Working wooden digger toy
Holz Toys's wooden digger toy sports two levers that allow kids to actually scoop up sand and move it around.
Link (via Babygadget)
The best addition to the sandpit you’ll ever see. The children were all desperate to have a go and it was fascinating to see how quickly and intuitively they grasped the concept behind the twin lever action. In no time at all sand was being meticulously moved from one corner of the sandpit to the other and back again. Needs a cover if to be kept outside permanently. Length 115.cm.
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We've had these in Central Pennsylvania for a while. I played with one when I was a kid, only they were made of metal, and you could injure other kids with it. Probably why they stopped making them, and why we're seeing new ones show up in wooden form.
I hope they make a comeback so my daughter can grow up with them.
Seattle City playgrounds have lots of these. Metal of course for durability. They are strong enough to handle me (230 pounds) and my boy loves playing with them.
i grew up in the late seventies and all the playgrounds had these built in, standard. now all the playgrounds are made of bark chips and fiberglass. sad.
We had a similar "toy" when I was a kid. I remember it was taken off to the Island of Misfit Toys after my brother used the thing to dig right into my sister's head. You can hardly see the scar anymore.
This let's the kids can have fun burying the deceased family pet.
There are free plans for something almost exactly like it on www.vintageprojects.com.
I have been fantasizing about building one since before my two-year-old was born... probably more for myself than for him, come to think of it.
When I was a kid, I had a friend rip into my foot with the metal version of one of these. Bled all over the place.
I love those things to death. I want one as an adult, now.
I remember playing on a metal one of these at anchor park in Farragut, Tennessee long ago. That was probably one of the best reasons to go to that park as a 6 year old.
There was also a very large motorized one (though the same mechanical design) positioned over a ball pit at the Adventure Science Center in Nashville. I tried to find a picture, but couldn't.
We had toys like this back in the 60s. They probably existed even further back. They were great fun.
I'm constantly amazed at how many old things show up here as if they were something new and amazing.
Rats - I thought the link was to some plans to actually make one...
"I'm constantly amazed at how many old things show up here as if they were something new and amazing."
BoingBoing's not "a directory of new things." To me, something old that's still fun deserves a post even more than the latest fad.
Cory,
You've been posting many items related to babies & children lately. Is there something you're not telling us?
I am jealous of everyone on this post... I have never had the pleasure of playing on one of these.
sad face.
#12, check out the most recent Hacker Crackdown readings from Cory's podcast feed.
@10
There are plans for building them at the link above. They're in a pdf linked at the bottom of the blurb, How to Build a Sandbox Backhoe Plans. Easy to miss - it looks like the header for the ads below it.
Direct link to plans:
http://www.vintageprojects.com/kids/backhoe-2.pdf
I had something a lot like this when I was a kid, with similar twin-lever controls. The bucket was a two-part metal contraption that hinged open like a mouth to dump the sand at its destination - I worked it with a string that came over the digging arm.
I submit that mine was far more awesome than the item in your picture because it was fully mobile, being mounted on a red and blue wooden truck. The cab of the truck formed my seat when I worked the digger arm, and when it was done I could fold the arm back and drive the truck around my finished sand constructions.
It was basically one of the best things I have ever owned to date.
Ah - now that I look at it, the bucket on this digger scoops when the arm goes *down* towards the digger, rather than up and away from it. Yep, mine was definitely better. :)
They are all over the playgrounds in my area (the metal ones) and we play with them all the time.
Who cares about kids. I want one of those for me. Kids already have a lot of cool stuff