Episode #48: Why The Toy Industry Needs More Toys Designed For Free Play
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Have you ever watched a child engage with a push-button toy and couldn’t help but feel something was missing? Today we explore why the toy industry needs more toys designed for free play, experimentation, and discovery. After recently playing with a building kit called Rigamajig from toy designer Cas Holman, The Toy Coach was inspired to delve into the importance of diversifying the play patterns of today’s toys.
In this week’s episode, The Toy Coach challenges you to think about developing toys that allow for free play, thought, and discovery - a vital part of a child’s formative years. Where do today’s push-button toys and arts-and-craft kits fall short, and how can negotiating for a little more free play in toy design benefit a child’s developing mind? Push play to find out!
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Learn more about Rigamajig by clicking here.
Check out the Party Lamp Kit by BrainyYak Labs here or following them on IG @brainyaklabs.
Learn more about Toy Coach’s Toy Challenge by visiting thetoycoach.com/challenge
To listen to the Toy Coach interview with Cas Holman, click here: www.thetoycoach.com/33
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Azhelle
You are listening to Making It in The Toy Industry, Episode Number 48.
Intro/Outro + Jingle
Welcome to Making It In The Toy Industry, podcast for inventors and entrepreneurs like you and your host, Azhelle Wade.
Azhelle
Well, hey there toy people Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of Making It in The Toy Industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by thetoycoach.com. Are you ready for a toy challenge? Well, starting this month, I'm hosting a special toy challenge for all of you inventors and entrepreneurs out there with toy ideas. So if you would love my help developing ideas for free, and having an opportunity to pitch those ideas to a few major toy companies, I want you to reach out to me, you can either send me a message on my Instagram, my name is @thetoycoach, or just head over to challenge.thetoycoach.com and join this first of I'm sure many toy challenges. Alright, let's jump into the episode. Today's episode was inspired by a holiday segment that I'd put together for access daily. This segment airs today at 1pm. Eastern time, so make sure that you go check it out. In the process of gathering all of these toys for this segment, playing with them and presenting them. I was really inspired to create this episode all about the importance of toys that are designed for free play being mainstream in our industry. Now this episode is 100% a challenge to all of my toy makers out there, it's a challenge to really think about the type of play that your toys that you're designing allow for and really ask yourself. What does this toy give back to the child. One of my favorite quotes is by author Pearl S Buck. And that quote is, "If our American way of life fails the child, then it fails us all". And I have to admit, I'm a little concerned that the primary play patterns that we put into our toys are failing the child. Look, if you've been listening to my podcast for a while you guys know me and you know that I care deeply about reinvigorating the toy industry with fresh ideas. That's why I connect entrepreneurs and aspiring inventors like yourself to the right people in the toy industry. It is the whole mission statement behind Toy Creators Academy to bring fresh products into the toy industry that kids need and then teaching how to present those ideas in a way that buyers will want it and how to develop those ideas in a way that a toy company could sell them. But as much work as I do. And as much work as my Toy Creators Academy students do, the opportunity for the next generation of toys is only going to open up as much as our industry understands the need for them. So this episode is going to focus on that need. So the first question people will ask is, why do we need to diversify the play patterns of our toys, Azhelle? Why in the world? Does that even matter? And that's the question that we're going to answer today. We're going to start with a bit of storytime where I share with you a recent light bulb moment that I had regarding diversity in play patterns. And then we'll talk about craft toys, which you know, I love why they're beneficial for kids development, but where they fall short. Now I want to also share the dangers that I'm seeing with push button toys right now. And finally, I want to encourage you, my toy people, to fill those gaps. This is a challenge. Remember, I'm challenging you to fill those gaps. And if you want to go through a toy challenge with me again, visit challenge.thetoycoach.com and join that challenge or just listen to this episode and hear the things I'm saying and I challenge you to think differently about the toys that you develop next. Okay, so I'm going to start this off by taking it back to about a week ago when I was prepping for my toy segment on access daily. So I'd gotten my hands on a Rigamajig Jr builder kit. And I needed to build something with it something that would look great on TV. Now the creator of Rigamajig is queer toy designer Cas Holeman and I love Cas. She is a great person. She really promotes diversity and representation on her packaging. But what I really love is that it shows up in her play and I what I mean by diversity in her play is that she designs products that allows kids to openly play and experiment with her toys in in ways that they already wanted to play and experiment with any pieces they find in the world. So instead of leading kids by creating a toy that says, push this button or pull this tab, her toy Rigamajig, specifically is a bunch of parts, mostly wooden parts, some plastic parts, it comes with no instructions. And the goal is to play and experiment, you know, just see what happens. Now, when I interviewed Cas back in Episode 33, it's a great episode, you should go listen, if you haven't already. That's thetoycoach.com/33. But when I interviewed cast, I thought that I really understood the value of Rick imagick, I really did. I understood that she paid attention to what kids like to do, and answered that into toys. For example, she realized they like to turn her toy Rigamajig, wooden pieces and plastic pieces into spinning tops. So from that she created a kit with parts that would specifically enhance that spinning top play. And still that kid, that kid would not limit the kid's imagination to only building spinning tops. But it would enhance the play experience if what they wanted to do was create spinning tops by incorporating patterns and things that would look interesting when they spun. So look, I thought I understood it. But let me tell you something, toy people, when I actually got my hands on a Rigamajig, and I had to build something, my perspective completely changed. And here's why. As I was building something, you know, I struggled with figuring out what piece would have this effect that I wanted it to do, how can I build a ramp with what I had? How can I build a working car? How could I utilize the pulley system that's included in a kid? And how did I use the rope? How can I do all of that this toy inspired questions in me, and I'm a grown woman. I mean, what would happen if I did this, I would say what would happen if I did that, my best friend came over to help me with a project. And she works in a museum installing exhibits. And even she was finding an enjoyable challenge in playing and building with this toy. We spent three hours building with Rigamajig, we didn't even notice all the time that had flown by. We laughed, we had success, we were frustrated. But mostly we were really in awe at how educational the product was. I couldn't believe how much fun I was having and how much I learned. And that was the moment that I realized that I would have been a very different adult, if I had a toy like this growing up. Because in just a few hours of play, my thought process changed. So I started to think like what could have happened with a few years of play with a toy like this. And that's when I really, truly got it, that we as a toy industry, we need more toys designed for play. And for thought and for discovery. We need it. Why? Well, because it's going to develop more thoughtful, open minded kids who will turn into the problem solving, compassionate and collaborative adults that our world and communities need to be able to evolve and thrive. My challenge to you. My challenge to you as I was looking at this and I'm thinking about what the toy industry needs is just to develop toys that allow for this free play does toys that look at the way kids play and experiment and enhances on that instead of restricts it. So then playing with this toy learning about kind of engineering with wood and plastics and just feeling like I was discovering things that I didn't know I didn't know, My mind went into arts and crafts and you guys know I love arts and crafts and I love craft toys. I'm all about it. And when I would design arts and crafts toys, I always intentionally included more material than was required to make the finished piece right and the finished piece would be whatever whatever is on the box, or in the instruction manual to tell the kid to create. So let's say the finished piece is a butterfly headband. Every time Develop toy products, I always like to include a few extra colors of felt or a few extra butterfly pieces that were not in the beauty shot on the front of the box, because I enjoyed the idea that the kid is surprised with these extra pieces. And you know, they're not listed in the instructions. And that encourages the child to not only create what's on the instruction sheet, but explore and experiment with the leftover and excess materials to create something of their own. While they may be a creative outlet, a lot of them lack the mental challenge, the problem solving aspect of what happens when I connect this piece to that piece. Why? Because gluing a felt butterfly to a headband is always going to yield the result of the butterfly now being attached to the headband if you have good quality glue, so there is no real cause and effect here. And there's no real stretching of a child's mind, maybe some stretching of creativity. But what if it's not a creative child? What if they're more tangible, what if they're more mechanical? What if they need creativity in a different format. So that's when I remembered this craft toy that I was recently introduced to the Party Lamp kit by BrainyYak Labs. And this kit, they give kids everything they need to just build a simple circuit, and then assemble and decorate a really beautiful modern lamp for their rooms. And this lamp lights up in a bunch of different colors, you get the feeling that you really did something meaningful. Now to me, this kit is where we need to go with our craft kits in the toy industry, with a focus on building before decorating, teaching how things can work with a window for creativity on the back end. And honestly, when I think back to the types of craft kits that I played with, and the types of craft kits that I kind of created for myself growing up, it was all about building something and then decorating it, I would build paper houses and build paper neighborhoods and then decorate them. Or I had wood carving kits in which I would build a wood design and a wood station and then add the decorations later on. And I think it's really important that if you're in the craft space, or if you're designing for the craft space to think about how you can incorporate that building aspect on the front end, because that's where you're really giving value to the child developmentally, creatively on the back end, yes, they'll get the the creative development of adding colors and shapes and moving things around. But we do really need to pay attention to what's happening on that building engineering, you know, front end, I think we can do a lot more there. Okay, and now I want to get into the problem with push button toys. And when I say push button toys, I want you to know that I mean, simple reaction toys. These are the toys where a kid does one action, like pushes a button and the toy reacts, lights up shakes or something else happens. And then eventually the play pattern ends they push the button again and on and on and on. Now I know you're thinking, Oh no, she's gonna get into push button toys. I literally just made a push button toy is nominated for an award, What is she talking about? but hear me out? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them. But I am saying that we might have to start thinking about what else these toys can give to our kids. And here's, here's why I say that. So just two weekends ago, I saw a friend's Instagram story. And I saw her baby playing with a peekaboo rabbit. So the baby would tap the rabbit and the rabbits ears would cover his face. And a few seconds later, they'd raise up and the rabbit would say peekaboo and the cycle would happen again and again. So I watched the video, I thought it was cute. Then of course I watched it again as a toy person and now staring at the toy. And I actually realized that a majority of the baby's responses are triggered by the mom's reaction to the toy more so than the toy itself. So fast forward to a week later after seeing that and me playing with Rigamajig, and similar open play toys I realized what was missing. And honestly, I was a little embarrassed. I started to think what is that toy really giving that baby because the toys I've been playing with with the free play were giving me so much. What was this push button toy really giving that child and that is a toy that I could have very easily designed. Honestly if I was still working for a toy company that was pushing out product I would have very easily seen that toy Come on my desk and say that is adorable. So cute. Let's make it because it's a standard. It's it's honestly a standard type of play pattern that's well respected and accepted in the toy industry. But I've got to say, now with fresh eyes, I'm a little ashamed of it. In my opinion, I think push button toys have become all too common, and a little too celebrated. Yes, they can be hilarious and fun and make for great videos and marketing campaigns. But I really believe that it's important for a child's formative years to be filled with toys that encourage instruction free exploration and experimentation. Now, I know this is not going to change overnight. This is not something that you know, you say it, you speak it into existence, and now every toy company is is not doing push button toys, they're only doing developmental toys. I know, we still have to market we still have to sell toy products at the end of the day that people are comfortable with and used to. But in the same way that I would engage in a little extra factory negotiations to get a little bit more contents and materials than were needed. In my craft kits. I really want to charge the toy industry and challenge you to negotiate for a little more free play in typically push button toys. It would make me really happy if the next time that you went to design a toy, you asked yourself, what is this experience giving the child? What can you add to that experience that will challenge a child's developing mind? Are we inadvertently creating toys that are limiting their development? Because if we are we've got to think back to that Pearl S Buck quote, don't we? If our American way of life fails the child then it fails us all. I really want to make sure that we're not failing the children that we're thinking of them in all of the toys we develop. And I really hope that this episode is just the first catalyst in starting that thought process with you and your teams as you're developing toy products. Okay, toy people. That is all I have to share with you today. I really hope you enjoyed this episode about why the toy industry needs more toys designed for free play. If you love this podcast and you haven't yet left to review, I want to ask you to please stop what you're doing and do that right now. Head over to Apple podcasts. Scroll down to the reviews, hit write a review and leave me some love I get a kick out of seeing those messages come through. As always, thank you so much for joining me here. I know there are many podcasts out there. So it means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week. I'll see you later toy people.
Intro/Outro + Jingle
Thanks for listening to Making It in The Toy Industry podcast with Azhelle Wade, head over to thetoycoach.com for more information, tips and advice
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🎓Learn more about how you can develop and pitch your toy idea with Toy Creators Academy® by clicking here to visit toycreatorsacademy.com and join the waitlist.
