BigSmall was desperate for a remote controlled pick-up for Christmas…
We farmed out the request to other members of the family who have not undertaken such a crazy task to buy nothing new, and said pick-up truck was duly wodged down the chimney on Christmas Eve.
Unfortunately the battery pack didn’t work properly (hubby managed to cobble it together with blu-tack to avoid a Christmas morning meltdown) and there was no cover for the battery pack, so it had to go back to the North Pole…
It’s replacement soon arrived. In an enormous box. I thought to myself “that’s ok, it can’t really be that big inside, it must just be the packaging”…
But it wasn’t, and it was…
This thing is HUGE. A real monster truck!
Needless to say, BigSmall (and hubby) is delighted.
I was loathe to throw the box away, as it was begging to be made into something. I asked BigSmall what he wanted to make it into, and he said a fire-engine. So a fire-engine it is!
I would like to point out the following special Make Do and Mend features…
It has a ladder (obviously. All fire engines need a ladder)
And handles for ease of ‘driving’
I am slightly concerned that it is lacking a hose though…
So, although BigSmall is chuffed to bits with his remote controlled pick-up truck, he is just as chuffed with his cardboard box fire-engine….
And it can be recycled when
it has been trashed by over-excited Small people he has had enough of it!
I **ADORE** your fire engine. And totally agree, that the best present is often the box something came in in!! Hooray for make do and mend!
Thanks so much Maggy!
I think this is fabulous, they say kids can get more excited about the box than they toy, in this case I reckon they’re right. A brilliant dose of inginuity here – who says kids toys all have to be hi-tech? Well done. :o)
Thanks Jo. It has provided us with hours of fun so far!
Fab, fab, fab. As I told you when I saw this at it’s beginnings on Twitter: My children will not be shown this, it’s too brilliant!
Anyone can do it. All you need is a box and some red paint! Give it a go 🙂
Ace! Your cardboard confection is much more visually impressive but a few years ago I made a house out of a very big but shallowish box from one of them car roof top box storage thingies. I cut in windows and a door (inc fully working letter box – a very popular feature as you can imagine) and drew on some very rudimentary window boxes etc – it was just about big enough to accommodate two preschoolers and despite much to – ing and fro – ing lasted about four months! They weren’t remotely interested in the car roof top box storage thingy, mind. TYPICAL KIDS, eh?!
PS ta for the twitter follow…
Hi Sarah
Martin Lewis, the money saving expert, did a whole thing on kids and cardboard boxes,an dhow they are quite happy with just an empty cardboard box, just before Christmas! They are certainly value for money. I bet a letterbox was very exciting..!
I do like Martin Lewis. I also heard him rail against excessive present buying (ie for teachers, the milkman, your favourite radio 2 DJ etc) before Christmas. Jeremy Vine chose to wilfully misunderstand him and cast him as a scrooge…
That was based on the fab article he wrote in the Telegraph(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/9689707/Martin-Lewis-Its-time-to-ban-Christmas-presents.html) about banning Christmas presents-made a lots of sense, on both financial and ‘green’ ways
Gosh . This made me smile and made me wish my kids were young again. My daughter and I made a rather fetching cooker with a cardboard box one summer, with raised bak for dials. Fab days…
It goes so quick doesn’t it-have to remember that sometimes.. Thanks for reading Judith 🙂
What a fantastic idea! Brilliant and just how kids should be encouraged to play to build their imagination!
Thankyou! I think we enjoyed it almost as much as him 🙂
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