When we went to visit the grandparents a few weeks back, the city playground in Ivins, Utah had this awesome kid-sized backhoe digger, with dual hand controls which raise, lower and dump the bucket just like [in my best non-union estimation] a real backhoe.
It was pretty awesome, and the kid loved it. The only problem, of course, is that only one kid at time can play with it. And while the kid and I waited for her to take a turn, little townie urchins were wrasslin' each other for the seat like it was the last pancake on the plate.
Meanwhile, a sandbox with half a dozen immobile toy backhoes with children perched mutely on each, digging alone, sounds kind of depressing. Unless it inspires crane ballet, but somehow I doubt the town fathers' vision for these rigs includes instilling in their boys a deeper appreciation of choreography.
Similar/identical playground backhoes are on eBay for $299 [ebay.com]
'Backhoe Ballet' by Kate Scherer [starsandgarters]
Mitchell Rose's "Deere John" [youtube.com]
There's a playground near us that has a couple of these. They are pretty sweet. And more than one kid can play with them -- One kid to dig, and one kid to be buried.
The school near us has these, and Monster just loves them. I think they over shot by putting them in at an elementary school though. They seem to mostly be popular with the 2-5 set here, and are barely glanced at after kindergarten
Haha @ Kaz
We had these when I was in kindergarten (early 80's). Lot's of fun but you can also get hurt/hurt someone quite badly with them once you start swinging that metal scoop around.
Oh my...this was by far my brothers FAVORITE play thing at our local play ground growing up. He was totally into backhoes in general (had a huge ass Tonka one that he SLEPT WITH every night), and would cry great big crocodile tears anytime we got to the park and some other kid was having a go. He lives in the desert now, I bet this would make a great lawn ornament...
We were in Bath (UK) last summer, and found a massive playground that had at least 4 or 5 of these. Absolutely amazing and so much fun for the little ones. A real coordination challenge, too.
Jardin d'acclimitation in Paris has a huge sandlot with about 20 of these babies. Very popular...with my husband especially. He didn't think twice about joining the preschool set last time we were there with Noisette.
Never seen it in person, but it looks sweet:
Kettler Digger
A good book:
Dig Dig Digging!
Can anyone tell me where I could buy this toy backhoe?
thanks,
Colleen
[aren't there some links above? -ed.]
There is a much larger digger I have found for dads and it even has swivling beer holders on it.
I found it at a park in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
I have since ordered one for our park here in Maple Plain Mn.The web site shown on the digger was www.you can buy from me with confidence, even though I'm being deceptive about pretending to be a customer, not the Google-jacking online seller.com
[beer holders on a piece of playground equipment in a public park? I doubt it. and anyway, I didn't see it on the site, just a bunch of "order me!" links and Google ads. -ed.]