Toylander build thread!
Discussion
So as I have a passion for Land Rovers, a double garage, and an 18 month old who is obsessed with anything with a steering wheel, clearly it was time to build a Toylander. The only questions were was it to be a Series 1 or a Series 2, and does the PH build thread go in H, G & DIY, Scale Models or Land Rovers?
For those not familiar with these, it's a child's electric powered Land Rover (although Jeeps, tractors etc also available). They ain't cheap...£3950.00 for a factory built one is more than I paid originally for my Defender, and a complete kit is still nearly £1600.00. So I am doing it on the cheap, building as much as possible myself, and using as much mobility scooter running gear as possible, and fabricating/welding all steel parts where I can. I decided on the S2, as it's closer to my Defender, which can be used as a source of measurements etc!
However, eBay and Gumtree are littered with some real abominations...many pretending to be Toylanders where they look more like a plywood armoured scooter, often with terrible proportions, small wheels, and awful finishes. So I really want to do mine, sorry, his...properly, and make some improvements to the basic design along the way. Paint finish, and attention to detail is everything on these...here is a factory car, and it looks nice...
However, I reckon I can do better, with improvements in the following areas:
-Routed panel lines (doors, sills etc)
-Proper routed recesses door handles and "lift up" handles/lock barrel
-Panel gaps in the front wings, the joins between tops/fronts/sides should be obvious
-Double check windscreen and bulkhead height as it looks a bit tall
-Windscreen should taper in at the top, it's not parallel sided on an Series vehicle
-Rout/recess the windscreen hinges into the bulkhead
-Kit indicators are way too big and way too low. And where are the signature Landy sidelights?
-Some rivet detail down the sides would break up the uncharacteristically smooth flanks!
-At the back, I'll route a slot to make the rear panel and rear crossmember look separate. All of the painted trim (galvanised cappings on the real thing) will be made from sheet material "riveted" on. More plates to represent chassis to body mounts.
-Door hinges...the doors don't open, but some later style SIII hinge dummies will be easy to make and break the sides up a bit more.
-Fuel cap, wipers, and some interior detail such as 3 front seats, a biscuit tin heater and the classic red/yellow/black gear knobs
-Bagding-proper LR stuff if possible, perhaps a GB sticker, little period tax disc, and number plates
-And it's got to be a factory colour, mid grey with limestone wheels is my current favourite
Anyway, here's what we have so far...it's early days obviously!
One of these bad boys, a Pride XL8 scooter. Purchased from Gumtree minus a seat and batteries for £48.00. It will donate the motor, transaxle/diff, wiring loom, and some suspension components. Looking at eBay, I reckon I can sell the remaining parts and get my £48.00 back.
One excited 18m old boy, one 31 year old Defender 110, a local timber yard, 2 sheets of waterproof 12mm MDF (the green stuff) and 19mm square batten...
Lots of chopping and I now have this...
Now Toylander sell all of the parts, however I want to be a bit ingenious and tight where I can be. For example, the proper light kit is about £90, which seems a lot, so I managed to track down motorcycle foglights at £20 a pair, which once stripped down are perfect for the job, especially with some cheap H3 LED bulbs fitted to conserve battery power, and IMHO look better than the kit items. I've also managed to source some small round LED lights in white, red, and amber which will be a much better scale representation of the other lights...and far easier on the wallet at £2 each from eBay!
Anyway, now I have cut out all the MDF parts, time to do all the drilling/routing etc on these, and start to build the body tub. Updates to follow!
For those not familiar with these, it's a child's electric powered Land Rover (although Jeeps, tractors etc also available). They ain't cheap...£3950.00 for a factory built one is more than I paid originally for my Defender, and a complete kit is still nearly £1600.00. So I am doing it on the cheap, building as much as possible myself, and using as much mobility scooter running gear as possible, and fabricating/welding all steel parts where I can. I decided on the S2, as it's closer to my Defender, which can be used as a source of measurements etc!
However, eBay and Gumtree are littered with some real abominations...many pretending to be Toylanders where they look more like a plywood armoured scooter, often with terrible proportions, small wheels, and awful finishes. So I really want to do mine, sorry, his...properly, and make some improvements to the basic design along the way. Paint finish, and attention to detail is everything on these...here is a factory car, and it looks nice...
However, I reckon I can do better, with improvements in the following areas:
-Routed panel lines (doors, sills etc)
-Proper routed recesses door handles and "lift up" handles/lock barrel
-Panel gaps in the front wings, the joins between tops/fronts/sides should be obvious
-Double check windscreen and bulkhead height as it looks a bit tall
-Windscreen should taper in at the top, it's not parallel sided on an Series vehicle
-Rout/recess the windscreen hinges into the bulkhead
-Kit indicators are way too big and way too low. And where are the signature Landy sidelights?
-Some rivet detail down the sides would break up the uncharacteristically smooth flanks!
-At the back, I'll route a slot to make the rear panel and rear crossmember look separate. All of the painted trim (galvanised cappings on the real thing) will be made from sheet material "riveted" on. More plates to represent chassis to body mounts.
-Door hinges...the doors don't open, but some later style SIII hinge dummies will be easy to make and break the sides up a bit more.
-Fuel cap, wipers, and some interior detail such as 3 front seats, a biscuit tin heater and the classic red/yellow/black gear knobs
-Bagding-proper LR stuff if possible, perhaps a GB sticker, little period tax disc, and number plates
-And it's got to be a factory colour, mid grey with limestone wheels is my current favourite
Anyway, here's what we have so far...it's early days obviously!
One of these bad boys, a Pride XL8 scooter. Purchased from Gumtree minus a seat and batteries for £48.00. It will donate the motor, transaxle/diff, wiring loom, and some suspension components. Looking at eBay, I reckon I can sell the remaining parts and get my £48.00 back.
One excited 18m old boy, one 31 year old Defender 110, a local timber yard, 2 sheets of waterproof 12mm MDF (the green stuff) and 19mm square batten...
Lots of chopping and I now have this...
Now Toylander sell all of the parts, however I want to be a bit ingenious and tight where I can be. For example, the proper light kit is about £90, which seems a lot, so I managed to track down motorcycle foglights at £20 a pair, which once stripped down are perfect for the job, especially with some cheap H3 LED bulbs fitted to conserve battery power, and IMHO look better than the kit items. I've also managed to source some small round LED lights in white, red, and amber which will be a much better scale representation of the other lights...and far easier on the wallet at £2 each from eBay!
Anyway, now I have cut out all the MDF parts, time to do all the drilling/routing etc on these, and start to build the body tub. Updates to follow!
I've inherited one a few years ago for my boys that my dad built for my nephews who have grown out of it. Just need to sort the wiring to get it running again and tidy up the bodywork.
I was looking on their website the other day and noticed they no longer make our model, guess that's no surprise given it must be ~20 years old!
I was looking on their website the other day and noticed they no longer make our model, guess that's no surprise given it must be ~20 years old!
A bit like the ride on or drive yourself toys you can get in Halfords, they're toys for Dads, kiddies aren't really interested in them and after 5 mins will want to play with something else.
I bought a ride on remote controlled one from Ebay and 3 yr old grandson played in it for allotted 5 mins and never shown any interest since. Chatted to manager of local Maplins about them, he had an offer on and tried to sell me one and he said they're all sold to Dad's kiddies aren't really keen.
From OP's pov, OK build it for the fun and challenge for you but please don't think your little monkey will spend hours playing with it - he won't
I bought a ride on remote controlled one from Ebay and 3 yr old grandson played in it for allotted 5 mins and never shown any interest since. Chatted to manager of local Maplins about them, he had an offer on and tried to sell me one and he said they're all sold to Dad's kiddies aren't really keen.
From OP's pov, OK build it for the fun and challenge for you but please don't think your little monkey will spend hours playing with it - he won't
ColinM50 said:
A bit like the ride on or drive yourself toys you can get in Halfords, they're toys for Dads, kiddies aren't really interested in them and after 5 mins will want to play with something else.
I bought a ride on remote controlled one from Ebay and 3 yr old grandson played in it for allotted 5 mins and never shown any interest since. Chatted to manager of local Maplins about them, he had an offer on and tried to sell me one and he said they're all sold to Dad's kiddies aren't really keen.
From OP's pov, OK build it for the fun and challenge for you but please don't think your little monkey will spend hours playing with it - he won't
Bit of a generalisation there I think. Kids IME like your attention and stuff that you do together more than they like 'stuff'. If you buy them something and leave them to it they generally get bored quickly, whereas if they're involved in the process of building as much as possible (tricky with an 18 month old I admit I bought a ride on remote controlled one from Ebay and 3 yr old grandson played in it for allotted 5 mins and never shown any interest since. Chatted to manager of local Maplins about them, he had an offer on and tried to sell me one and he said they're all sold to Dad's kiddies aren't really keen.
From OP's pov, OK build it for the fun and challenge for you but please don't think your little monkey will spend hours playing with it - he won't
) and using it when finished is something that you do together, then they stay interested - IME.ColinM50 said:
A bit like the ride on or drive yourself toys you can get in Halfords, they're toys for Dads, kiddies aren't really interested in them and after 5 mins will want to play with something else.
I bought a ride on remote controlled one from Ebay and 3 yr old grandson played in it for allotted 5 mins and never shown any interest since. Chatted to manager of local Maplins about them, he had an offer on and tried to sell me one and he said they're all sold to Dad's kiddies aren't really keen.
From OP's pov, OK build it for the fun and challenge for you but please don't think your little monkey will spend hours playing with it - he won't
Wow - quite the generalising buzzkill aren't you, Colin?I bought a ride on remote controlled one from Ebay and 3 yr old grandson played in it for allotted 5 mins and never shown any interest since. Chatted to manager of local Maplins about them, he had an offer on and tried to sell me one and he said they're all sold to Dad's kiddies aren't really keen.
From OP's pov, OK build it for the fun and challenge for you but please don't think your little monkey will spend hours playing with it - he won't
To give an alternative perspective on a similar sample of one child, my lad loves his (electric motor self built tractor), almost as much as his bike. When I get home with him every day, after he's had his tea, he's out on them both for around an hour before bath and bed time.
OP - especially as you have a LR, I'd wager he'll love it and want to be 'just like Daddy'.
Glassman...you've lost me with the Breitling pic...go on then...
Colin...there's always that risk, however this is the little guy who will amuse himself for a full hour just sat on the ride on mower in my garage wearing out the steering linkage, whose first proper sentence was "want to go in brmm brmm now" whist gesticulating wildly at the Defender, and whilst sat surrounded by a pile of Peppa Pig and Twirly Woos books, ignored them all in favour of the Toylander build manual which was studied intently for 20 minutes with much pointing and "car!" comments.
And if it does one day just start gathering dust, I can sell it and put the not inconsiderable sum of cash a well built one commands into his first proper car fund. Or, perhaps buy a proper Series 3 project with the proceeds that we can rebuild together as dad and son, (assuming you can still drive diesel cars by 2032!) unless by that point all he's interested in is getting pissed, chasing girls and going to festivals. In which case, be nice if we can do that together too ;-)
Colin...there's always that risk, however this is the little guy who will amuse himself for a full hour just sat on the ride on mower in my garage wearing out the steering linkage, whose first proper sentence was "want to go in brmm brmm now" whist gesticulating wildly at the Defender, and whilst sat surrounded by a pile of Peppa Pig and Twirly Woos books, ignored them all in favour of the Toylander build manual which was studied intently for 20 minutes with much pointing and "car!" comments.
And if it does one day just start gathering dust, I can sell it and put the not inconsiderable sum of cash a well built one commands into his first proper car fund. Or, perhaps buy a proper Series 3 project with the proceeds that we can rebuild together as dad and son, (assuming you can still drive diesel cars by 2032!) unless by that point all he's interested in is getting pissed, chasing girls and going to festivals. In which case, be nice if we can do that together too ;-)
AWRacing said:
I've inherited one a few years ago for my boys that my dad built for my nephews who have grown out of it. Just need to sort the wiring to get it running again and tidy up the bodywork.
I was looking on their website the other day and noticed they no longer make our model, guess that's no surprise given it must be ~20 years old!
This is the same one that my girls have. They live in theirs and I e just repainted it but with just a single driving wheel it's struggling to ferry both of them about. Currently toying with fitting a second motor as I'm not sure there is a more powerful single option?I was looking on their website the other day and noticed they no longer make our model, guess that's no surprise given it must be ~20 years old!
Well I'm finally at the stage where all the bits I cut out in the shape of the "blanks" have all been trimmed to size, holes drilled, details routed in etc...so finally I can start screwing it together!! 
The small LED side/tail/indicator lamps arrived and look really good. OK they could be a bit "rounder" but with an O-ring around the base should look the part, and certainly much more in scale than the big Toylander lamps. I've also sourced wheels, and some GRP plate material that will make my improved version of the bulkhead ends/windscreen supports, without using the big crude metal ones as per plans. I'll also use that plate to blank off the back of the door handle recesses. These are not on the plans at all, Toylander will supply stickers to represent the handles but I don't like them, so I just copied the measurements from my 110 and scaled it down. (One for uber Land Rover geeks, yes my 110 being a really early one does have Series style lift up handles rather than push button jobbies)
And best of all, a guy I know vaguely has given me access to his workshop to use his lathe/mill etc, so the few bits that I'll need to machine I can do myself on his equipment. Adds a bit more interest and keeps it all my own work.
Three bits where I have "cheated" though are using the Toylander ready-rolled aluminium bonnet skin, as this apparently can be a nightmare to get right. Ditto the ally wing front curved panels, and the vac formed dash panel and instrument stickers. These are all highly visible and could really detract from the final finish if not done right. However I am going to try and have the instruments behind perspex "glass".
More to follow when assembly finally starts!
The small LED side/tail/indicator lamps arrived and look really good. OK they could be a bit "rounder" but with an O-ring around the base should look the part, and certainly much more in scale than the big Toylander lamps. I've also sourced wheels, and some GRP plate material that will make my improved version of the bulkhead ends/windscreen supports, without using the big crude metal ones as per plans. I'll also use that plate to blank off the back of the door handle recesses. These are not on the plans at all, Toylander will supply stickers to represent the handles but I don't like them, so I just copied the measurements from my 110 and scaled it down. (One for uber Land Rover geeks, yes my 110 being a really early one does have Series style lift up handles rather than push button jobbies)
And best of all, a guy I know vaguely has given me access to his workshop to use his lathe/mill etc, so the few bits that I'll need to machine I can do myself on his equipment. Adds a bit more interest and keeps it all my own work.
Three bits where I have "cheated" though are using the Toylander ready-rolled aluminium bonnet skin, as this apparently can be a nightmare to get right. Ditto the ally wing front curved panels, and the vac formed dash panel and instrument stickers. These are all highly visible and could really detract from the final finish if not done right. However I am going to try and have the instruments behind perspex "glass".
More to follow when assembly finally starts!
ColinM50 said:
From OP's pov, OK build it for the fun and challenge for you but please don't think your little monkey will spend hours playing with it - he won't
I disagree - obviously this will depend upon the individual child but if I'd had that when I was a very small boy I'd never have been out of it. I'd have been exploring everywhere in it, taking it on holiday - I'd have had to have had a trailer though. That should go for miles and miles and miles on the scooter setup too.I wish I was about 3 again and the OP was my dad!
I went to the Kelmarsh Land Rover show at the weekend, where there were several Toylanders there. My son sat in one and loved it...we had the inevitable histrionics when I got him out, although it's amazing how quick a tantrum dissipates when the Red Devils parachute into the arena ring mid hissy fit!
Anyway, I've actually started to "build" rather than just "cut" now. It seems to all be going together nice and squarely, in these pics the front panel is just held in with a slight interference fit which is a good sign...
Anyway, I've actually started to "build" rather than just "cut" now. It seems to all be going together nice and squarely, in these pics the front panel is just held in with a slight interference fit which is a good sign...
Hard-Drive said:
I went to the Kelmarsh Land Rover show at the weekend, where there were several Toylanders there. My son sat in one and loved it...we had the inevitable histrionics when I got him out, although it's amazing how quick a tantrum dissipates when the Red Devils parachute into the arena ring mid hissy fit!
I was thinking about this thread yesterday when I was looking at my friends FB pics (he's one of those 4x4 response walts) - there was a pic of a Toylander with a trailer full of kids, it looked like it might have had a petrol engine too with an exhaust exiting through the top of the wing.Excellent project! I'll be following this one with interest as I've just bought the instructions for the Unimog and am intending to do the same as you and fabricate/build as much of it myself as possible, adding a few extra details as I go along. Sadly I don't have a 1:1 scale example of my own to reference 
Al
Al
ColinM50 said:
A bit like the ride on or drive yourself toys you can get in Halfords, they're toys for Dads, kiddies aren't really interested in them and after 5 mins will want to play with something else.
I bought a ride on remote controlled one from Ebay and 3 yr old grandson played in it for allotted 5 mins and never shown any interest since. Chatted to manager of local Maplins about them, he had an offer on and tried to sell me one and he said they're all sold to Dad's kiddies aren't really keen.
From OP's pov, OK build it for the fun and challenge for you but please don't think your little monkey will spend hours playing with it - he won't
This most definitely isn't the case for all, my grandfather bought me a jeep when I was too short to even reach the pedals, and my father would have to walk behind me with a broom to push the pedals! I would use it all the time to the extent that I went through three motors and countless batteries and only stopped using it when I progressed to petrol powered gear!I bought a ride on remote controlled one from Ebay and 3 yr old grandson played in it for allotted 5 mins and never shown any interest since. Chatted to manager of local Maplins about them, he had an offer on and tried to sell me one and he said they're all sold to Dad's kiddies aren't really keen.
From OP's pov, OK build it for the fun and challenge for you but please don't think your little monkey will spend hours playing with it - he won't
OP this looks like a fantastic build and I'm sure your lad will spend many hours using it.
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