Boys seem to have an unending interest in cars, which tends to make homes filled with boys also filled with various different types of toys with wheels. Not all boys, I’m sure, but a sizable number of them.

Starting with big plastic or wood push-alongs, they emit “rumm, rumm” sounds as they crawl across the floor. Later they buy a cherry  red sports car to mourn their lost youth. But in between they go through various stages and parents go along for the…um…ride.

As a parent concerned about lead and a list of  of nasty  chemicals that seems to get longer every day, I try to stick with natural materials as much as possible for my car loving boy. As a big fan of all kinds of building materiel too,when I happened to see the Discovery Channel Automoblox at my local toy store, I was hooked.

The red C-9 Automoblox is both a car to push along the floor and a model car to build - a nice bridge from the play cars of toddlerhood to the complicated model cars  middle-schoolers build. The body is made from solid beech wood and has a removable top and tires. In fact it is a cross between a puzzle and a shape sorter. The several different models have interchangeable pieces so your child can create his fantasy car…before you have to buy a real one!