Debut
I wish the story about how this business came to be were even remotely as impressive as the toymaker’s stories found on this web-site, but alas – it is not. However, I will do my best to give you a better idea of who we are.
My “former” career was spent in the corporate world of marketing and advertising, traveling the country, chasing what I thought was the American dream of opportunity and wealth. After spending almost 15 years, what seamed like an eternity, working day and night in a cloudy haze of corporate politics and bureaucracy, I took a time-out.
I was searching for that next step in my life when my father asked me to help him with his business in Nuremberg, Germany (in the spirit of full disclosure, a selection of my father’s “toys” are available on this web-site). For one week each year, he exhibits at Nuremberg’s International Toy Fair, the world’s largest and most prestigious event of its kind. Although I had previously experienced the Nuremberg Toy Fair just after college graduation, it wasn’t until my recent visit to help my father that I consciously noticed a tremendous void in today’s “toy” industry and the amazing potential of a select group of people.
Every year, the Toy Fair is littered with mass produced, factory made, plastic….stuff - stuff that you buy for your children because they just have to have it - only to be found a month later abandoned in the toy box, under the bed or in the garage, because there is the next have-to-have toy now on the market. Upon walking the halls (it took me all week to walk every hall, it’s that big), it became increasingly apparent that there were but a very small handful of high quality, handcrafted toys on display. And I am not referring to toys you find at your local craft show, these toys were works of art in every sense.
In every case, the toys that managed to catch my eye were toys made by individuals. In addition, I found that each of these toys had their own, unique wonderful story. While the toymakers themselves were there to promote their toys, upon introduction of yourself, you learned who these artisans were as people and could immediately sense the passion and pride they had for their craft – something you just don’t find in today’s fast paced, technologically plastic world.
The one and only conclusion I came upon, was to figure out how to showcase these toymakers, tell their stories and highlight the fruits of their labor - and ultimately increase the ownership of these beautiful pieces. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, they are all truly representative of a rapidly disappearing art form.
