Born To Hike Playset Cute Fun For Small Hands By Joan Young on Dec 14, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

This soft playset is a lot of fun for children, probably over age 3.

Of course, when a friend's grandchildren received one of these sets as a gift, she had to turn around and get one for me! I display it each Christmas under my hiking / camping themed Christmas trees. I'm told that Anja and Mia love to play with theirs.

This comes with a tent that snaps open with a spring, poseable figure, backpack, sleeping bag and pad, and a forest friend. I don't see the set with a girl figure on the web site, but somewhere my friend found one because I obviously have the one with a girl. They list it with a boy.

You don't have any choice of the forest friend, but it may be a moose, skunk, racoon, or squirrel. Mine is a purple squirrel.

The tent door zips open and closed. You can slip the person in the sleeping bag, or roll up the bag and mat and put the backpack on the person. The sleeping pad is attached to the backpack, but rolls and unrolls. Hat and clothes are not removable.

This gets a lot of comments from friends who view my Christmas hiking display, and kids can't resist playing with it (some grownups too!)

There is no age listed on the box, but there are zippers, string hair on the figures, and covered wires in the tent, so I think it shouldn't be for the really tiny ones.

These are made by a company called Danny First. This set lists now at $19.98. They make a number of different sets, including Born to Ride (with a horse), Fun Acres (farm), Dino Land, Arctic Explorers, and more. See the web site for the selection.

My only complaint is that you apparently can't always get exactly what you want. I'd like options like “build a custom set,” with the animals and people listed separately.

There are retail stores in Hawaii and Japan.

Made in China

Danny First