Sandpit - what's a good buy?

Hi,
We're thinking of buying DS a sandpit for christmas.
Do cheaper places like Big W sell them? I know Toys Rus do but they are usually more expensive than other places.
Also are the clam shell ones good or are there other types?

TIA :D

The clam shell ones are good because you can use a second shell to cover them and stop the local cats from visiting at night.
I'm in two minds about our sandpit. The boys love it - it keeps them entertained for hours but I hate it. I have to check it for cat poo which totally grosses me out and the sand gets everywhere which drives me crazy. It gets in their pockets and then falls out all over the floor and they dump the sand outside their pit while they play with it in the garden and if I'm looking the other way they get a dump truck full and drive it under the car-port to make a secondary mini-sand-pit.

We had a clam shell and the sand was always going moldy because water can't drain out. DH just built one last week with a few treated pine sleepers from Bunnings (about $12 each), some black plastic liner (very cheap) and 1/3m of white sand from a landscape place ($30) It's a good size for about 3 under 5 year olds.
Whatever you get, definitely make sure it can drain, and can be covered to stop cats using it at night.

We use clam shell one, sand is cheap from bunnings. We also put a brick on top of the top shell so it doesn't blow off, def don't want cats in there. We left it off one night and had to throw all the sand.
Never had a prob with mouldy sand, its more often dry, maybe thats due to Melb not getting enuff rain, lol.
Like Bron I hate it too, such a pain, as much as you try to brush sand off before they come inside I still always find it on the floors, on the couches.

we have the clam, i hate it, no matter how well we think the lid is secured on it always flies off in the wind and rain and we end up with moldy sand too!
and because its plastic and out in the weather its gone brittle and has cracked in a number of places.
i'd suggest getting something wooden and just use a tarp or something similair to cover it

I HAD a clam shell and it worked fine. But the sand everybloody where did my head in....

Clam shell is fine for us too, but ours is undercover, and I think that's pretty key in keeping it mould free, making sure all the rain is kept out.
We have a brush and shovel near the back door and Riv gets a good brush down before coming inside. :p Still, I agree, the sand everywhere is the price to pay for their time of fun.

thanks so much girls...
the way our backyard is, it will be out in the sun a bit. i had a look at the bunnings website and there's a DIY sandpit with sleepers. doesnt look too hard, and DH is very handy so we might go w this option. we'll get a shade too..

If you are going to use treated pine, make sure you seal it. The chemicals used to treat it are not really healthy for kids or animals, but if you seal or paint it with something non toxic it should be OK.

we bought one of the clam type sandpits a year or so ago and ds1 loves it. he is in it everyday. i am waiting for the day when he will grow out of it, but i actually think he has a couple of more years left in it. we bought ours from toys r us, but they are everywhere and they are very affordable. plus when they grow out of them you can use it to grow a veggie garden.

we put up a shade sail & built our own under it after having enough of the "clam shell" sand pit. They are ok for one small child I think....but DS was getting bigger & having friends over so we wanted something they could all play in. Though we were also renovating our backyard so was easily done.

I found the clam shell annoying as if you did forget to put the lid on & it rained or the sprinklers went on it was forever to dry it out as it doesn't drain. Also we could only have ours on lawn at the time, so always had to shift it or the lawn under it would go dead.