The 'No Toys From China' birthday present challenge!

[citizentwiglet]

Oh why oh why do I have such hair-brained schemes?

Ellis will be 2 in April, and I've been hunting high and low for toys that are NOT made in China. I'd prefer something that isn't plastic either, but I know that's a ridiculously tall order these days (he already has hundreds of wooden blocks that, although FSC wood are still PAINTED in ruddy China!).

As you know, most of his toys are - thankfully - hand-downs from wonderful friends and family, or from Freecycle; but we do spend money occassionally!!

Any ideas? He is into things with wheels, things he can pull apart and put back together again (but he's a bit old for stackers/sorters). Even the ELC wooden jigsaws are made in China!!

Ideally, I'd love something that was actually made in the UK.....

When he gets older, we're going to make him things like a castle/fort out of strong cardboard, but he's a bit young at the moment and would probably jump on it and squash all our hard work!

[ina]

I've just bought a jigsaw learning clock (wood) in a fairtrade shop... OK, not made in the UK, but next best, I think!

[citizentwiglet]

Now, he'd probably love something like that - he is just getting very inquisitive about numbers, and loves clocks (and jigsaws). Thanks Ina, that's a brilliant idea.
Will just google to see where our local Fairtrade place is....a lot of the charity shops have fairtrade sections as well, don't they?

[ina]

They do - and they are often run by churches. The one where I bought it is a temporary one, only open at special times - it's fairtrade fortnight just now, so they are all over the place!

We are lucky, we have a little shop near Aberdeen run by the Camphill estate, and they have lovely, non-China, sometimes plastic but never trash toys! I always have a stash of them in the house, for "emergencies". There you can find stuff like hand or finger puppets, knitting dollies, marbles - all sorts of "old fashioned" as well as newer things; no remote controlled battery stuff and other rubbish that ends up in the bin after a couple of days! I was desperate last year when I had a few kid's birthdays coming up in the neighbourhood soon after Christmas and they were closed for refurbishment...

[Annpan]

I've just bought a jigsaw learning clock (wood) in a fairtrade shop... OK, not made in the UK, but next best, I think!

Ina... when I come to visit you, I'll teach you how to tell the time... it is pretty easy, when you know how


We did a lot of research into toys, so that we can tell family and friends what to buy... We buy very few of E's toys

What we found was that 'Pintoy' toys made in Shrilanka (if I remember correctly) from rubber wood, a by-product of the rubber industry, the trees grow quickly and the plant twice as many as they harvest (not contributing to loss of rainforests) the workers are paid a fair wage... I mean I understand it is not Organic/Fairtrade/Local but they are not plastic, do last for a long time, play value is excellent with most of the toys, and easily availabe... most good toy shops sell pintoy.

I found Brio to be similar.

Many of the fairtrade toys that I have seen for sale, just don't have the play value that they ought to... they wouldn't last long with E, she would figure out the 1 thing you can do with them, get bored, move on.

That toy clock sounds just right for E too... I wonder if an Oxfam shop would have something similar, there is the 'One World' shop on Byres Road, but that might be too far for you Citizen Twigglet, they do some musical instruments there too, I want to get some of them for E.

[citizentwiglet]

Ann, it was that shop I was thinking about, actually. We go down to the Farmers' Market in Partick so we're often around that area.

[Thurston Garden]

I was going to mention Brio too but Annpan beat me to it! Our wee mate has a fantastic Brio train set so it was always easy to buy him new bits for it at birthday or Christmas time - I cannot see where they toys are made on their web site though.

He is quickly branching out into Lego but odds on it's made in China too

[ina]

Ina... when I come to visit you, I'll teach you how to tell the time... it is pretty easy, when you know how

Well, I asked for that, didn't I...

[camillitech]

It would be really interesting to know what percentage of the cr4p that we import from China is toys for our children. My wee dude who's 8 has got me well sussed, I have a pure flakey every time he gets one of the overpackaged, franchised pieces of landfill fodder as a present. "another piece of doo doo from China dad" I'm afraid it's an uphill struggle

Cheers, Paul

[Russian Doll]

according to this lego is made in europe

What country do LEGOs come from?



Invented in Denmark
Lego was invented in Denmark. Lego toys are manufactured in various facilities, primarily Denmark, the Czech Republic, and Mexico. The Lego Group is a family-owned company based in Denmark. The word Lego is derived from the Danish words leg and godt, which basically mean "play well."




Answer
From Denmark. Europe has invented the best toys!!! See the following link:
http://www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=timeline6

[MrFalafel]

Another vote for Lego. You can buy them used if you look around and they last forever and can be handed down. They are also fun for years and years. I was still building stuff out of Lego into my early teens.

And I can recall one of the best toys I had as a kid: a large cardboard box that I could fit into. I drew wheels on it and would pretend it was a truck. Kept me enthralled for days until it finally fell apart. The funny thing was the box held a toy that was purchased for my birthday; it seems I enjoyed the box more than the toy.

[Ali B]

My sons absolutely love George Luck Puzzles. They are made in the UK, are beautifully coloured & are enough of a challenge to keep them interested for a while. The puzzles on the site are arranged by age too, so that really helps with the choosing, especially for confused rellies.

We also invested (& invested is definitely the word) in a wooden marble run & wooden blocks made by Haba (German firm). They are incredibly expensive but get played with every single day & are just a real pleasure to have in the house. Visitors love to play with them too - the age range given is 3-10, but I reckon 3-100 is more like it.

[Ellendra]

Have you looked at http://www.etsy.com ?

[alchemy0]

Have you tried -

http://www.myriadonline.co.uk/index.php (their catalogue is fantastic)

or

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com

Holz toys are good too.

I can't find any on the highstreet, and very very few made in the UK.

Claire

[citizentwiglet]

Thank you so much everyone for your help - there are loads of great ideas there. I have even gone so far as to send emails containing the links to the family. Ellis WILL have a Fisher Price Free Birthday!!!!