B. toys Mission:
"We create toys that inspire individuality. Our process is part joy. Part love. Part mischief. Part serendipity. And at the end of the day, our goal is to be bigger than a toy company. We want to be a voice to children that says it’s okay to be curious, to be pensive, to be loud, to be happy and sad all at the same time, to be generous, to be afraid, to be quiet, to be wild, to be fun, to be open, to be scientific, to be poetic, to be giddy, to be serious, to be smart, to be free, to be you. Just B. Just You. B. You."
B.toys are inspired by the world around us, by children's faces, our own childhoods, travels, or anything that is or used to be a simple pleasure. Just buy browsing B.toys products you can see that their toys are all beautiful colors and eye catching. Being a family that owns a majority of wooden toys the first toy that we choose to review was the A-Maze Rain Rush.
"You'll be singing, marching, shaking, and dancing in the rain."
The A-Maze Rain Rush is a really pretty hand stained wooden cylinder filled with 42 colorful wooden marbles. By rolling the A-Maze Rain Rush, or turning upside down it makes the sound of rain. Who doesn't love that? I noticed too as my daughter rolled it across the wood floors that it also very closely resembles the sound thunder and rain. After about 50 rolls into the closet doors and another 100 shakes and turns, I asked her nicely to set it aside for a little while and with it's gorgeous design is sits nicely on the coffee table and turns into a piece of art. Ages 18 months to 3 years but many children above the age of 3 will enjoy this as well as my 4 1/2 year old did.
The other toy that we received was the B. Pop Arty Beads. These were a huge hit and have multiple uses. B.s Pop Arty Beads contain 500 snap together jewelry pieces including 12 rings and 6 bracelets. Please beware that when we opened the container for the first time out came a bad, strong smell but after dumping all the pieces onto the table we have not smelled any "fumes" since. What is great about this bead set is that they "pop" together and apart, whatever you make can be undone and reused into something else later. The colors are really pretty and vibrant and there are many different shapes inside the container, I particularly liked the ones that looked like raspberries and flowers. Make necklaces, bracelets, rings, etc. We even made some bead strands that we can hang into the window in place of a curtain, or a cute doorway divider. This might require a second container of Pop Arty Beads though, depending on how long and spaced you make them. This is a wonderful product to work on those fine motor skills, creative play, color sorting and we also used them to do small hands on math problems. I love multi taskers. This product is for ages 4-10 but I must admit at almost 30 years old I played with these with these for a steady hour! Her 10 year friend enjoyed them along side the rest of us. My daughter also carted this product with her to dad's house and spent a lot of time there playing with them again with dad and grandma. Comes with a sturdy container for storage.
Each of these products, the A-Maze Rush and Pop Arty Beads are both durable high quality products and my daughter thoroughly enjoyed each of them. Typically, in my experience, you can't find good quality, SAFE, unique toys at your local store but B.toys are widely available and you can purchase them at Target. Super! Also available at my favorite online place, Amazon, or click here for where to buy. For every toy purchased B.toys gives 10¢ to Free The Children. I love companies that give. Be sure to connect with B. toys on Twitter and Facebook as well. You can link directly to their site here.
Special thanks to B.toys for providing samples.
