I just love these CAT Mini Machines by Toys State. I bought these for my son a couple of months back for doing good on our agreement to master writing his ABC's. These are for kids aged 5 and above. I bought the 5 pack set of this that cost about $12. The toy comes with a back hoe, dump truck, bulldozer, roller and front loader.
The toys are made of plastic with minimum metal parts used usually for the rollers to connect the parts together. One reason too while I posted about this is because of the size of these toys and the amount of detail that they have. They look like 1/72 scale from my vantage point, but I'm not really sure. They would be good for use in dioramas because of their paintable surface and the amount of detail that they have in their bodies. Also that their tires look realistic enough to be included in a diorama. There are some noticeable seem lines, but nothing a little putty won't be able to fix. Weathering this would probably make it more appealing and hide the lack of detail in some areas of the toys.
As a kid I played a lot with construction toys and I have to say that it did one way or another influence me to take up engineering in college. For my son I'd encourage him to be a "builder" when he grows up, hugely in part due to my Christian upbringing which encourages us to earn our wage by the sweat of our brows and through honest hard work. With this, I don't think I'll ever grow tired of buying construction toys for my son.
More pictures found in the succeeding pages:
Road Roller
Bulldozer
Front Loader
Dump Truck
Backhoe
