Sprig Hollow, New Green Toys from Sprig - Tiny Toy Testers Review
I almost think I should title this post, "You Know You are a Toy Geek When..." Yesterday Toy Whimsy got the joy of opening some big boxes sent by our friends over at Sprig toys. If you aren't familiar with Sprig toys, they are a green toy company that is making toys out of reclaimed wood and plastic. You can hear our podcast interview with Justin Discoe, one of the co-founders of the company here. The big box Sprig sent me contained pre-production sets of the new Sprig Hollow line! Be still my heart! Toys that aren't even on the shelf yet, and set to be revealed at the huge Toy Fair in New York, were on my desk and in my office! It was pretty exciting. I brought the sets home and took some video that you can see below... Watch the toys in action and then keep reading for an extensive review of these new green toys.
Rating System: On a five star scale, one being horrible, five being wonderful.
Assembly: 4 stars, the sets are packaged wonderfully, very eco-friendly in corregated boxes with no extra twist ties or fasteners. The pieces all come out of the boxes easily, and the instructions are printed on the box so there in so extra waste or stuff to throw in the trash. There was one rubber band to keep the bug figure in one place, but those are easily put in a drawer for later re-use. The actually assembly is Ikea-style, with very little words, but many pictures with letters and arrows. While it was a bit challenging for my 4 year old, I was able to put the toys together with little problem. When it came time to put the toys away (I put them on a high shelf to save them for sandbox season!) it was a little tricky and I actually had a little piece of the barn break. I talked to the Sprig folks about this and was told two things 1) the barn is meant for a one time assembly (oops.) and that 2) The final product will be a different color and sturdier. So this was not the fault of the toy, it was my own. I only give it a 4 because my 4 yr old could not have put the toys together herself, but I do think a 6 or 7 year old probably could. After watching me snapping them together once, my daughter was eager to try taking the sand toy parts off of the toys and then put the toys back together. She was able to do this with little to no help. My son even joined in (he's 2) after we got everything assembled and you can see in the video that he also had fun taking the sand toys off and putting the trucks back together.
Fun Factor: 5 stars, Sometimes simple is just better. There are no batteries, no flashing lights, no voices yelling out the alphabet on these toys, but as you can see in the above video, my kids really had fun with them. Because they are made out of the same type of material that outdoor decking is made of, these toys are meant to live outside. They will not crack, fade, or disintegrate like other green plastics. even indoors you can see that the trucks, the insects, and the barn have appeal to both genders. As much as I have tired to fight it, my daughter is very girly-princessy-pink-toy-loving and my son is very much a car-truck-blocks-toy-loving boy but these sets had them both playing for an extended period of time. My daughter loved that she could change the faces of the bees and bugs, and my son loved that the trucks had big wheels and that there was a shovel that came with the truck.
Educational Factor: 4 Stars, Included with the sets are some little paper flowers. Within the paper are some wildflower seeds. You can plant the paper flower, and then the paper will disinigrate and the flowers will grow. It is a pretty fun lesson for kids, and you can use the flower pot/bee hive the comes with the barn set or just a pot of your own. I also like the the toy is a lesson in itself. My kids are learning about recycling all the time even at the ages of 2 and 4. They hear about it at preschool, they see it on Noggin and Sprout, and they also see it in our own house when we ask them to put their yogurt containers in the recycling instead of the trashcan. The toys, being recycled materials themselves, are a good lesson of how we can use materials that otherwise would have been burned, or in a landfill.
Novelty Factor: 5 stars, Sure we have sand toys, and sure we have some sets that have little figures and houses, but four things make this set really stand out from most if not all of the toys that we have in our house. 1) it is made with 100% recycled materials - reclaimed wood and plastics. 2) The sets are packaged in a way that makes them easy to take out and creates very little waste. 3) They are appealing to both my daughter and my son because they are play sets that are sand toys, and sand toys that are play sets. 4) They will withstand the Seattle weather and can be left outside without becoming yucky, faded, or cracked.
Overall I would give these toys a 4.5 score. I am excited to see what Sprig can do in the future as they are such a young company. They are making creative and eco-friendly ideas come to life, and these changes going to be felt throughout the industry. Changes are already being made. This year at Toy Fair, Sprig is sponsoring a recycling program. At last year's Toy Fair, the Sprig people were dismayed that they couldn't find any recycling bins, so this year they have teamed up with the people at The Javits Center in New York to place recycling bins through out the exhibition halls.
Keep your eyes on Toy Whimsy as we travel to New York City next week for the Toy Fair. We will be bringing you video blogs from Marianne Szymanski, new and exciting toys, and ideas about trends for 2009. We have a lot to share with you and we are looking forward to the week ahead!
--Laura McMullan
Nat Sattayapornphisut on February 16, 2009 at 09:22 AM
Such a great toy.....!!!
Wanna play it !!
Alanna on February 19, 2009 at 04:59 AM
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Alanna
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