Handpicked & Handmade:

Small Toy Companies Provide Alternatives to Imports

by Maria Raha

While the Senate and the House hash out new protocols for ensuring consumer safety, putting toy shopping on hold, especially for parents of young children, is hardly a practical option. Averting the purchase of products from countries plagued by the recent recalls is driving consumers to sites selling domestically made toys. Upon closer inspection of Online shops boasting “Made in the U.S.A.” toys, however, numerous sites featuring handmade toys and eco-friendly products also carry imported toys.

Safety is never a guarantee, especially in any consumer marketplace as diverse as the U.S. But the following 10 toy makers are small, mainly family-run businesses keeping it simple with classic toys made from mostly natural products. The drawback of such product lines is the limitation brought on by small workshops and manufacturing facilities; the upside is the possibility of customized or made-to-order toys.

• D and Me, located in Stevensville, Montana, is owned by Don and Mary Hurley. The company sells handmade, nontoxic enamel wooden toy vehicles and doll furniture, as well as handmade quilts and has been in business for approximately 30 years. www.dandme.com

• Maple Landmark in Middlebury, Vermont, uses local natural resources to make wooden toys, puzzles, and games. Maple offers a relatively large product line—including wooden board games and ornaments, as well as the somewhat more common array of toy vehicles. Their products are woodshop-made by a small staff. www.maplelandmark.net

• Hardwood Toys is based in Arroyo Grande, California. Toymaker Tom Merrin handcrafts paint- and stain-free wooden toys, including trains, tractors, cars, planes, merry-go-rounds, and horses. www.hardwoodtoys.com

• With thirty years in toymaking, Laughing Moon in Ventura, California is owned by husband and wife team Richard and Terrie Floyd. The company offers artistic, handmade and hand-painted wooden jumping jack toys and decor. www.toymakerscollection.com

• Mary and Dana MacGill’s World’s Greatest Bathboats, a line of handmade and hand-painted wooden bath toys, have been made in Princeton, Minnesota since 1971. www.bathboats.com

• Maine Wood Toys focuses on largely unfinished pull toys, doll furniture, and bath toys made of pine. Their products are sold online at: www.tinybirdsorganics.com

• Elves and Angels, also based in Maine, offers handmade pine kitchen play sets and dollhouses, and have been in business since 1988. Their products are available at www.novanatural.com

• Beka, Inc., founded in 1973, is located in St. Paul, Minnesota. The company provides a wide scope of handmade wooden products, including easels, blocks, and puppet theaters. www.bekainc.com

• Twenty-five year-old Channel Craft is based in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, and produces reproductions of vintage toys. Though Channel Craft offers plastic products as well as wood, their product line is fairly extensive, including checkers, cards, puzzles, and marbles. www.channelcraft.com

• Marilyn Scott Waters’ website offers free stencil PDFs including assembly and instruction on how to build your own paper toys. Waters is also the author of The Toymaker¸ a self-published book containing paper cutout toys. www.thetoymaker.com