. Once the job is done, the vehicle will reverse and rest in its starting position. This product is great for fine-motor skills and curiosity.
The final product we were sent was the CAT Junior Crew Power Track Friends which RRPs at £24.99. This is a motorised train set, designed to capture your child’d curiosity and helps develop fine motor skills while playing, by pressing down on the engines helmet to bring the train to life. From there you can control the train’s actions easily using the large brightly coloured buttons and toggle switch on the train station command hub. Each colour will trigger a different action for the train to perform including tooting the whistle, racing around the track once or three times, and running out of fuel and refuelling. A Dump Truck is included here too!
What I liked about the products was batteries were included. This is always a plus with me. The products are also designed to be sturdy to cope with little ones playing with them (and battering them!)
Testing Out the Cat Junior Crew Vehicle Range
As mentioned I sat down with my 3 year old to test out these products. We started with the Construction Buddies Dump Truck. This was easy to get out of the box and pretty much start playing with!
We did have some issues getting the sensor to work. You are meant to add the boulders and it moves forwards ready to dump the load, making the noises but it did not always work for us. We are going to replace the batteries before giving to the little dude, as it is a great idea for their curiosity and learning about cause and effect. My eldest did enjoy pushing it around and loading it up however!
My middley loved the Construction Pal Assortment toy which was the next product we tried. She loved watching its face change each time and sat playing with that one for a while. It was fun to drive that around too. I quite liked the sounds it made!
Next was the the Power Track Friends!
I enjoyed playing with this Cat Junior Crew product the best! It was easy to set up the track and get going. I think kids will really take their time playing with the controls and learning what happens to the train each time; the different sounds it makes and if it will stop, running out of fuel. My middley did sometimes need a little bit of help to push the head down to get the train going, as sometimes it didn’t always work first time but she could usually do it. She found it easy to set the track up in an oval by herself.
You can either make the train keep going around the track by using the red switch or you can allow it to stop using the red switch and then pressing the blue and green buttons. The green buttons means the train has ran out of a fuel and the blue make the train give a whistle noise! Great fun.
Our Thoughts
I think my little boy is going to love these Cat Junior Crew toys and I can’t wait to give to him for Christmas. They are bright and colourful, robust and sturdy and perfect for his development. He is sharp and I know will pick up quickly what to do.
My middley, who is 3 figured it out quite quickly with each toy we were sent. She did need some help with the train to explain how we could make the train continuously move or make it whistle or run out of fuel. However, she could get it moving.
The toys are noisy. I won’t lie!! The train going continuously will drive you mad with the Kid-Vroom Sounds™ but what good toy doesn’t? I know my little boy will love driving the trucks all over and making as much noise as possible.
Overall the Cat Junior Crew Products are really good fun. I like the way they have been designed to make our children think and are great for fine motor skills and development. I think the train in particular really made my middley think, as she had to figure out what would happen when she pressed the buttons to control the train.
I’m really excited for them to all have a play at Christmas, as I know they will go down so well!
Disclosure – we were sent these products in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are our own.
Noisy toys! Don’t you just love them! I used to leave noisy stuff at my Mum’s as she’d just switch her hearing aids off!! Oh to have hearing aids!
My son was nuts for stuff like this as a child, it looks like a lovely collection. I bet all the family will have fun with these on Christmas day!
Both of my boys loved cars and diggers and would spend hours sitting with them all, zooming them round the floor. Yes, all good toys are noisy!
These look like great fun and would have been something my youngest grandson would have played with for hours when he was younger. And, the noisier the better 🙂
These look great, I’m sure he is going to love them for Christmas x
Your kid? My husband still loves playing with his childhood car toys Just like your kiddo, my little nephew also loves cars. I am sure he will love playing with Cat Junior Crew Products, gonna gift him soon!