Lego frames

Giant wooden lego minifig? Yes, please!

Handmade, with beautiful packaging. Check the wood shavings, and the individually numbered feet! 

Images from Thibaut Malet. Via NOTCOT.

For your littlest architects

When I was a kid, I went through a phase of wanting to be an architect. I remember spending hours drawing floor plans of my father's imaginary lake house. I never really sketched the house itself, just the floor plans. I found it satisfying to figure out where everything would go, and how all the rooms would fit together.

My own kids draw mostly zombies and explosions (with the occasional rainbow thrown in for good measure), but no matter what the subject, this drawing board desk Ninetonine would be a cute place to draw. The pencil cup chimney is very clever, and the dual use as desk/playhouse is charming.

Images from Ninetonine. Via Remodelista.

My Little Pony gets a greener pasture

Some of you may know that in my professional (non-blogging) life, I've spent a lot of time in the business of toys. We often feature lovely and expensive wooden toys, but I also dig a well-designed shiny plastic bit of awesomeness. Whatever you think about that kind of mass-market, plastic-producing, made-in-China industry, you have to recognize that a huge percentage of toys are made this way, and not everyone is going to be inclined to buy green. Plus, someday your kid may fall in love with My Little Pony, and you'll find that the lovely set of wooden blocks doesn't capture her imagination quite as completely as three little pastel plastic ponies with brushable hair.

For me, one of the biggest scandals in toy sustainability has been that the marketing requirements (real, or perceived?) push small products into oversized plastic packaging. This always bothered me, because the kid gets so little value from a throw-away package. WalMart started pushing on this a few years ago, awarding "points" for a tighter package-product ratio and more responsible materials. Now Hasbro is stepping up with a real set of changes. Among the goals:

• 15% improvement in product-to-packaging ratio across the board.
• Eliminating all PVC (the material most commonly used in plastic blisters) in packaging by 2013.
• Eliminating all wire ties. In 2011, Hasbro replaced all their wire ties with paper or bamboo rattan. This showed up in a couple of our Christmas presents, and the paper ties are charming.
• Increasing the recycled content of the paper stock from 75% (2011) to 90% (2015).

I'm always excited to hear one of the big players decides to make a real difference. As my five-year-old would say "clap it up for Hasbro." Nice work!

 Images from RainMama's Flickr Site (top) and Hasbro (bottom). Via Greener Package.

Teeny Tiny Prehistoric Adorableness

 

Anamalz are designed in Australia and adorable everywhere. They have a complete tiny menagerie, but it's the maple wood dinosaurs that I really love. 

You can let these guys loose in the playroom to wreak havoc on your tiny little villages.

They are working pretty hard on the sustainability side, even using their waste wood to grow mushrooms. To top it off, the website is really charming. Enjoy the cute!


Images from Anamalz.