Next week I am headed to North Hollywood to kick around in an incredible new car from Kia. I’ll be posting a full on post about that in a couple days. But, for today I’m thinking about toy cards like this Hot Wheels Hotweiler. The truck is shaped like a dog and there are mechanisms built in to make the truck’s hood , that is shaped like a dog’s mouth and teeth, bounce up and down like it is barking. The windshield and cab are made to look like eyes and ears and then in the bed of the pickup there is a heavy chain that looks like it is attached to a collar. This is number 3/10 of the “Street Beasts” set from 2017. I know that there are at least two colors out, this maroon one and also a blue one. I’m now searching for that blue one. I hope that they make a black one, too.
These are toys that we received from various toy companies for free. Opinions are our own. Amazon.com affiliate links are withing the post.
Back in 2008 we began a Christmas tradition. That year a friend of mine was having a toy drive for Christmas is for Kids, a local charity that collects toys for the area children. That first year we donated a couple of toys but then we decided that each year we would put aside some money each month so that we could make a decent toy purchase at the end of the year. That way we could give a good sized donation. Fast forward to today and we’ve been making larger and larger donations because of the work that we do through this blog. From contests to conferences and everything in between there are many toy companies that have been providing us toys each year and we give the overflow to Christmas is for Kids.
Early on Allison and I decided to involve the kids in our toy buying. We wanted to show them, from an early age that they can help people less fortunate. You may not change the world for everyone but you can start locally and help those in your immediate environment. My kids have never had any want for toys especially because of this blog. Involving Eva and Andrew in the process of selecting toys for other children is very important. This year they were fantastic in the store. Not once did they ask for any toys for themselves. The hardest thing was saying no when they choose expensive toys. I had to keep explaining that the higher the cost of the toy the less toys we could buy to help out the kids. I think we also had some lessons in math and estimating and rounding and more and also understanding how much prices are for toys came in to play as well. Andrew wanted to get a toy and thought that it was $6 but was actually $64. It gave me a chance to talk money with him.
We also recorded a video thanking many of the toy companies for sending us toys to review and some that we were not able to review but instead added to our gift donation. I wanted to recognize them here. You can see the video below. And below that a bit about the toys.
