When I was a child just about everyone, boy and girl had a Tonka truck. They were usually beat up , rusty and dirty but they still did what they were supposed to do, that is roll around and pick up dirt or transport figures to and from various pretend locations.

Our parents were blessed for choice back then. The original Tonka Toys were built to last and had the words "mighty" and "tough" automatically attached to their name. In fact the actual word "Tonka" is a Dakota-Sioux word which means "Great" or "Big". The Tonka Toys were certainly that.

Now, as a parent myself, I have gone through the usual process of finding toys for my kids and invariably came across the word Tonka in many toy related sites. It brought back images of metal trucks that could withstand just about anything that we kids threw at them and I was curious to know if the modern toys were as durable as I remembered.

Unsurprisingly, in our modern age of plastics, Tonka Toys are no longer made of 100% metal. Sure there may be some parts that are metal but others are composed of plastic.

As a parent, I was concerned they could no longer withstand a child's rough handling. Could I feel comfortable buying a Tonka product and let my child trash it out in the back yard or would I have to keep it inside and let it transport pillows instead of rocks?

Turns out I needn't have been concerned. Of course there are some Tonka toys that are not as tough as parents would have liked, generally those with added lights and sounds which have to be used inside anyway, but by and large the plastic/metal combination works well. A little research provided a list of durable Tonka toys that parents endorsed.

It is worth noting, as I am sure most parents are aware, that not all plastics are created equal. Apparently Tonka uses only the most durable plastics in their main range so you won't find parents complaining about brittle parts snapping off or plastic bending in areas where it needs to reinforce.

Tonka has evolved over the years but it is nice to know that at least some of their range can be relied on to be as durable as their older releases.