We finally got our hands on some of last year's Eco-Trucks from Sprig Toys, for reasons we will write about soon. For some completely unrelated reason, the two we received are both nearly 50% off on Amazon at the moment.

Sprig has a conversation-starting innovation at the heart of their company - a more environmentally-friendly material with some of the attractive toy molding characteristics of plastic yet made of recycled polypropylene and reclaimed pine sawdust. For some companies, the rest of the business plan, and a product line extending years into the future, would be produced pretty much on autopilot. But we like writing about Sprig because they're driven to do something new and better and are unafraid to take risks in the process.

We've written in the past that we think this has led to some successes and some failures. But their products always make us think and frequently surprise us with a fresh take on a toy you'd previously assumed had been played out.

These Eco-Trucks are an example of how fine a product this process can produce. We love the mechanical functionality, the physical responsiveness to push and pull, yet fundamental simplicity of these construction vehicles. They are the hand tools of play. This dump truck makes me want to forget most of the toy dump trucks I have ever seen:


The Eco-Trucks Loader we received, however, had a problem with the clasp that holds the cab shut, a simple meeting of small plastic notches that don't fit together as they should. Watch me struggle with it:


The design of these latching parts is different between the dump truck and the loader. The dump truck's latch design works perfectly, and should have been used for both. But the loader actually has more finicky and less durable latching mechanism. As I played with the two latches a bit more in an attempt to understand why one worked so well and the other so poorly, the loader's latch broke just as I thought I might be getting the hang of the subtle flick of the wrist necessary to close it properly. Ironically, the cab now sits flush with the frame, and actually stays in place with no latch at all. So there's a second option that would have been better than the latch they used.

The packaging of these trucks is another story altogether. We'll write about that - and a couple of interesting new Sprig products - as soon as I can locate some truly horrendous packaging to compare its brilliance to. We're looking at you, Crayola.

You can buy Sprig's Eco-Trucks on Amazon.com, where their Dump Truck and Loader are each heavily discounted.

In accordance with our Keep No Stuff reviewing policy, we'll be passing on both of these lovely trucks to others who can use them.