Customer Reviews

Plan Toys City Series Parking Garage

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

We got this for my son last week for his fourth birthday. He loves it! It's the pefect size for all his Matchbox, Hot Wheels, and other diecast cars. It was also amazingly easy to assemble and seems sturdier than some of the other toy garages I've seen. This one's a winner at our house!

Wonderful, wonderful! I had never heard of PLAN Toys prior to purchasing this garage for my twin grandsons, but I would love to buy ALL of their products. It is wood, not plastic, great colors, easy to assemble and unbelievably sturdy. The elevator structure is amazing and the boys were thrilled with it. An absolutely first-rate toy - forget Fisher Price or any of the others. Am on a search for more PLAN toys! Worth twice as much as I paid for it if not more!!

I really wanted to like the Parking Garage and PlanToys as a company. The company is eco friendly, has good looking toys and uses real wood. The concept is excellent -- a moving elevator, ramps for parking on multiple levels, well marked parking spots, a parking attendant that sits and stands, gas pumps, a car wash and a heli-pad. What's not obvious is that only a single car is included. This should be clearly marked. There is no helicopter either. Ever see a single car in a parking garage. It's lonely. Despite this, my son has been playing with the garage on and off and seems to enjoy it. One design issue is that the gas pumps are very difficult to reach. They are exciting but impossible to play with. My big issue with the toy however is that the red wood has come apart from the second floor after about a weeks worth of occasional play. In contrast we have many Haba toys that are true quality wood and last forever. I was expecting significantly more given the price of this toy. I will contact the manufacturer for some sort of resolution. Will post follow-up.

We bought this for my sons birthday last week. HE and my daughter, ages 2 and 4 (and my husband) have been playing with it every day since then. They both love it.

I wasn't expecting the ramps to come off so easy, but my 4 yr old can put them back on herself and a little wood glue will secure them. Also the attendent booth and car wash are not attaced which I wasn't expecting.

My sons, 3 and 18 mos, have both enjoyed this garage. It was fairly easy to assemble, and has held up better than the plastic one we had originally bought. It has this neat elevator that carries the cars up and down. One note: I was under the impression that several little wooden cars came with the garage, but in fact, only one was included. However, my kids use their other Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars on it without any problem. I'm considering looking into other products from this manufacturer.

I'm a fan of Plan Toys and was very excited to buy this item for my 23-month old (car crazy) son. The garage has been a disappointment to us both overall, and here is why:

1. It's smaller than I expected it to be.
2. Unless it's elevated on a table or other object, it it is hard to play with. If it's on the ground it's virtually impossible to use the bottom deck (where the gas pumps are), and pretty hard to use the middle deck as well.
3. It doesn't work too well with matchbox cars and trucks; you really do need to us Plan Toys' (small lighweight) little cars - other vehicles are just too big.
4. The two ramps just rest on two little pegs at the top of each, so they come off all the time. They were not designed to be permenently affixed to the structure, so unless you crazy glue them down they will pop off a lot. Very bad design! Also, even when they are on their pegs they are not flush against the garage, and the little gap means cars don't roll down very easily. We got around this last problem by crazy-gluing the ramps to the garage.

UPDATE: A year and a half later now and my son plays with this garage quite often. One of our recent discoveries about this garage is that Thomas the Train tracks can be plugged right into it. The holes they plug into are designed for Plan Toys road tracks, but fit perfectly with train tracks. This gave a whole new life to this garage! My son loves to incorporate into his train track configurations so that the trains drive through and/or up it on their travels. This toy has proved more lasting and fun than it appeared at first that it would.

I really wanted to love this toy. Overall, it is very sturdy and super cute. We had the old version, where the elevator hangs off to the side, which is still being sold in some places. The old version has a bigger elevator - hence the "It does/does not fit matchbox cars" confusion. The old version was supposed to have been discontinued in 2008ish but it is still being sold in some places - we just got it, for Christmas 2010.

Our elevator broke within ONE DAY.

Plan agreed to send me a new part - to their credit they are great about sending parts. In the mean time I set about fixing the old one. It's not easy getting that black knob off on top, but I managed. Basically there is a tiny piece of plastic under that black knob on top that serves as a clicker - the gear around the spool under the knob clicks against this to make the elevator ratchet up and down rather than slip when you reposition your hand. Without that clicker, the toy is very frustrating for little hands to work.

This is not a matter of a child being hard on a toy - it's a matter of poor design. So if you're hoping like I was that your kids will be easier on the toy - it won't help. I don't think my kids were rough with this.

I tried to replace the clicker that broke off with a bit of a starbucks gift card but it broke shortly, too. (I had to drill into the dowel holding it, and hold it in place with hot glue) I tried to find another sort of plastic that would be strong enough to hold up the elevator but not break under repeated stress. I tested the "cookie cards" from our grocery store, which also break under repeated stress - as well as milk jug plastic, which seemed less prone to breakage didn't hold up the elevator consistantly (too thin).

In the mean time the new part came and I thought I would put it on and see how it holds up while I work on a fix for the old part - well the replacement part was put together backwards (roof was on wrong) so it could not be installed at all. And I was down to one day left to return this toy to where I bought it.

I ended up returning this toy. I wanted to love it so bad, but the elevator is the best part of the toy, and if that is going to break all the time, no thanks. If I kept experimenting - I probably could have fixed it. I am wondering if Ziplock container plastic might work, or a different design altogether with two soft parts working against each other and relying on friction.

I am amazed at how many people report the elevator broke, but they still love it. I sense a little "I paid a lot, I will love it anyway" or else wooden toy loyalty mentality here. I bought a wooden toy hoping for long term durability but this was not the case. Overall it's very sturdy, it's just the elevator mechanism that is suspect - although a lot of people report their kids play with it just fine even when it doesn't click. My kids liked the click. HUGE disappointment. If I can find a used one for cheap, I might give perfecting the elevator another go, but for the price I paid for this, it shouldn't require major alterations right off the bat. Big let down!

I would really love to know over the long haul how many people still have a clicking elevator. Is there any reason to believe the new design is any more durable? With the new design, I am wary of them going for that string and grabbing it to see what happens - plus I just don't like how the elevator is smaller. Even the most hard core of wood loving parents will probably acquire some matchbox cars at some point - it's nice to have a toy that doesn't require such specialized add ons.

edit - yes there IS a much older (2002?) version of this toy where the elevator rides up and down on a dowel. I have found one. Why on earth would they have discontinued this method in place of the gear and ratchet which seems to cause so much trouble? I am sure the new way is cheaper but these toys are still pricey and you should get better quality for that price. It's gotta be cheaper to make it with the dowel in the first place than to send out new elevators and in some cases whole new garages when the elevators break.

edit again - I've developed an unhealthy obsession with this toy. I got another clicky elevator one where the car hangs off the side of the shaft, determined to fix it if it broke again, which it did, in 2 days. I replaced the plastic clicker with a piece of spring-steel corset stay from a shaper I bought for my wedding and which I will probably never see the inside of again. So far, it is holding up well - so if you have a garage to fix, consider giving that a try. You can buy corset stays at most fabric stores.

This is probably my son's favorite toy. He spends hours running his cars up and down the ramps and lining his cars up in various fashions. He doesn't use the elevator much even though I think this is a cool part of this toy. It could be because the elevator takes some work and dexterity that he doesn't quite have at 3. This toy is very sturdy. Two minor issues with this toy. The ramps come off easy as another reviewer said and also there are holes into the elevator shaft. I have had to take part of the garage apart on two occasions when my son found things to put in the holes. Overall a great toy.

We found this garage in a toy store. My 2 1/2 year old son already had a fisher price little people garage, so I tried to steer him away from this one. He had a gift certificate, and this was the toy he picked, out of an entire store full of options. I finally gave in and let him purchase it, and I'm very glad we did. He plays with it all the time, and I can see it will last him for many years, where he has outgrown the little people one. This is a well made, beautiful wooden toy. Yes, the ramps keep coming off, but otherwise it's great. The little man that comes with it is really cute, and the little car is adorable, too. We have added other plan city toys, and they're all well made, durable toys. they are also a perfect scale for hot wheels or matchbox cars. I highly recommend this toy for any child who likes cars.

You just don't see these well-made, old school toys anymore. Great product, delivery on-time and product was well-packaged. My 3 year old grandson LOVES it.

I have nothing bad to say.