Toylander – Made By Ed

Based on plans by Real Life Toys, this is a mini version of the Land Rover I owned at the time (see next page). It is fully working and constructed from MDF and some steel components, and powered by two 12V batteries under the bonnet driving mobility scooter motors on the rear wheels. My young family at the time enjoyed driving it round and round the village green, and it became a regular entry into the annual village carnival parade (the motors are easily powerful enough to carry adults and tow quite large trailers).

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Made By Ed

Temporarily built on top of the Toylander shell, this Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car was one of our family entries into the village carnival. It gave me a chance to dress up as the ‘Child Catcher’ with lollipops and a large net. Unfortunately we came last in our category – it turns out the judge had never seen this film and had no idea who we were supposed to be.

Smeg Toy Oven – Made By Ed

I built this as a Birthday preset for one of our young children. I copied the design of our ‘grown up’ Smeg oven and included electronics that fired up blue LEDs for the gas light flame, and played back an exact audio recording of the gas burners clicking to light and then roaring away. It wasn’t a huge hit with the kids, I certainly spent more time making it than they did playing with it.