What natural products/ toys would you like to see for kids? What is the marketplace missing? - Page 2

[JudiAU]

Originally Posted by GuildJenn 

Originally Posted by Mittsy 

Legos. Either wooden or made from recycled plastic, take your pick. I can't wait(and neither can ds(3)) until they come out with those.

Just FY friend's I, OP, Lego has patents on its blocks that are expiring at different rates in different countries. Mega Bloks up here (Canada) successfully defended against their suit here in um - 2004 or 2005, something like that. (Don't ask me why I have this arcane information stored in the trivia section of my brain.)

My perception on gaps is the real divide is between totally generic neutral/building type toys and branded merchandise, and between playability and non-playability rather than in materials etc.  My son loves superheroes, for example, and tying a cape onto a Plan Toys doll doesn't cut it for him.  There aren't many options that look superheroey, never mind are superheros that his friends have heard of.  As a lover of the environment he is supposed to only love trees and gnomes but it doesn't work that way.

And of course the large companies tend to control the licenses on characters and so other people can't make them.  If I were your friend I would be looking for either a book series or a PBS-like TV series that appeals to the same demographic ("when green parents cave on television, or hit a bookstore, what are they looking for") and then I would be negotiating with whoever owns the trademark. For example, even though this is licensed already, a series of environmentally responsible character dolls/etc. based on Super Why would be in line with what I'm thinking. The other alternative would be classic tales that are no longer protected (fairy tales, historical figures), but that market may be pretty full a la American Girls.

I wouldn't go for wood unless there is a good reason to use it. Honestly buying the wood toys is something I would never do over again with only a few exceptions - the Plan dollhouse, maybe and the Thomas train stuff, and one super-expensive line of cars that come apart.  We had close to zero play value from the lovingly hand-crafted wooden trucks, and even the Melissa and Doug type food toys, etc. only were played with because no alternatives were available. The wood was dangerous when thrown, has disgusting teeth marks in it and in some cases splintered, left dents in the floor, didn't roll right, was heavy and awkward, and the strings knotted in annoying ways, while the ONE Little People set (now leading its dozens of friends) was in constant happy use. I hate to say it, but I hate wooden toys. They became wooden dust collectors.

[JudiAU]

These have been so helpful-- thanks all. I am going to send him a link to the thread.

[crunchy_mommy]

Originally Posted by GuildJenn 

I wouldn't go for wood unless there is a good reason to use it. Honestly buying the wood toys is something I would never do over again with only a few exceptions - the Plan dollhouse, maybe and the Thomas train stuff, and one super-expensive line of cars that come apart.  We had close to zero play value from the lovingly hand-crafted wooden trucks, and even the Melissa and Doug type food toys, etc. only were played with because no alternatives were available. The wood was dangerous when thrown, has disgusting teeth marks in it and in some cases splintered, left dents in the floor, didn't roll right, was heavy and awkward, and the strings knotted in annoying ways, while the ONE Little People set (now leading its dozens of friends) was in constant happy use. I hate to say it, but I hate wooden toys. They became wooden dust collectors.

Really? We used to have a ton of plastic toys & DS would barely even look at them, nevermind play with them. We slowly replaced them with wooden toys as we discovered he LOVES playing with wood!!! I don't know what about the plastic bothered him, maybe overstimulating (too much color/detail)?
 

[GuildJenn]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy 

Really? We used to have a ton of plastic toys & DS would barely even look at them, nevermind play with them. We slowly replaced them with wooden toys as we discovered he LOVES playing with wood!!! I don't know what about the plastic bothered him, maybe overstimulating (too much color/detail)?

Yup, really. We should have traded. :)

I think you have something there with the detail though. My son loves detail. We had a wood fire truck. It didn't roll very well when you pushed it. It was kind of representational. The string kept getting wound up in the axles. And too heavy for my son to really carry around. So, he didn't play with it. And I thought ok, he doesn't like firetrucks.

Then my son spied a Bruder one...whoa boy. That was love at first sight. Honestly he'd never played fireman before and suddenly it was a 2-hr session.  It's interesting you say overstimulated...my son's easily overstimulated by loud noises (which wood toys produce on wood floors) but not by visual or tactile detail, I don't think.  He gets annoyed if his diggers don't come with jacks, because "how can they stay stable."

It's good someone likes the wood toys though; I kept imagining wastelands of dead trees like the bin we have. I really felt duped. And annoyed at the dent marks in my wood floor and bookcases, although if my son had loved them I'd've put up with it.

[NellieKatz]

This is going to probably sound weird. My DS who is 7, is currently passionately into Lego Hero Factory, but, oddly enough, he's downstairs right now playing with his beanie baby cats and dogs with an equal, obsession-like enthusiasm. He has always played with these characters....he named them, gave them personalities and storylines, enacts these great sweeping dramas about them, and right now as I type this, I can hear the sounds of battles as the cat team and the dog team slug it out down there.....the point is, over the course of his childhood he has loved these soft, manipulable stuffed characters. Not the ones that are in a stiff, sitting pose, but the regular-bodied ones that can "do stuff." And we found that we were limited in the KINDS of animals that were out there. Right now for beanies he's all set with cats and dogs, but for a while there he was SO into sea creatures and we couldn't find any really good unusual sea creatures in stuffed animal form, like squids, octopi, and even a giant clam! (I had to sew a giant clam on the sewing machine and let me tell you, I don't sew! but he loved that thing. I made him jellyfish out of felt, by hand....what can I say, he wanted jellyfish). For a while there, the "cat team" from his mythical Kitty Island was comprised not only of beanie cats, but also a stuffed crab from Barnes & Noble, a rather large lobster from a gift shop, a tiny kitten the size of a thimble, 4 plastic spiders, a beanie baby owl wearing a mortar board, a tiny Lego robot with no arms, and a beanie rabbit. This is all to illustrate the power of a kid's imagination...something that is too often lacking in today's toys.

Bottom line: lots and lots of small stuffed animals of ALL species. Not the kind that are made for cuddling necessarily, but flexible (like the beanie baby cat's bodies are) and the right size that a small hand of a child can easily play with them, stuff them into vehicles (we made spaceships and vehicles out of old half gallon milk cartons), the whole bit. They could be made out of better and more healthy materials than the beanies, but variety is key. My child's imagination is still very much intact, as he is not fed a steady stream of mainstream kid toys (the beanies were a collection of cat beanies that I had since before he was born), so having characters that he can use with his imaginative stories is huge. And that would be for both genders.

[treeoflife3]

Children's bedding that is organic cotton or eco wool AND colorful.  I know there are differing opinions on dyes and which type is better/safer or if any are... but personally, I am not concerned about most dyes.  I would like bedding that DOESN'T have polyester or nylon or what have you but isn't just off white or brown or sage green.  Not toys, but its a natural product that I feel there isn't enough of at all.  There ARE options, but definitely not enough.

[elus0814]

I really, really like wooden toys and so do my kids. The six year old, four year old, 20 month old, and (sort of) the three month old all play with wooden toys almost exclusively. It took a few months of 'plastic toy detox' but now they're all over the wooden ones and even when I bring out a box of the old plastic stuff for an afternoon of play they don't play with them much. We try to limit the number of toys we buy and own but are always on the lookout for something natural and fun to add to the lineup. Price isn't a big factor for me if the quality is there. I had no qualms with spending $350 on our play kitchen because after buying an $80 "nice" wooden one from target and having it fall apart within a year with only two kids playing with it I knew it would be used and would last through all four kids using it. I like nicer woods and don't care for the plan toys rubberwood, it's lightweight like pine and gives, in my opinion, their toys an unnatural lightness - I prefer to buy toys that fell as heavy as they look. I will admit that this might not be a draw for parents of children who tend to throw toys, our toddler throws and it's taken some time to keep him from tossing the toys. I really, really don't like melissa and doug toys. They are, for the most part, not made very well, made in china, covered in paint that chips (and is then tasted) easily, and only come in garish colors. I do like their plain wooden blocks but that's it. 

What I would like to see:

- recycled plastic, green toys type textured style, knitting tower; the wooden ones scrape your hands and the plastic ones are cheaply made

- more baby toys that are made in the us

- cotton toys, organic or not; most natural stuffed animals and small figures I have found are organic cotton or wool which makes them very pricy for what they are, our eight person set of dollhouse dolls were $94 collectively, I don't mind paying for quality but these dolls would have been several dollars less each if they were made of cotton rather than wool

- washable toys!!!! I really like being able to wash toys, surface wash only doesn't cut it for me

- more gender specific natural toys; I know most people complain that there are too many but I don't see it. I've found most natural toys to be gender neutral, even our tea set is a dark blue enamel over stainless steel. We have a boy doll with extra clothes from palumba. In reading the other posts I noticed that many of the posters were suggesting things that are not on the market that actually are if you look hard enough - do a search for waldorf toys and you should come up with some sites.

- beeswax crayons for less than $14 for 8; stockmar crayons are great, they last forever, and the blocks are a nice change of pace but they are expensive because they are imported from Germany, many natural toys come from Europe, Germany especially. If these same style crayons were made in the US from US beeswax I would happily buy them over our stockmars, if they ever wear out.

- simple wooden ostheimer type figures; again, these are made in Germany so they are costly for what they are. I have a friend if Germany who is able to get them for a little over half what I pay, even with their 19% sales tax. Other companies make then, like holztiger (I'm not sure I spelled that correctly) but the animals are cartoony, with big smiles. The ostheimer figures are much more lifelike.

- I agree with the suggestion of organic clothing that doesn't say 'organic', 'green baby', 'natural kid' or the like on it. 

- car seat covers, you would likely have to work with a manufacturer on this to make if safe but between two equally safe car seats that both fit my car well I would go for the one with the natural cover option - all of our car seats have nasty synthetic fabric for the kids to sit on. If feels gross and makes them sweat. I've found a few but I have yet to find one that is approved by the manufacturer, britax, safety 1st, and sunshine kids in our case.

- well made craft kits. It seems like almost all children's craft kits use really cheap materials as though the child is not going to want to keep and use their project. 

- cotton costumes and dress up play items as well as puppets; I can find nice felted wool and silk items but cotton is hard to come by. My kids would like a cape, crown, pirate, or dragon costume but they're all $50 silk numbers that get torn easily

- play kitchen and household items that look like miniature versions of adult items. I was only able to find realistic play pots at nova natural and they're enamel coated stainless steel and can chip leaving a bit of glass. The natural dishes we have are wooden and aren't very realistic. Something like tiny corelle that would look right and be durable. We have a broom and dustpan as well and they are each only available on a couple websites but are great miniature versions of adult sized items and really work very well.

- "action figures" for classic stories. I have to spend an hour searching to find a peter rabbit puppet (100% polyester - yuck). Most all natural playthings are generic, ostheimer makes a few fairy tale figures but they are carved wood and carved wooden people can only do so much. Many of these characters are no longer licensed, like cinderella.

Edited by elus0814 - 12/9/10 at 9:02pm

[LynnS6]

Things that my kids play with and that the neighbor kids are drawn to when they come over:

Smaller, detailed toys that look like the real thing. Dd is really into Playmobil these days and what she wants is the realism. We've had things like the Plan Toys dollhouse stuff and they just don't have the level of detail that she craves. Something similar in recycled plastic would be a huge hit. The neighbor kids love the Playmobil too. My complaint about Playmobil is that the larger structures tend to fall down a lot -- the wings come off the plane, the roof caves in on the house if bumped to hard, and I'm forever rebuilding that darn tree house. So, something with this detail that's sturdier would be great.

Ditto for trucks. Ds never played with trucks much if they were wooden. He demanded the detail -- even down to color. We own Bruder trucks because of the incredible detail.

Stuffed animals that are big enough to hold, but small enough to manipulate -- we have a fair number of Webkinz at our house. The kids play online a bit, but really, they're just props in games. Dd and I played "stuffed animals" tonight and ordered pizza and chatted about school. Ds and I played soccer with the stuffed animals last night. The Webkinz animals are the perfect size for this.

My first reaction though, is that the market for these kinds of toys is pretty well saturated. No, Playmobil aren't "green" but they last a long time and I buy ours used. Ditto the Bruder trucks. We buy a lot of our stuffed animals at Goodwill. (Ds has a large, extended penguin family.)

So brainstorming here:

There's a growing sense of 'green' among evangelist Christians, for example. Would 'green' Christian toys be a market that would work?

What about more cultural diversity -- not just the 'obligatory' one ethnic character in a set, but a set that would allow kids to play out something like the Lunar New Year celebrations or Diwali? Or what about a house that doesn't just look like a suburban US house? 

OK, it's late and I'm out of ideas.

[Tjej]

I would really like action figures like the old GI JOE guys.  I'd like them to be strong and posable, but not have guns and weapons.  More the rescue hero type idea.  I was shopping with a few people and they were looking for that type of toy and we couldn't find it. 

I think if this could be made with recycled plastic or wood it would be well received.  And it would tap into the older kid market for eco-toys.

Tjej