Let’s take a look at Iowa’s best wooden toy brands in 2025 — Made in Iowa, for Hawkeyes by Hawkeyes.
But first a quick fact! The oak tree (quercus spp), a hardwood commonly used to make wooden toys, is Iowa’s state tree.
Looking back at history — in the 1940’s the Peter-Mar toy company — from Muscatine, IA — was famous for their wooden toy tractor. But how have things changed?
Nowadays, Bannor Toys is a nationally-recognized brand producing wooden essentials for babies and toddlers.
Affiliate Link Disclosure – If you see a product you like and click through to buy it, I would genuinely appreciate it. I may earn a small commission — at no extra cost to you. It would mean a lot, thanks!
Iowa’s Top 2 Wooden Toy Companies
- (01) Bannor Toys – Madrid, IA
- (02) Sweet Swinging – Iowa City, IA
(01) Bannor Toys
One of the few American wooden toy brands that’s become a household name. Classic, timeless, and beautiful — Bannor Toys has a wide range of natural wooden toys, blocks, and letters.
Especially popular are their state-shaped wooden baby teethers — you guessed it — one for each of America’s fifty states.
From Madrid, IA — Bannor Toys is also known for Montessori-inspired learning activities with age-appropriate learning objectives — colors matching games to pair written names of colors with objects of that color — and memory-building games to match like pairs of animals, dinosaurs, and vehicles.
Visit the Bannor Toys official website.
(02) Sweet Swinging
Modern, trendy, and baby-safe — Sweet Swinging’s collection of baby and toddler swings are a breath of fresh air for your nursery.
Made from high quality and sustainable fabric and wooden dowels in Iowa City, IA — each swing comes with all the necessary hardware needed to install the swing onto a tree branch or swingset frame.
Visit the Sweet Swinging official website.
(03) The Buttercup House
The Buttercup House is and State Center, IA maker of memory matching games. Round stickers are printed then adhered onto wooden rounds and kept in a canvas bag. The same wooden rounds with prints also make great refrigerator magnet sets — when there’s a magnet adhered on the reverse side.
Simple materials like these come together to form unforgettable educational wooden toys — fostering children’s recognition of common objects, vocabulary about them, and keeping them entertained all the while.
See The Buttercup House on Etsy.
(04) Waves Of Grains
For a quirky and cool assortment of wooden play things for babies and toddlers — Waves Of Grains is The Hawkeye State’s place to find a surprise!
With beautifully-grained naturally-stained hardwoods, you’ll find all kinds of peculiar-shaped wooden items. Made in Center Junction, IA — their wooden teethers with silicone parts are an exceptional tactile experience for babies — and their wooden camera toy is a toddler favorite for living in the moment.
An Iowa You Making Time Capsule
- Acorns & Twigs — Before 2025, Acorns & Twigs was a Centerville, IA maker of Waldorf-inspired toys, tools, and other handcrafted supplies. The Centerville, IA maker focused on natural materials like wood, wool, and wax — their full line of whimsical Waldorf craft supplies took children on a whimsical journey to the moon and back.
- Kauffman’s Wood Kreations — Until prior to 2025, Kauffman’s Wood Kreations was one of the few American woodshops which let you replicate your very own barn into a scaled-down wooden play set. This Iowa toymaker derived inspiration from their daily farm life to ship handcrafted toy barns across the nation.
- 2A Toys — Until before the year 2025, 2A Toys made wooden toy guns and medieval weapons — in the shape of the real thing, but made of wood with simple smooth-sanded edges to make them a kid-friendly toy.
