Rigid plastic wheels are quieter than metal ones, but can be uncomfortably bumpy on concrete or gravel. Sand and soil are best handled by rubber wheels, especially inflated rubber tires. In our analysis of 19 expert reviews, the Radio Flyer Easy Store UV Protection Wagon For Kids placed 3rd when we looked at the top 8 products in the category. Designed by local artist Ken Spiering, the Red Wagon weighs 26 tons and is made of steel and reinforced concrete. This mammoth wagon is designed to support the weight of up to 300 people . It took Spiering a full year of 17 hour days to complete the sculpture.
Another unique attribute is that one side of the wagon bed unzips, turning your wagon into a bench. You wouldn’t want to pull it around with legs dangling, but if you’re parked the bench mode is quite comfortable for three bigger kids who just need a place to sit. Its seat cushions wipe frozen ride on toy clean pretty easily, and it has two external cup holders and a very easy one-hand fold. To fold, simply pull up a handle in the center of the seat and it collapses into a rectangle. The ability to fold up this Radio Flyer compactly is a unique feature among this group of basic wagons.
Radio Flyer’s corporate headquarters is, remarkably, still essentially in the same location today—although all manufacturing has unsurprisingly moved to China. It also can’t be overstated how much I absolutely love the “no drop” technology of the pull handle that keeps it upright and makes it so the pull handle never touches the ground. Even if you simply drop the pull handle without warning, it just springs back up, out of the way and ready to grab if you need it.
Radio Steel continued production unabated, even though the toy industry in the United States began to change. In the 1970s, the industry consolidated, with many small, private firms being bought out by bigger competitors. These large firms, including Mattel and Hasbro, made inroads into the wagon market with branded products of their own. By the 1980s, the market had swayed away from simple, classic toys to increasingly high-tech items like video games. Big toy companies also poured money into faddish toys and toys that could be marketed through licensing tie-ins to movies and television shows. Despite these developments, Radio Steel plugged away in much the same way it always had.
The Radio Flyer Ziggle, introduced in 2013, is a ride-on toy for kids 3 to 8 with four caster wheels and no pedals. Kids propel forward by wiggling and twisting their bodies in a back and forth motion and moving the handle bars frozen ride on toy at the same time. A number of designs and styles have been produced by Radio Flyer, often inspired by the automobiles or popular culture of the day. The “Zephyr”, produced in the 1930s, paid homage to the Chrysler Airflow.
As of next year, the company will have been around a full century, with roots stretching back to the early 1900s when the future founder of the company, Antonio Pasin, arrived in America. The red test bike, an aluminum-framed M880 with a cloth front basket and a water bottle holder, is on the large side, and gives off an air of solidity. The styling is low-slung and retro, perhaps suggesting a 1930s motorcycle.
Radio Steel’s blitz cans saw service in Europe, the Pacific, and Africa. Wagons specifically intended to transport children should have seatbelts to prevent kids from falling out as they shift in their seats or as the terrain gets bumpy. Since wagons are inherently made for pulling, this safety feature is important as you will primarily be facing away from your child as you tow them. Wagons can be great for children to transport toys or for adults to transport both children and toys.
The Radio Flyer and Starlight teams collectively poured more than 1,000 hours into the charitable project, estimates Mark Johnson, vice president of product development for Radio Flyer. The Hero Wagon is now in hospitals in 82 cities across 33 U.S. states and counting–each year, the organizations donate 1,000 wagons, with half going to medically underserved communities. The readily recognizable little red wagon manufactured by Radio Flyer is used in several artistic works, including film and television. A character in the 1992 drama film Radio Flyer flies to safety in a converted . Radio Flyer wagons appear in a store display in the 1983 film A Christmas Story.