Little People, Meet Your Match

Most plastic toys are made from materials of more or less unknown and unstated origin, feature obnoxious sounds that intrude on both parents' sanity and on opportunities for real pretend play, and suck the life out of batteries like vampires. So it's fair to say that British-based WOW Toys has a leg up on most of their competition, including some pretty big players in the toy industry.

WOW's toys, designed for kids ages 1.5 to 5, are PVC-free by design, which means they are free of phthalates, used to soften PVC plastic. (Most plastic toys that are not rigid are probably made of phthalate-containing PVC.) Young children who put PVC toys in their mouths are probably ingesting those phthalates, which are believed to be endocrine disruptors in the same way bisphenol-A (BPA) is.

But progressive safety policies do not necessarily make for fun toys. So how do these playthings measure up?

We tested two sets by WOW - Harry Copter's Animal Rescue and Off Road Ollie's Outdoor Pursuits - during a weekend visit by some friends with an 18-month-old. Both L (who previously reviewed Boon's feeding line) and our nearly-four-year-old Z were smitten.

The chopper has a handle with a trigger which, when depressed, spins the helicopter's blades. The toy's apparent story is that a veterinarian travels around in a helicopter and airlifts injured animals to a place where he can perform appendectomies and remove giant paw-slivers.

He does this using a magnet on the front of his ride that can pick up the animals.

Everyone enjoyed this toy, but adults noted that picking up the animals using the magnets was tricky even for grown-ups. You have to swipe it gently over the animal at just the right position, sort of like using a grocery-store price-sticker applicator.

Off Road Ollie was a different story.

The van holds two figures and a top-mounted kayak. A push of a button on the side of the vehicle which looks like a gas cap flips the roof open and the kayak drops off, allowing access to the vehicle's sole compartment. The trailer has a ramp that locks in a closed position and holds a three-wheeled vehicle that looks like a cross between an ATV and a tricycle. The trailer hitch combines a ball and socket with a weak magnet for easy coupling and decoupling.

The kayak holds one, and floats (above, in our Steadyco bowl). Both vehicles in this set have real rubber tires, and the plastic parts are molded with positions that lock firmly but release with the proper pressure. Best of all, the vehicle is friction-powered, which means that when you give it a push, it maintains a consistent speed and rolls for several feet, and also makes a satisfying whirring sound. Friction power means no batteries, and rubber tires mean that the toys roll really nicely.

A roomy ambulance with three figures

A fire engine with a siren and light, for those whose toys must make at least a little ruckus

The figures are interchangeable between items in the toy line, putting Fisher-Price's Little People on notice that there is a new sheriff in town. WOW Toys is a British company that has been making toys for ten years, but Ravensburger just picked them up for U.S. distribution. Ravensburger has pull, which means you are going to be seeing these toys in stores, jockeying for shelf space alongside Fisher-Price. So which is the better buy?

• Little People toys typically feature sound effects and songs which can be played over and over and over again. Fisher-Price's parent company, Mattel, has a long list of plastic-toy product recalls under its belt, many for violations of lead standards, but the company has promised publicly to clean up their act. Most of their toys use three AA batteries, and they offer buildings and other structures as well as vehicles, most in fairly typical environments (parking garage, minivan, passenger plane). Sets range in price from $20-$30 with a few at lower prices.
• WOW Toys don't play songs. The only sound effects most of them have are the whirring of their friction-powered engines, which means no battery-munching and no battery compartments with tiny screws. The company is a new player in the U.S. market but has been living up to often-stricter European standards for years, they don't use any PVC in their products, and they have a clear commitment to providing safer toys for "under fives." Tires are real rubber, and even those have been tested using non-mandatory tests (for volatile hydrocarbons). Themes tend towards the thrill-seeking (race car drivers) nature-loving (horseback riders, campers), and public service professions (garbage collectors, cops and fire fighters), and the line includes a couple of small buildings. Most sets range in price from $25 to $40, with a few as high as $50.

Nothing gives us more satisfaction as reviewers than to see consumer choices diversify in ways that reflect entirely new standards of judgment, aimed at the very same audience of consumers. Such brand positioning means that consumer education is going on, and that consumers are trusted to make more complex and values-based choices.

Fisher-Price, home to many brands that are not aging gracefully, has shown that they can still innovate - two of our favorite new toys in recent years are their Geotrax trains and their Kid-Tough Digital Camera. Challenges that are values-based, as WOW's is, intrinsically favor reformers if their competition's record is tarnished. The incumbent's best recourse is often to launch a new brand which allows them to leverage their manufacturing and distribution while hiding their bad reputation.

Something for the pony lovers, a steal at 34% off (about $22)

As a company, WOW Toys appears to be materials-conscious, proactive on testing procedures, and inspired to deliver great design through self-imposed constraints. Mattel has lost its luster for many parents after a series of public failures to effectively manage its own production quality have put many families' children at risk; parents tend to remember companies that gave them a scare in the past, and only keep buying if they see no alternatives that make equal sense to them. We think these toys are beating Fisher-Price at their own game.

A recycling truck with a sticker price of $50, on sale for $33

More broadly, WOW Toys are giving us a funny feeling that plastic toys are not going to abandon the "green" label without a fight - and that while they will never be as sustainable as "natural" toys until they are made entirely of a single, recycled and recyclable plastic type (Green Toys offers one model for this), they can be made in a more responsible and ethical manner than they have been in the past, while improving the quality of the toys at the same time. The production of PVC comes with significant environmental costs in addition to the questionable substances it often contains.

WOW makes a sizable line of bath toys, both for infants and toddlers; in our opinion, this is where their PVC-free status makes the biggest difference to us, as the toys are coming into regular contact with hot water that is coming into regular contact with kids' mouths. One of the best-looking ones, a diving play set, is on sale for $18 on Amazon.com.

WOW Toys, many of them currently on sale, are available at Amazon.com.