I wouldn’t go so far as to say that a kid’s enjoyment of a toy and their parents’ enjoyment of that same toy are inversely proportional, but I will say that most parents, myself included, are big fans of peace and quiet - and preserving the integrity of our baseboards. But when we see our children absolutely enraptured by a toy day after day, it makes the scuffed baseboards and screaming headaches a little more bearable.

Paz’s Radio Control Fire Truck from the Discovery Channel Store is a pre-schooler’s dream - “It’s fun! It lights up, it’s brightly coloured, the ladder goes up and down when the truck’s in motion and it makes noise. When you’re two and a half, it’s hard not to love a toy with those qualities.” One mother confided: “I don’t generally buy plastic toys but I caved when I agreed to do the review after showing [my daughter] a picture of it online and watching her lose her mind.”

Another mother is saving it for her son’s birthday, which falls just before Christmas: “I couldn’t resist testing out the radio control car before I wrapped it. One thing I hated being a kid was that I would get this fantastic gift but then had to wait what seemed like forever for my parents to assemble it, so I like to try to go ahead and get the toys working before I wrap them.” And she’s right on track - this toy is packaged extremely securely: “The thing was locked down tighter than Fort Knox; at one point I had to bust out [my husband's] pliers to get those wire twist tie thingies undone. PLIERS. To open a plastic fire truck. Seriously, does it really need to be packaged that heavily?”

In the interest of full disclosure, the bloggers admitted that the fire truck does have drawbacks, insofar as parents are concerned anyway. It’s noisy - “It has a siren. A loud siren. A few minutes of the siren blaring is all I can handle before I want to bash my head against the wall and as far as I can see, there’s no volume control.” - and other parents should be forewarned that it needs to be shut off via a switch - “It’s got an easy on/off switch, but because [my daughter] insisted on SLEEPING with the truck on the night it arrived I happened to find that switch around 3am the next morning…” And the kids tossed aside the accompanying “firefighters”: “The four plastic characters that come with it are useless. It’s almost as though they were thrown in with the truck as extras instead of being made to fit it exclusively - in short, they’re awkward. [My son] had no interest in them whatsoever…”

But the kids adore it: “This truck is all about movement. It’s got an easy to use remote control that enabled [my daughter] to learn how to practice hand eye coordination and even a dose of patience while she figured out how to maneuver the control to steer the truck around the kitchen without smacking it into walls.” And the durability and indoor/outdoor nature make it a winner: “It’s durable…[My son] had the fire truck bashing around all over the place and it kept coming back for more. It can be used outdoors. We first got the fire truck when it didn’t feel like a deep freezer outside, so I let [my son] rip it around in the driveway for a while and he had a blast.”

The Lift-Off Rocket went over big with kids and parents alike, especially in terms of how it sparks imaginative play. One blogger commented: “It’s a toy that does take a couple batteries in order to power its blast-off sounds, but it is mostly powered by imagination.” Another agreed: “If you’re sick of toys that your kids just watch, the toys that don’t require interaction, this is a nice compromise. It has a bit of flash and show (with the lift off noises and lights), but your kids will really need their imaginations to bring this toy to life.” And a third felt the same way: “I’m often not a huge fan of toys with batteries, but this one is a very nice compromise because its compartments and gadgets offer so much room for creative play.”

As before, both parents and kids were entranced by the detailed interior of the rocket, which easily led to play scenarios: “In [my daughter's] imagination, the little animal astronauts would have breakfast in one of the rocket’s compartments and take a nap on the fold-down bed in the other. Maybe while Commander Bunny Astronaut was talking to Houston, Commander Lamby-kins was rolling along on the space buggy exploring the little moon crater (all included with the Rocket).” Interestingly, one blogger’s children “love not just launching the rocket, but pretending to be living on the moon” using the moon crater, but another blogger reported that: “My 4 year-old had no interest in the moon crater.”
It’s also durable - the kids liked to “fly the rocket around the house, but unfortunately it has frequently fallen back to earth. It looks none the worse from its travels.” And the detachable doors were also mentioned briefly: “The doors to the rockets do come off, but they’re intended to do so and pop back in easily. The doors really need to pop off to keep kids from breaking them off during play, so don’t be concerned if one pops off on your child.”

Finally, one mother was especially impressed when she found “the library has the exact same rocket in the Discovery Room, except instead of animal astronauts, they have people astronauts…Because I adore our library and our children’s librarians, I see their endorsement of the rocket as a good sign.”

The Discovery Channel Store has definitely scored with both the Radio Control Fire Truck and the Lift-Off Rocket. While one may be better suited to your child than the other, they’re both winners!