Toylander build thread!

[Hard-Drive]

chris-5yrio said:

Lovely build. Looks awsome. I am just wondering if you ever did list the cost of building this. Would be interesing to know how it prices compared to buying it all in kit form.

Well done on the build and good to see it gives so much enjoyment!

No...I never did tot it all up. But at a rough guess...

Scooter £50
Batteries £100
EGIS unit reprogramming £50
Wood/MDF £75
Lights £30
Wheels £80
Genuine Toylander bits £300
Paint £60
Number plates £50
Fixtures, fittings £100

That's £895 so call it a grand absolute worst case scenario. The Toylander kit is £1500 which gives you a one-wheel drive single motored vehicle, although you have all the bits and obviously the pre-cut panels save a lot of faff. Chuck in another couple of hundred quid at least for 2 wheel drive and some detail

That said, with the exception of the slightly dodgy paint job, I do genuinely think my build does look a lot more realistic and unique compared to the factory build so I do think it was worth the extra hassle. Compare...



|https://thumbsnap.com/drLcJtAw[/url]

Probably worth pointing out the half scale Toylander in the above pic is a thing of wonderment...amazing bit of engineering. You can tell dickyb is a mechanical engineer and I'm a software sales guy when you look close up!!

[Hard-Drive]

So time to put the "5 minute wonder" argument to bed once and for all! The Landy has been driveable for about a year now...obviously some of that time it was still in build, my my lad loves it more and more every day. He turned 3 in December, and it's so cool for my role to have gone from having the throttle pedal in my passenger footwell and my hand on the steering wheel most of the time, to doing the throttle only and the occasional steering input, to being a passenger just in case, and finally to "you're on your own son".

Proud dad moment but his driving is amazing for a 3 year old (some of the below videos were actually before his 3rd birthday), and he now changes between 1st and 2nd gear depending on whether he wants to whizz along on open ground or crawl past an obstacle. Bless him he even moves the red 4wd lever back when it gets muddy...although of course it's only a dummy lever.

He does want to drive it as much as possible and all the work that went into it was 100% worth it, and I'm really looking forward to attending the various Land Rover and other car shows next year with it. He also understands that I built it, not bought it, and often thanks me which is really cute.

Obviously there is no need to point out that the off-road ability (very good) and run time (hours and hours and miles and miles) is infinitely better than the Maplin/Halfords jobs referred to earlier!

Fording: https://youtu.be/dgZ2ABAnEGE

More fording: https://youtu.be/chfumv6Y5Zs

Wheelspinning in the mud (listen for "come on Land Rover") https://youtu.be/XC8xRUWO26I

Mud plugging: https://youtu.be/iM53QdyAZTI

Little & large (the big one is mine and the small one goes in the Sankey trailer on the back): https://youtu.be/e3VuuM92E8k

In the trees: https://youtu.be/c5sFkFbkZOo

Edited by Hard-Drive on Wednesday 16th January 21:42

[Hard-Drive]

GIYess said:

Hes got a good grip of the steering and throttle control for his age. I let my 3yr old drive the car sometimes and he hasnt much of aconcept of steering never mind starting and stopping.

Yikes...what car are you letting him drive and can he even reach the pedals?

[Hard-Drive]

GIYess said:

Very small one. I mean he cant get to grips with steering so if he could reach he wouldnt be able to coordinate stop go steer.

My little fella can even do the gears too. Trust me, I'd rather he was as talented with a potty as he was with a gearbox but it's still a good effort!

https://youtu.be/mqy75IDIuu0

[Hard-Drive]

OFORBES said:

What an absolutely amazing thread!

I have just bought an excellent example and cannot wait to collect it.

My middle son Oscar turns two in a couple of weeks and has had one of those crappy plastic Ferrari's since Christmas and he drives it everywhere! The wife has him out in it every day so I just couldnt resist getting him one of these after wanting one myself for so long.

I wish I had the DIY skills to do what you have done Iain. That is absolutely fantastic. Massive hats off to you. What a great build, what fantastic attention to detail and what a happy boy Ben must be with it!

Aw thanks, you're very kind. It looks like the DIY skills might need to come out again as last night the inevitable happened! He's usually so good at driving unless he gets distracted which is exactly what happened! Slight bruise on the head too as he nutted the windscreen frame but he's absolutely fine and was more upset about the Landy than his head!

Soooooo glad I never bothered with a proper spray job...

[Hard-Drive]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Haha yes, but funnily enough the large fence post was fairly unscathed anyway.

Joking aside it is actually insured. There's a firm that does insurance for model traction engines and they cover Toylanders too. When we go to car shows/steam fairs etc I don't want a bill for him for driving into a person or scratching a valuable classic car! It was quite amusing filling in the form with the name and age of the main driver! Also insured against theft...a sad reality. Some utter despicable pond life scum of a sub-human stole one of these from the Peterborough Land Rover show last year. How someone could do that to a child, especially when their Dad probably spent as many hours building it as I did, is beyond me.

[Hard-Drive]

Yep, that mileage is probably right. Mine is mobility scooter powered, and they wouldn't be any good if they only did a mile. The batteries (which are big heavy AGMs) last for absolutely ages. When we go to Land Rover shows with it the expectation is that he will be driving it pretty much all day.

[Hard-Drive]

Arthurgeorge said:

What wheels did you use...
Do you think it could be possible to extend and use the drive shafts off the scooter rather than having a chain.
Thanks

Sorry, I'd not seen your question until now.

The wheels are fairly standard wheelbarrow wheels, obviously in steel not plastic. I put a piece of ally pipe through the wheel to act as a mandel, and then welded some more steel tube onto the wheelbarrow wheel to extend it, and then welded the drive sprocket onto that. I then knocked the ally tube out and fitted it all to the main axle. If you do this, be very careful and slow welding the sprocket on so the heat doesn't get to it and distort it too much.

I would advise against extending the scooter transaxle and directly bolting the wheels onto it...the wheels are way bigger than scooter wheels and the gearing will be all wrong. You could of course do what some builders do and just stick with the scooter wheels in which case it's fine, however you've probably spotted I do have a bit of an eye for scale detail and for me this was simply never an option!!

[Hard-Drive]

Demelitia said:

Just goes to show how much saving can be made over things like this;
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175559619096?mkcid=16&a...

It makes these even cooler to me.

I don't think that's bad value at all. It's a Rebel too which is a bit different to a Toylander. I spent £1000 on parts on the TL build I wrote about in this thread, plus a year of my time in the evenings etc, and there's no trailer. So I think that's a fair deal, although the feeling of pride watching my own son driving the TL I built is pretty priceless!

[Hard-Drive]

Yellowduck1959 said:

Looking at getting a Toylander for my twin Grandsons. I did have a J40 and Pathfinder but have sold them.

I am probably going down the route of a Toylander kit with pre built body to save time, but with paint and extra motor etc, the cost will be around £3500. A big part of this will be the painting. Is it possible to get a decent finish on the MDF using a brushed enamel paint?

I build Christmas mechanical displays which I hand paint in a gloss wood enamel, and providing the weather is not too hot/damp/cold, and you let it harden before rubbing down for the second / third coat, it is hard to see the brush lines.

If I ‘hand paint’ I will probably save £400 over a two pack spray job, but as this is only 10% of the cost, is it worth it….as my long departed Dad used to say…..Don’t sink the ship for a hapeth of tar……

Interested in thoughts about painting…….

Mine was a rush job to get it finished for a show in blistering heat so it wasn't great. However, and this is the big thing, you'll (hopefully) have kids having a whale of a time clambering into it in muddy welllies, putting collections of rocks and sticks in the back, and essentially learning to drive with the inevitable scrapes and bangs. IMHO the last thing you want is a pro spray job that will have you and the bank manager wincing every time the child scratches it using it for what it was intended for and having fun.

That said, if I was doing it again, I'd DIY spray it using the Paintman products Toylander recommend. These are full size 110 parts after ham fisted amateur attempts by me and I am more than happy with the finish. Compressor from Aldi (dead useful for tyres and air tools anyway) and a £50 Amazon spray gun, job done.