Filed under: Toys and games | Tags: carver, construction toys, Dutch toys, racer, ride on, scooter, trike, wooden toys
I finally came around to write about wooden items as I had actually planned to do yesterday, and I have just the perfect item to beginn with, the Moov by Dutch company Berg Toys. This is a fabulous wood, steel and rubber construction toy that lets your kids create a scooter, a racer, a carver or a trike, all from the included pieces, and they don’t even need any tools or srews to do this! All vehicles are fully functional and have steel axels, wooden boards and pneumatic tires and can be assembled easily. This product truly promises endless fun for 5-12 year olds: Build your favorite item, play with it until you get tired, disassemble it and start over again!
Available at Hamleys, £189.99. For other retailers check the Moov website.
Filed under: Toys and games | Tags: eco-friendly, Plancity, Plantoys, wooden toys
Next in line I want to present some of Plantoys’ Plancity collection. These wooden quality toys in the shape of for example trains, planes and car parks are simply beautiful with their modern, simple design. I especially like the express train with its straight lines and realistic appearance and magnetically connected carriages, as well as the city station with its arched roof and the possibility to combain Plantoys railroad and street systems. But they also have other great products apart from the Plancity range, such as their musical band which develops coordination and concentration.
Plantoys has such a huge variety, you really need to check them out for yourself. Whether you are looking for vehicles, dollhouses or play kitchens, all their products are well-made and beautifully designed. Even better, Plantoys’ products do not only have educational value and provide many hours of happy playing, they are also eco-friendly, wooden toys with longevity that do not run on batteries, are great choice for sure!
Available at Moolka, musical band $49.99, water blocks $24.99, city station $79.99, sit n walk puppy $18.99, express train $14.99.
Filed under: Toys and games | Tags: doll house, handmade, modern, Momoll, play kitchen, Swiss toys, unisex, wooden toys
I will end today’s focus on modern wooden toys with a peek at Swiss company Momoll’s toys. Their products really have a minimalistic edge to them, quite undertandable, when considering that Momoll’s intention for the Playtower Thing 3 was to design a multifunctional playhouse whose design would be appealing to boys and girls alike! But Momoll also produces other beautiful items as well, such as the Playtower Ding 4, doll house furniture, the Lili play kitchen or the RayRay doll house, which can be collapsed when not in use, and is hence especially suitable for small apartments, where space is scarce.
Both playtowers have a simple structure that can be assembled and disassembled easily and whose modular construction opens up the possibilty to extend the playsphere by adding an (almost) infinite number of additional floors. Additionally, both sets have a designer facade of either colored plexiglas or silk-screened birch plywood sliding walls. The minimalistic design opens up a child’s creation, because it is not limited to one environment: The playtowers can convert themselves into car parks, hospitals, skysrapers… whatever the kids imagine them to be.
Available either directly at Momoll, at US shop Spunky Sprout (RayRay doll house $352.00, Lili play kitchen $440.00) or UK shop Little Fashion Gallery (RayRay doll house £160.50, Lili kitchen £165.00, plexiglas playtower £157.00).
Yes, the prices are a bit higher than standard doll houses and wooden toys, but then you have a true multi-purpose designer toy with superb looks and great functionality, which is designed, developed and produced by hand, all in Switzerland, a country known for its quality craftsmanship!
Filed under: Decor, Picks for Grown-ups, Stationery, Toys and games | Tags: Airliner, elegant, Jetliner, modern, Playsam, Playtown, ride on, Saab 001, Scandinavian design, simplistic design, Stationery, Steamliner, Swedish design, Swedish toys, toy cars, wooden toys, Xtreamliner
It’s been a while now since I’ve introduced Playsam’s Streamliner and Xtreamliner cars on SunnyKidstyle, so now it’s definitely time to come back to this fabulous Swedish company and tell you, which other great products they have in store, because all of them share a magnificent, modern and simple design.
Just take a look at their Airliner and Jetliner series, just as beautifully designed as the Streamliner, only that this time, the outcome is not a little toy car, but an airplane. For those kids who like it even faster, they have a Formula 1 and an oldtimer racer in their collection, while budding little sailors will surely enjoy the beautiful sailboats.
And the good news don’t finish there quite yet, because Playsam has just the perfectly designed item for each family member: Your littlest ones will surely enjoy the Swedes’ interesting twist to rocking toys with this rocking rabbit, or this beautiful Saab ride-on, while teenagers or adults might be more tempted by these gorgeous JoJos,pens and key chains.
Design buffs on the other hand will surely fall for their incredible Playtown and Saab 001 concept car: Not that all of Playsam’s items aren’t masterpieces of design already, but especially these last two products are modern art in perfection and would make the perfect sculpture to display in your living room! The polished wooden pieces of the Playtown represent the four most characteristic sights of Sweden’s capital Copenhagen, i.e. The City Hall, Kaknaes Tower, The Globe and The Royal Castle. The superb quality of this set shows in the details: The City Hall’s crown is made of silver and palted with 23 carat gold! On the other hand the Saab 001 model is inspired by Sixten Saxon’s prototype of the Saab Concept Car 92001, which did not look like a normal car, but was futuristic and aerodynamic design in perfection. The modern design of this wooden toy, or rather piece of art, brings the charm of the origninal Saab home with its wonderful sophisticated design. Check them out yourself:
While researching Playsam’s products, I found even more interesting things: In 2006 Fitzsu Society, a Los Angeles based store for modern design home accessories, had gathered a group of designers from around the world to create their own interpretation of Playsam’s cars. While the most beautiful products are of course sold by now, I could still find a few beautiful ones available:
Among others, the whole collection of Playsam products can be bought at US shop UnicaHome except for for the playtown, or at UK shop Juuka . The Fitzsu designer GP cars can be bought at Fitzsu .
Filed under: Decor, Picks for Grown-ups, Toys and games | Tags: Alexander Girard, art, dolls, wooden toys
OK, today’s picks ended up being much more design oriented than I had originally planned, but the Alexander Girar list were still something in the back of my head, and seeing them at Unica Home just reminded me that I haven’t posted them yet. Besides, it is already a while ago that I have featured some of Girard’s items, so why not have another turn.
These wooden dolls made of pinewood were originally created by Girard as decorations for his Santa Fe home. Fortunately though, design museum Vitra is reissuing models 1-11 of his wooden dolls. These dolls with sometimes happy, sometimes melancholy faces are hand-painted and not suitable for very young children. But with their modern design, they would surely look fabulous as room decoration, not just for the nursery! They also make perfect gifts, since they arrive in a printed, wooden box.
Available at Unica Home for $150.00 each.
Filed under: Picks for Grown-ups, Toys and games | Tags: building blocks, City In A Bag, modern, Muji, wooden toys
Architecture inspired city design is also the perfect despcription for today’s second item, Muji’s City In A Bag wooden blocks. These are esthetic toys available with iconic sites of New York, London, Paris and Tokyo. They are beautiful to look at and would just as well make the perfect piece of decoration on a desk, since I believe they make really original paperweights. In fact, they are not necessarily aimed at children, but at traveling adults with collector aspirations, to be honest. But they seem to be just perfect for kids, and I do like the idea of familiarizing your children with differnt cities and famous buildings early on. Even though they will not know about the real places at that age, they will certainly be fascinated when they see an image of the Empire State Building and realize, that they have a miniature version, or when they actually see it for the first time in real life. Besides, along all the ugly clutter available, it is nice to see some items that also appeal to an adult’s sense of beauty.
Each set retails for £5.95, available at Muji.
Filed under: Toys and games | Tags: Kidimoto, ride on, Wheelybug, wooden toys
Now that we have already entered the section of racing toys, I just have to continue with Kiddimoto bikes. This is the same great company that has brought us the wheelybug, this ingenuous ride-on toy with castors that run just as smooth as swiveling office chair wheels. They can hence turn in any direction and make this product thus lots more fun than a regular ride-on, which usually gets boring once the child is old enough for pedal cars, not to mention they are outgrown quite quickly as well. The wheelybug on the other hand comes in two sizes, for 1-3 year olds and 2-5 year olds, and it certainly does not get boring (anyone who has ever done a little hallway racing with office chairs in the past will know what I’m talking about). In addition, the castors provide for better gross motor skill development than standard ride-on wheels. Don’t just just love fun developmental toys? And oh, they are beautiful, too! Available in a lot of animal themes, all really adorable, ranging from the classical bugs and bees to tigers and mice!
OK, now that we have the littlest ones covered, let’s move on to racing fun for older children, because Kiddimoto also produces a great-looking balance bike for 2-5 year olds. As the name already tells, these are designed to look like motorcycles. I find this such a great idea, as I assume I wasn’t the only child fascinated by the speed of motorcycles and consequently imagined I was on the race tracks when riding my brother’s BMX bike. The kiddimoto is thus a great balance bike with a fresh look. In my previous post on the balance scooter I have already pointed out the huge list of advantages of using a them. Among which: development of motor skill and sense of balance, no stabilisers needed when switching to a real bike, gives mobility to children, allows them to go longer distances and last but not least, they experience pride and joy when mastering their ‘bike’. However, as I think most balance bikes, as awesome as they may be, are a bit plain looking, I am always up for some intesting designs, and the kiddimotos definitely have the looks. Here are some photos of the superbike and scrambler version:
Available on the Kiddimoto site, small wheelybug £42.99, superbike £89.99. For the real racing experience you can even add exhaust pipes and custom names or logos! If you don’t care for these extras, check out Tots Corner, they offer the bikes for £10 less, also the wheelybugs are a bit cheeper there!
Filed under: Toys and games | Tags: animal design, colorful, eco-friendly, handmade, Imagiplay, wooden toys
Today’s last items are Imagiplay‘s wooden puzzles. I have to say, these are not the ordinary wooden toddler puzzles you see so many times. Not only are their designs amazingly detailed and creative, but most are actually made for kindergarten or preschool children. Some of their animal puzzles are composed of complete animal puzzle pieces so they can be used not only for puzzling, but for playing farm or jungle as well. Imagiplay’s product range is so huge, kids will surely find their favorite animal. From safari to sealife, or from farm to nativity scene, it’s all available!
To make things even better, these puzzles are handcrafted and handpainted from plantation wood, so they are eco-friendly as well! Plus, Imagiplay’s products are so beautiful, you want to display them on the shelves for everybody to see, and they look just perfect together in combination with the other animal objects presented today. Here are two of my favorites (though I’m not really sure I do have a favorite, I just love them all!) aren’t the animal shaped pieces awesome:
Available in the Imagiplay online store. Animal alphabet $49.99, dinosaur puzzle $19.99,
Filed under: Decor, Fashion, Furniture | Tags: Australian Design, bean bag, Cocoon Couture, Decor, Enchanted Forest, nursery, owl design, wooden toys
Cocoon Couture is another company I really love, and their enchanted forest wooden tree is just perfect for today’s owl theme. And not having visited their website since january or February, I was pleasantly surprised they have enlarged their product range, so now I will not only show you photos of their wooden range, but also of their new sleepy owl bean bags. Also I was happy to notice that they have gained a bit of publicity by being featured in a couple of blogs and magazines, as they state. So hopefully, this should improve their retailer situation, because unfortunately, for people living outside kangaroo country, this information is still sparse. But perhaps contacting them for retailer information helps. After all, their products are so beautiful, I think it will only be a matter of time until they are widely available internationally. Ok, enough talk, here are some pictures:
The tree (100cmx110cm), made of plywood and non-toxic varnish, would convert any room into an enchanted forest, especially if combined with the Cocoon Couture accessories (shelf stands, bookends, bean bags, hight charts & bags). And I can already see the little ones having a picknick with the dolls or playing Robin Hood in their “forest”.
The big enchanted forest tree is sold for AUS$490.00, small shelf stand tree for AUS$89.00, bean bags for AUS$129.95. By the way, it is customary in Australia to buy the beans separately, so you will only get the bean bag cover. This is nice for shipping, as you don’t have to pay for a bulky parcel, but you do need to figure out where to buy some replacement beans to fill up the bag.
The entire Cocoon Couture collection can be bought at US online storeCute-Ture, too. They also sell bean bag fillers for $30.00. Prices are pretty much the same as the ones above, just in US$: bean bags $130.00, shelf stand tree and book ends $89.00, big enchanted tree $490.00, bag packs $59.00.
Filed under: Toys and games | Tags: Alexander Girard, Alphabet blocks, wooden toys
I have to say, I just love Alexander Girard’s colorful designs. If you haven’t heard of him before, I’ll just say really quickly that he is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, colorists of the 20th century, and is known mainly for his textile design, combining folk elements with rich, warm colors and modern design. All this makes a wide range of his creation just perfect for a sunny children’s room.
Just take a look at these wooden alphabet blocks, truly stunning! They come in a set of 28, printed with assorted designs and fonts by Alexander Girard, as well as a Girard inspired puzzle, depicting the logo of typography- and design-studio House Industries.
Available at màXimo, a company specialized in reissuing Girard designs, for $100.00.
In case you think this is too expensive for a little children’s toy, maybe it helps to remember that it’s never too early to introduce your kids to some great design. Moreover, these blocks are so beautiful, they can surely be used long after they have lost their usage as toys, and I can imagine this is even a great collectors item with a good reseller value. And if all these reasons aren’t enough, I have one last one: Girard’s designs are timeless charms, and the solid wooden blocks are certain to become a heirloom item to be passed from generation to generation.
If you have now made your way to màXimo, but can’t find a symbol to add the blocks to your cart, don’t dispair, click on the picture and in the appearing pop-up window, you find everything you’ve been searching for.
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