Let’s take a look at 2025’s top wooden toy companies — made in California, for Californians by Californians.
But first a quick fact! California has two state trees, both of them massive sequoias — the coast redwood (sequoia sempervirens) and the giant sequoia (sequoiadendron giganteum).
Today, California is a global leader for technological innovation, but it also has it’s place in the history of wooden toys — for the classic wooden toy train.
Back in the 1960’s the California-based Ben Orel company grabbed the patent for a “snap coupling” wooden train track system — now only available from vintage sellers.
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California’s Top Wooden Toy Companies
- (01) TAG Toys – Compton, CA
- (02) Wooden Contraptions – San Jose, CA
- (03) The Puzzle Man – Colfax, CA
- (04) Cloud Rinjani – Irvine, CA
- (05) Treasure LA – Los Angeles, CA
(01) TAG Toys
TAG Toys is a family-owned toy brand focused on the design and manufacture of educational toys in the USA for over 40 years. Here, “TAG” is an acronym for “Think And Grow” — touché! Everyday objects — with fewer flashes and frills — are purposed into irresistible learning tools — for example — their lock-up van and lock box may not look like traditional playthings, but they capture children’s natural curiosity and teach problem-solving, dexterity, and persistence.
They’re the child development toy experts, so parents can follow along — TAG toys categorizes their items by age group, so parents can be certain their purchase is age-appropriate — helpful for parents, optimal for kids. TAG toys span early learning, memory, counting, spelling, skills development, and leave room for creative play.
Visit the Tag Toys official website.
(02) Wooden Contraptions
A local maker for fine wood finger labyrinths for meditation and spirituality. Glide your finger a thoughtfully carved and perfectly smoothed finger path to calm and center yourself. Mindful finger labyrinths are a relaxing wooden plaything for adults and kids alike — guiding perpetual movement towards positivity. Highly recommended!
See Wooden Contraptions on Etsy.
(03) The Puzzle Man
Who said everything in California is new? The self-proclaimed “Puzzle Man” has been making heirloom quality wooden puzzles since 1981 — the same year IBM’s 5150 personal computer was introduced. From Colfax, CA — The Puzzle Man sources sustainably grown wood — so that even after four decades of toy making, the forests are just as green as when he started.
Visit the The Puzzle Man official website.
(04) Cloud Rinjani
From the branch of Montessori principles fostering children’s natural drive for purposeful activity over aimless play, Cloud Rinjani makes kid-sized wooden mops, brooms, and dusting sets.
Don’t worry — there’s still room for imaginative frivolity — their animal- and vehicle-shaped push and pull toys play nice between house chores. All of Cloud Rinjani works with hardwoods and sustainable natural materials — with a raw, untouched, natural look.
(05) Treasure LA
Russian nesting dolls are usually considered an old-fashioned keepsake. Treasure LA adds a pinch of California pizazz with a line of brightly colored wooden nesting dolls — suitable for kids and toddlers hand-on play! (Also, check out the lesser-known handpainted nesting dolls by the “Same, Same. But Different” California Studio Art makers.)
(06) Willa Walker
The Willa Walker is an inventive parent-child trapeze which helps toddlers learn to walk. Basically it’s a sturdy ergonomic bar with left-and-right wooden gymnastics rings dangling by rope. The parent guides with the bar from above, and the child holds on to the rings — arms up, step-by-step.
Visit the Willa Walker official website.
(07) Blossom Farm Studio
Organic wooden baby teethers, grasping, and push toys with that extra little something! Blossom Farm Studio selects all-natural hardwoods — cherry, maple, and walnut — for the highest quality wooden baby shower gifts in the baby department.
See Blossom Farm Studio on Etsy.
(08) Playful Nature
Mill Valley, CA is home to Benji BLOCKS — like tumi ishi with more 45- and 90-degree angles for jumbled and sturdy stacks — made from 100% upcycled sustainable hardwood blocks. Upscaling hardwoods means repurposing scrapwoods — probably from a fancy interior design workshop — into a no-two-sets-alike blockset for peacefully chaotic stacking.
(09) Beyond Balance
For families interested in fitness with preference for light-feeling wood instead of hard-and-heavy metals — the Beyond Balance brand makes handmade fitness equipment in Fresno, CA. Their wall-mounted Swedish ladders and dip stations bring versatile bodyweight fit into most home spaces. For smooth push-thru and roll-down exercises, Beyond Balance supports both fitness and physical therapy in home.
Visit the Beyond Balance official website.
(10) Apple Box Toys
Established in 1980, Apple Box Toys specializes in just two personalized wooden items — coin banks and crayon holders — cheerful cheerful desk companions blending function and fun. Their coin banks shaped like dogs, dolphins, horses, kittens, or trucks — for one unlike the rest — come with colorful designs and personalizations hand-painted on.
Visit the Apple Box Toys official website.
(11) Kris Teeny Tinys
From fantasy and imagination to cartoons and pop culture — there’s no peg doll Kris Teeny Tinys shies away from. Beloved for a simple solid color artistic style, these pegs are made with 100% love.
(12) Puzzle People
Puzzle People is a charming wooden puzzles brand that best known for detailed map puzzles of the United States, Mexico, and world continents — plus classic animal and transportation themes. Handmaking toys for over 50 years since 1972, these Puzzle People live and work among redwood trees in Mendocino County, CA.
(13) The Liz Art Work
A stay at home mom with a passion for peg doll customization. If you’ve never imagined what your family would look like in peg doll form — now you have. For a cherished one-of-a-kind family keepsake, The Liz Art Work will make your loved ones look peg-tastic!
(14) Wildflower Toys
Best known for whimsical fairy dolls, children’s sewing kits, and other elven accessories for DIY small world play — Wildflower Toys offers a small selection of fairy-themed wooden peg dolls and toadstools.
Visit the Wildflower Toys official website.
(15) Everett’s Toy Box
A Santa Rosa, CA maker of fine educational wooden toys — Everett’s makes chunky and easily-graspable open-ended kids’ play sets. With so many beautiful colors for kids to match — great for homeschooling instead of even more California driving.
See Everett’s Toy Box on Etsy.
A California Toy Making Time Capsule
- STEM Inventions — Until some time before 2025, STEM Inventions’ laser cut wooden DIY robot sets were an incredibly inventive hands-on engineering project for K8 kids. Pieced then wired together, they developed children’ s STEM skills for a bright future.
- The Curated Set — Before the closure of their shop prior to 2025, The Curate Set was a popular promoter of whimsy colors and simple shapes — Their shop offered gorgeous wooden sensory play sets, mandala play mats, and other loose parts for exploratory playtime with every color in the rainbow.
- Little Rebel Woodworks — Until some time before 2025, Little Rebel Woodworks was a local boutique for modern wooden children’s furniture. With simplicity in mind, they pieced together a collection of practical wood racks and shelves in a Marie Kondo similar style.
- Timber & Ore Goods — Prior to the year 2025, Timber & Ore Goods had a unique selection of hardwoods — purpleheart, lyptus, walnut, maple, and cherry wood! Yes — unusual woods make uncommon toys.
- Woodily Toys — No longer operating out of San Diego, CA in 2025 — Woodily Toys made a name for themselves with Cali-made custom wooden name puzzles.
- OKGOPLAY — Until their Hollister, CA operations shut down in 2023, OKGOPLAY was my favorite California toy company! Simple, modern, chunky mixed wood premium hardwood blocks and toys — where one toy set composites multiple wood types — a bold spectrum of maple, walnut, and cherry. That’s where OKGOPLAY was A-OK in my book!
- Play 2 Progress — Until the year 2024, Play 2 Progress was a creative, innovative, and educational toddler toy brand. Their specialty “Animagnets” would mix-and-match wooden animal figurines magnetically — an elephant, giraffe, and zebra face parts grouped together in different arrangements for infinitely imaginative combinations — like an ele-bra, gira-phant, or zeb-raffe.
- Mountain Spiral Railway — Before their closure in 2023, Mountain Spiral Railway was a brand extending beyond standard Thomas and Brio tracks. Like a train toy trapeze act full of twists and turns — their wooden railway toys spiraled up to a mountain top — the perfect fit for standard sized toy trains to coast down. Made from baltic birch, it was a gravity-defying series of wooden toy train tracks for young engineers!
- Earth Friendly Toy Co. — Until the year 2023, Earth Friendly Toy Co. perfected an intersection between pastels, pegs, and a passion for sustainability. From Ladera Ranch, CA, they created fantastic nature-themed Waldorf wood and felt playscapes that children, moms, and Mother Earth could all agree on.
- The Puzzled One — Before the year 2022, The Puzzled One was a woodmaking operation by a former preschool teacher and self-taught scroll saw puzzler maker. Their line of wooden puzzles and stacking sets pieced together thick-and-chunky to form the actual shape of the thing they were — for example — the snake curled like a snake, and the tree had ruffled leafy edges.
