I have a son who is perfectly happy to play with wooden toys. I don't think it's the material that matters to kids, though some kids might ignore the taupe on brown color scheme of these toys. But every kid I know, if you handed them these cars, would play with them. Whether they'd be a favorite, and whether these toys would be considered good child development tools by an expert, are very different questions. But the kids under 2 I know would play with a boring brown cardboard box for a while if I acted like it was a really fun toy.

Joel, you already do several things which distinguish you from other sites that conform to your goals.

1) You are critical of things that suck, or are too expensive, or are outright wasteful. Often, I see a product on your site that is an interesting concept, that I may have flirted with for a second or to, and then you explain why it's useless or unnecessary or could easily be replicated by something I already own ... etcetera. This helps me be a smarter consumer -

2) You shy away from the "look at the newest upgrade / model of whatever not particularly interesting laptop / phone," and try to focus on things that are truly interesting / unique, bigger breakthroughs, and gadgets that may not fall into the "new consumer electronics" category. This is why you are my favorite gadget blogger.

3) If you keep highlighting gadgets with a green element, you may encourage people to buy stuff they love that also encourages them to be less consumerist. Stuff that is well made, built to last, reduces materials, uses less energy, etc. - you can analyze these aspects of anything you're evaluating, without going so far as to be an outright green blog.

So, ironically, I give you high marks toward this goal anyway. I encourage you to keep the self-flagellation out of your writing, because it's not all that fun to read, but I think you're already on the right track. Congratulations on all of the good work.