Depot guide

Building a site from three trucks

The smallest set of vehicles that gives a child a full working loop, and what to add next.

The loop, in three vehicles

A construction site is a loop: something digs, something carries, something tips. Give a child those three jobs and the play becomes self-sustaining, because finishing one task creates the next. In our range the cheapest complete loop is an excavator or dig rig, a dump truck with a working bed, and a loader — either a skid steer loader or a wheel loader with forks. Everything after that is enrichment.

What to add fourth

Once the loop exists, the most useful fourth vehicle is a long hauler or transport, because it changes the scale of the story: the spoil is no longer going across the rug, it is going to another site. After that, a crane truck adds the vertical axis and a forklift adds precision work. Rescue vehicles are the other direction entirely — they give the site a reason to go wrong, which children love.

Accessories do more than they look like they do

Cones, barriers, a worker figure and a wagon cost almost nothing and transform the floor. Cones define where the site is, a barrier creates a rule to break, and a worker figure gives a child somebody to speak as. Most of our construction sets include these in the box precisely because the play drops off sharply without them.

Storing a site so it survives

Keep the small accessories in one box with the vehicles rather than loose, keep the trailer attached to its tractor unit, and take the batteries out of anything heading for the loft. A site that is quick to set up gets used; a site that takes ten minutes to find stays in the cupboard. That is the whole trick.