Melissa & Doug Children's Trunki Terrance Kids Luggage

My son opened this today as an early Christmas gift, as we will be traveling in the upcoming months. I was so excited and I had also purchased the optional Saddlebag to go with it.

At first glance, the quality looked good. Then when we tried to open the suitcase, one of the clasps popped off. We checked the instructions and there was actually a page that said that that might happen during "play," and there were instructions on how to fix it.

Suffice to say it took three adults a half an hour, a screw driver, and a file to fix the clasp. It popped back on just fine, but the plastic is cheap and so the mechanism that needed to slide was getting bent. It is possible that the first trip we take, the Trunki will break. If it does, I will return it immediately. I was really annoyed.

Also, the four "secret compartments" on the inside of the Trunki fit (seriously - my son experimented) about 5 jelly beans each. If you pushed. I have no idea what you would actually be able to put in there. I am also worried that the plastic hook that you fasten the strap to might break if the child was sitting on the luggage and being pulled.

On the plus side, there seems to be ample room inside the suitcase. The colors are nice and my son is excited to use it. I paid about 29 dollars for the Trunki. I do not think this is worth $40, but for $29, it is acceptable. As long as it doesn't break.

Update: We used this on a trip. The clasps broke off (both) and we cannot get them reattached, even the way Melissa and Doug says to. When my son sat on the Trunki in the airport, with the suitcase locked, the sides started to separate. We ended up having to tell him that he could not sit on it and my husband just carried it. Big disappointment.

Amazon DID replace this item very quickly at their expense. Hopefully the next one will be better.

Update: Second was same as first. Still no luck with the product.

Update 11/22/11: I was contacted by the company and the representative has very kindly offered to send us a new Trunki. Will keep updates coming...

To be honest with you, I could not have been more excited when I saw this product, but that is nothing compared to my son's excitement when he saw it. In fact he had come up behind me when I was looking at suitcases for our trip, and when he saw these he really, really wanted one. I admit though, that after reading other reviews about quality problems (particularly with the clasps) I did feel a bit hesitant, but I figured that the odds of us getting a deffective product had to be pretty slim, right? Wrong! Ours arrived promptly (always does when it comes from Amazon!) and I pulled it out of the box to the oohs and ahhs of my son, and it promply opens in my hands. I tried to close it because, of course the first thing my som wants to do is ride on it, but I simply could not get it to keep closed. After examining the clasp it was quite clear that the plastic pieces were already broken. Suffice it to say, we all went from being very excited to incredibly disappointed in less than two minutes. My advice, don't let your children see this-they will want one, because they are very cute, but until Melissa and Doug fix this, it is simply not worth the disappointment!

I agree with the other reviews. I also was very excited when I saw this product and in all honesty my daughter loves to ride it, but after one day of use it did not latch properly anymore. Now the only way to open it is to actually remove the latches, which is a problem when you are going through airport security and they ask you to inspect the carry on. And I know all this pulling of the latches will eventually damage or break them! So long story short, cute product, but really really bad engineering.