Dinosaur Carrier Truck

Thirteen pieces, and this is all of them. Most listings say "13 in 1" and leave you to work it out.

• 1 carrier truck. T-Rex head cab, clear hinged lid, clear side doors, six storage cells, four sound buttons on top of the head.
• 8 pull-back dinosaurs. Tyrannosaurus, stegosaurus, triceratops, a long-neck and a spike-back, in two colourways each.
• 3 die-cast vehicles. A pickup, an off-road jeep and a hovercraft.
• 1 helicopter.

Thirteen pieces for the price most brands charge for the truck on its own, and all twelve vehicles store inside it.

The whole head flips open. That is the mechanism everything else hangs off, and it is the part children work out in about four seconds.

1. Drop a vehicle in through the top of the head. It sits at the top of the ramp inside.
2. It runs down the inside of the throat. You can watch it go through the open jaw.
3. It comes out of the mouth and keeps going across the floor.

All twelve vehicles load and launch the same way, so the whole set is in play from the first minute, and the truck itself rolls on oversized off-road tyres that take carpet, tile and driveway without complaint.

Four buttons sit on a pod on top of the head, with seven sounds between them: engine start-up, reversing, the T-Rex roar, and a horn with an emergency siren.

The buttons light up as they are pressed and the eye lights up with them. In a dim room that is most of the appeal, and it is the thing reviewers single out when they say the toy arrived working: "the lights all work and the sounds are amazing."

The eight pull-back dinosaurs are spring driven and need no power at all. Only the truck's lights and sounds use batteries.

Ages 3 and up, and it has unusually long legs for a toy at this price.

• Three and four year olds live on the mouth launch and the sound buttons. It is the first toy of the day and the last one down.
• Five and six year olds start building the whole scene with it: loading runs, races, rescue missions with the helicopter.
• Seven and up still come back for the ramp, and it becomes the thing they set up for a younger brother or sister.

One toy that covers a four-year age range is why this ends up being the gift that gets remembered.

17 inches long, 6 inches tall and 4 inches wide. Nose to tail it runs the length of a child's whole forearm, which is why the first reaction is almost always to the size of it. This is a centrepiece toy. There is a photo of it next to a four year old's arm further up the page so you can see exactly what is arriving.

Moulded plastic throughout with a deep textured hide on the head, chunky off-road tyres on chrome rims, and three of the vehicles built with real die-cast metal bodies that have the weight to match.

The clear lid and the twin side doors are the parts a child opens forty times a day, so the whole collection stays visible and reachable without anything being tipped out on the floor.

Backed for 30 days from the day it lands, so you can put it straight into a child's hands and see for yourself.

• Tracked shipping on every order, with the number emailed the moment it leaves.
• Free shipping on two or more. Most people buying this in December are buying for more than one child.
• Order by Dec 15 to have it before Christmas.
• 30 days to return it, opened and played with.

Made in China. Sold and shipped by us, with a name and an address you can reach on the contact page.