Review: The Tutti Bambini Koji Roadtest

Once you become a parent you find yourself keeping an eye on the ever growing baby products market and getting ridiculously excited when something new hits. So naturally I jumped at the chance to try Tutti Bambini’s newest offering, the Koji pushchair.

What’s in the box?

• Chassis and wheels
• Seat unit
The RRP of the Tutti Bambini Koji is £350, and the accessory pack (hood and seat fabrics) are purchased separately for £80.

You can choose from a selection of colours; Oatmeal, Charcoal, Midnight Blue, Poppy or Liquorice. There is also a choice of two colours in the chassis, black or silver. Additional accessories are also available, and you can also purchase a carrycot option for the chassis.

Specifications

• Open Size: 95cm x 50cm x 70cm
• Folded Size: 36cm x 50cm x 74cm
• Weight: 8.7kg
• Suitable from: From birth

So, lets break it down;

The Assembly

I was surprised when the Tutti Bambini Koji arrived at my house in a fairly discreet box. It was clear this was going to be a city nipper style system. There is very little assembly required at all so if that’s not your thing, and with a toddler, a house and a job it’s certainly not mine, then this is perfect!
The chassis comes ‘as is’ and needs nothing doing but clicking the wheels on and it’s as simple as that. Four clicks! Then, the seat unit unfolds and clicks on. The fabrics form part of an accessory pack and so come separately. Everything simply pops onto the seat shell and threads on. Couldn’t be easier to put together.

The Look

I chose a silver chassis and it looked so sleek and stylish, exactly as i hoped. It has curves that follow the lines of the Tutti Bambini logo making it smart and modern and really in keeping with what you would expect from this brand.

Funnily enough, the buggy is confusing in all the right ways! It’s slimline but so roomy. I was amazed by how small and neat it looked but how much space it had to offer. The basket underneath is spacious meaning you can stuff your change bag in there, or use it for plenty of shopping which is always handy, and the seat unit itself is so open- it’s perfect for my nosey 19 month old. I couldn’t wait to get my son in it.

My absolute favourite thing about this buggy is that your baby can travel forward or parent-facing and it’s  the easiest thing changing it around to either direction We even managed to do it with son still in the seat. With a squeeze of the handles the seat just lifts out and clicks in. It couldn’t be easier, and I love to have my son parent-facing so we can chat while we walk!

There are a number of nice features to this buggy which move it up into the higher end of the market.

• The front wheels can be locked so they stay front facing or unlocked for the ‘trolley swivel’ – the latter is how we prefer. It gives the buggy a very quick swerve and neat turning circle which is perfect for a busy city in the Easter holidays!
• With two simple clips you can amend the height of the handle, a feature very much appreciated by my fairly tall partner who usually complains of backache after use of our previous buggy.
• The seat recline goes from extremely upright down to flat with a couple of stops in between and can be amended with just one hand with a simple pull handle on the back of the seat.. Previous buggies we’ve had require some jiggling on both sides of the buggy which usually results in a sleeping baby coming to.

The Fold

The fold is simple to do and can be done one handed. The only downfall here is with the type of fold and the kind of car you have.
Having a Ford Fiesta, i’ve favoured umbrella fold buggies because while they take up the width of my boot, they push right to the back and the slimness leaves plenty of room. The Koji folds in half and thus takes up half of my, already small, car boot!
In the home though, it’s slightly different, to its credit, as once folded, it’s a free standing unit.

The Drive

With the small wheels and narrow set this buggy is sturdy but nippy! The wheels are hard wearing rubber, so not likely to puncture (unlike my first travel system which suffered this fate more than once!) I took my son out for the day, on the train into York, and there wasn’t a gap that this buggy couldn’t get through throughout our whole day, which was amazing. With the swivel wheels we were weaving in and out of kids, crowds, dogs! And as for York’s cobbles, no bother!

The Basket

Lets face it, the basket is a kind of a deal breaker for a lot of parents. The basket on my last buggy was relatively puny and couldn’t be accessed once the seat was in the recline position. Whether you have the seat in forward or parent facing mode, there is no difficulty accessing the basket because the seat itself is set so high. I popped my changing bag in here with no trouble AND a couple of bottles of wine that I needed to pick up on my way home. All the essentials a mum needs, right?

Overall

Big Wins

• The seat recline; being able to do this so simply and with one hand was something I didn’t even know I needed/had missing. Tutti Bambini have definitely thought through the design of the Koji.
• High seat height; having previously had an umbrella style buggy I was used to a deckchair style of seat that was quite low. Since pregnancy my back has been weak as a kitten so this hasn’t been helpful, the Koji’s seat is high set and is so much better getting son in and out or adjusting him in anyway.
• Peekabo seat hood; a nice feature of the Koji, when son was forward facing, I could have a sneak peak at him through the hood, the fabric lifts to reveal a window, and with just a magnetic fastening, no awful velcro noises to wake him if he’d nodded off.
• Extending hood; while we’re on it, the hood extends twice over! There’s an extra flap of fabric that can be pulled forward and if that’s not enough, you can unzip further fabric, we found out we could all but cocoon son completely!
• Parent or forward facing seat; i love love love this feature! I have so missed my little man’s face and all his excitement and wonderment since we moved from the travel system to a buggy! And because the Koji is so open, even if he’s parent facing he can still have a good nosey around him.

Things that didn’t work for us

• The purchase of everything as separate does make this a costly option. It’s certainly not budget but this is reflected in the quality of everything.
• Having a half fold buggy over an umbrella fold doesnt work for my little fiesta…..maybe I should get a bigger car!

Disclosure: Sample was provided and kept as compensation for this review. However, as with any review on The Motherload®® Guide, the findings are the true opinion of our reviewer. 

The Tutti Bambini Koji retails for approx £430.00 (for total package) and comes in a variety of colour ways. More information can be found on the Tutti Bambini website. For more great reviews, check out The Guide! 

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