Toy State’s CAT Excavator and Dump Truck Have Turned our Living Room Into a Construction Zone

Yesterday was a crazy day for our household. My wife’s alarm didn’t go off (thanks Apple for the software update) and, in her rush out the door, she forgot to leave the car seat. I wouldn’t normally mind a father/son day at home, but I had three phone interviews lined up. I needed to find a way to keep my son entertained and to reward him for staying quiet during my job interviews.

One of the easiest ways to grab my son’s attention is with a new toy. And because it was especially important to keep him occupied, I upped the ante by introducing two new toys: the CAT Construct Dough Excavator and CAT Metal Machines Dump Truck from toy State. A big thanks goes to Toy State for sending us the toys to try out!

The Construct Dough Excavator is a really neat toy that my son played with the entire day. The excavator functions as a Play-Doh extruder. You just place some Play-Doh in the back, pull down on the claw, and your dough comes out the back in one of three shapes. The grey Play-Doh appropriately looked like cement and came in an orange construction barrel. You can use the construction barrel to stamp eight different road sign designs into the dough. Or you can just drive the excavator through the Play-Doh and make track marks, like I would do if I were a kid again.

The second bribe toy my son received was a CAT Metal Machines Bulldozer. The neat thing about this toy is the solid, diecast construction. The dump truck was created at a 1:101 scale and is fully articulated, so it looks and moves just like the real thing. Or in the case of our household, the solid construction was more than enough to withstand the payload of Play-Doh it hauled throughout the day.

The toys worked like magic and kept my son enthralled during my calls and through the rest of the day. When my wife arrived home from work, my son immediately rushed over to show her the construction equipment and then demonstrated how the Play-Doh extruder worked. And of course, the real fun came from then flatting out the Play-Doh by running it over with the dump truck.

Thanks again to Toy State for providing these toys for us to try out. As you can see, my son loved them!