At Oddblocks, we’re passionate about the enduring magic of wooden toys – their tactile appeal, their natural beauty, and their capacity to spark imagination. But while we cherish timeless classics, we’re also constantly on the lookout for the next big thing, the designs that push boundaries and redefine what wooden play can be. That’s why we’re so captivated by Kickstarter, a platform that has become a vibrant launchpad for some of the most innovative and inspiring wooden toys we’ve ever seen.
Kickstarter isn’t just a place for aspiring creators; it’s a barometer for what the modern toy market craves: sustainable materials, thoughtful design, and educational value that truly engages young minds. From modular building sets that defy gravity to intricate puzzles that tell stories, the crowdfunding giant has nurtured a renaissance in wooden toy craftsmanship.
Let’s dive into the world of Kickstarter wooden toys, celebrating past successes and guiding you through the exciting landscape of what’s emerging right now.
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Past Triumphs: Inspiring Innovations from Kickstarter’s Archives
Over the years, Kickstarter has been a fertile ground for designers to bring truly unique wooden toy concepts to life. These are the kinds of projects that resonate deeply with our philosophy at Oddblocks: combining natural materials with ingenious design to create lasting play experiences. While their funding campaigns may have concluded, their impact on the wooden toy landscape is undeniable.
Imagine building sets crafted from responsibly sourced timber, featuring magnetic connectors that allow for gravity-defying structures, or intricate wooden automata that teach the principles of mechanics through mesmerizing movement. We’ve seen projects that reimagined classic blocks into open-ended art tools, allowing children to create abstract sculptures. Others have developed storytelling kits, where beautifully carved wooden characters and props inspire imaginative narratives. These innovative toys often stand out for their:
- Sustainability: A strong emphasis on eco-friendly materials and production.
- Open-ended Play: Designs that encourage creativity, problem-solving, and imagination rather than dictating play.
- Heirloom Quality: Toys built to last for generations, often with a commitment to non-toxic finishes and durable construction.
- Educational Depth: Subtly integrating STEM concepts, cultural narratives, or fine motor skill development.
These success stories from Kickstarter’s past serve as a powerful reminder of the incredible potential within the independent toy design community and the passionate backers who bring these visions to fruition.
Currently Trending: Wooden Toys You Can Back Today!
One of the most exciting aspects of Kickstarter is its dynamic, real-time nature. New, innovative wooden toy projects are launching all the time, offering you the chance to be among the first to support groundbreaking designs and often receive exclusive backer rewards. If you’re looking to discover and potentially back a project right now, this is where the action is!
While specific campaigns change daily, here’s what you might find trending or ending soon on Kickstarter for wooden toys:
- Modular Building Systems: New takes on classic blocks, featuring unique interlocking mechanisms, magnetic connections, or specialized shapes for advanced architectural play.
- Educational STEM Kits: Wooden sets designed to teach coding, engineering principles, or physics through hands-on experimentation.
- Sensory & Montessori-Inspired Toys: Projects focusing on natural textures, simple forms, and activities that foster concentration and fine motor skills in young children.
- Artistic & Decorative Pieces: Beautifully crafted wooden toys that double as room decor, often with a unique aesthetic or story behind them.
Ready to explore? We encourage you to visit Kickstarter’s “Toys” category and filter by “Wooden” or simply search “Wooden Toys.” Look for projects with high funding percentages, strong backer communities, and exciting stretch goals. Link to Kickstarter Toys Category
Please Note: Kickstarter campaigns are time-sensitive. Projects listed here are examples of what you might find; their active status will vary. Always check the campaign page for current funding status and deadlines!
Your Guide to Backing Wooden Toy Kickstarters: What to Look For
Supporting a Kickstarter project is a unique experience. While it offers the thrill of backing innovation, it also requires a discerning eye. Here’s how to vet a wooden toy campaign to ensure you’re making a confident pledge:
- 1. Creator Reputation & Transparency:
- Who are they? Do they have a track record of successful campaigns or relevant experience in design/manufacturing?
- Communication: Are they responsive to comments? Do they provide regular, detailed updates? This is crucial for project transparency.
- Factory/Production Plan: Do they clearly outline their manufacturing partners, material sourcing, and production timeline? Look for commitments to ethical labor and sustainable practices.
- 2. Material Sourcing & Safety:
- Wood Type: Is the wood sustainably sourced (e.g., FSC-certified)? Is it a durable, child-safe wood?
- Finishes: Are the paints, stains, and sealants non-toxic and child-safe (e.g., water-based, natural oils)?
- Certifications: Do they mention any safety certifications (e.g., ASTM, CE)? This is particularly important for toys intended for young children.
- 3. Understanding Pledge Tiers & Value:
- What are you getting? Clearly understand what each pledge tier includes. Is it just the toy, or does it come with add-ons, exclusive colors, or early bird pricing?
- Shipping Costs: Don’t forget to factor in shipping! It can sometimes significantly impact the total cost, especially for international backers.
- Stretch Goals: These are bonus items or enhancements unlocked once a campaign reaches certain funding milestones. They can add extra value to your pledge.
- 4. Delivery Logistics & Potential Risks:
- Estimated Delivery: Is the timeline realistic? Manufacturing delays can happen, especially for new creators.
- Communication on Delays: How do they plan to communicate if delays occur? A good creator will be proactive.
- What are the risks? Every Kickstarter project carries some risk. A well-written campaign will openly address potential challenges and how they plan to mitigate them.
By asking these questions, you’ll be better equipped to support projects that are not only innovative but also well-managed and transparent.
Decoding Wooden Toy Trends on Kickstarter: What Resonates with Backers
Beyond individual product features, there are clear trends and priorities that emerge from the collective wisdom of the Kickstarter community. Understanding these can offer insights into what truly makes a wooden toy campaign successful and what today’s parents and enthusiasts are looking for:
- Sustainability as a Core Value: It’s no longer just a bonus; backers actively seek out creators who emphasize eco-friendly materials, responsible forestry, minimal packaging, and even carbon-neutral production. Projects with a strong environmental ethos consistently perform well.
- Open-Ended Play Reigns Supreme: Toys that encourage imagination, critical thinking, and allow for multiple ways to play often receive higher backing. Think versatile building blocks, modular systems, or character sets that don’t come with a prescribed narrative.
- The “Why” Behind the Design: Backers want to connect with the creator’s vision. Stories about inspiration, the design process, and the toy’s intended impact on a child’s development resonate deeply.
- Educational Value Without “Teaching”: The best wooden toys on Kickstarter integrate learning seamlessly into play. They might subtly introduce physics, geometry, or fine motor skills without feeling like a classroom lesson.
- Aesthetics and Heirloom Quality: A beautiful design is paramount. Backers are often willing to invest in toys that are not only fun but also aesthetically pleasing enough to be displayed and cherished for generations.
- Community Engagement: Campaigns that actively engage with their backer community through updates, polls, and responsive comments build trust and foster loyalty, often leading to more pledges and positive word-of-mouth.
Join the Wooden Toy Revolution!
Kickstarter continues to be a phenomenal platform for discovering the next wave of wooden toy innovation. Whether you’re a parent seeking unique, sustainable playthings for your children, a design enthusiast, or simply someone who appreciates fine craftsmanship, there’s always something exciting to uncover.
At Oddblocks, we’re committed to bringing you the best in wooden toys, celebrating both the timeless classics and the cutting-edge designs that emerge from platforms like Kickstarter. We encourage you to explore, discover, and perhaps even back a project that truly inspires you. Together, we can champion the future of play – one beautifully crafted wooden toy at a time.
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I’ve always loved Kickstarter for its forward-thinking products, inspiring design, and creator stories of domain expertise and entrepreneurial grit.
But it wasn’t until recently that I discovered an entire ecosystem of innovative wooden toys on Kickstarter, and I’m simply in awe.
Someday — someday I aspire to develop my own blocks. For now, I’d like to applaud the wooden toy creators, and share them with you.
I’ve rummaged through Kickstarter’s wooden toy campaigns 2010 to date.
Here are 14 of my top picks. Enjoy!
1. Woodas: Eco-Friendly Wooden Rocks
Funding Period: Now
Japanese made Woodas wooden rocks are eco-friendly wooden tumi ishi blocks, formed in those blissfully irregular shapes we’ve come to know and love. As a design-centric toy, these wooden rocks serve as both a contemporary wooden toy and a decorative art piece for your home.
Most tumi ishi sets are made with a single wood type and then painted different colors. Each block in this Woodas set, on the other hand, is made with a unique type of quality natural wood and kept eco-friendly unpainted and untreated.
Fashioned from light and dark shades of walnut, maple, ash, pine, and sapele — Woodas blocks put natural beauty first.
When I close my eyes, I can just imagine its fresh forest scent.
2. ESNAF Toys: Wooden Magnetic Dinosaur & Animal Toys
Funding Period: June 2020 – July 2020
ESNAF Toys is a family-run brand of wooden toys, started by two architects (husband and wife) when they had their first child. Ever since their son’s birth in 2013, they’ve been drafting, developing, manufacturing, and selling innovative wooden animal figures.
Their Kickstarter campaign boasts 13 brand new magnetic wooden toys.
The toys are mostly natural wood color, but each separate figure has its own minimal painted color accents. This way, you can tell which pieces to belong to which animal figure. For example, yellow pieces make up the kangaroo. Orange pieces make up the tyrannosaurus rex.
Since the pieces are free-form and open-ended, you can get creative and invent a new animal. For example, a kangasaurus rex.
3. Cody Blocks: Wooden STEM Toy
Funding Period: April 2020 – May 2020
Frankly, most STEM toys are ugly. Somehow design aesthetics get forgotten in the entire product development process. But Cody Blocks are gorgeous.
They’re fashioned like a contemporary cityscape, with simplistic skyscrapers.
Cody Block’s slogan is “introducing coding one block at a time”. That’s because it’s a STEM toy that teaches logic principles — a.k.a. the building blocks of programming.
How to play? The game works by “programming” a path for a motorized car to follow. Each block has a directional command symbol printed onto the block — like turn left, turn right, repeat and stop.
STEM learning comes alive when you set the car on its path. Just like real programming, there are limitless combinations of paths you can sequence.
4. Kolekto: Geometric Magnetic Wooden Blocks
Funding Period: January 2020 – February 2020
Made in Denmark by a mother of two, Kolekto blocks have everything you’d ever want in an essential block set. They come unpainted in the most basic shapes — square, triangle, and sphere.
Each piece has one or more magnets embedded into its surface. You can tell that the magnets are strong, able to defy gravity even when attached at a 90-degree angle with no support below.
Strong magnets aren’t the only attractive feature, however.
The block set in aggregate has all the pieces you need to make little block people with a variety of personalities — even with fun geometric breasts and hats if you please.
5. Weaponized T-Rex: Wooden Rubber Band Minigun
Funding Period: October 2019 – November 2019
Parental supervision required! Even if it’s more for adults than children, this toy is just too cool to leave out.
The Rubber Band Minigun by Weaponized T-Rex is a fully-automatic, fully wood-omatic rubber band gun that will shoot rounds of rubber bands faster than any anything else out there.
12 barrels powered by an electric motor unleash the rapid-fire of 144 rubber bands. So, watch out and do wear protective glasses.
I can imagine my own dad taking this downstairs to his man cave, and not seeing him for hours.
This toy is not recommended for children. But it’s the perfect gift for extreme wooden toy geeks.
6. PLOK Toys: Geometric Magnetic Building Blocks
Funding Period: November 2018 – December 2018
PLOK Toys is a start-up hailing from Amsterdam. Their magnetic blocks are built upon the principles of child development, geometric design, and environmental friendliness.
What really caught my eye about these blocks are their chunky large-sized geometric shapes, including hexagons, parallelograms, trapezoids, and triangles.
Pair the blocks’ modern color scheme and magnetic powers — that’s a really inventive block set sure to boost children’s creativity and imagination.
7. Tinkerton Toys: Akamina Puzzle
Funding period: June 2018 – July 2018
Founders of Tinkerton Toys, Amy and Charles Wood, are both mechanical engineers by trade. Raising their two daughters in a digital age, they quickly realized how important physical experiences are for children.
Amy and Charles started their mission to promote healthy child development through enriching physical play and interacting with the world around us.
Thus was born the Akamina Puzzle, a natural wooden tangram. The word “Akamina” is the Native American Kootenai tribe’s word for “valley”.
Each puzzle set is designed as a mountain valley scenery in abstract geometric form. This wooden tangram is designed to engage children’s imagination and STEM skills, and is thoughtfully designed with nature in mind.
8. Wumba: Magnetic Animal Blocks
Funding Period: June 2018 – July 2018
Magnetic wooden blocks have been gaining popularity in recent years, but most magnetic block sets are too intricate for younger children.
Wumba’s imaginative animal block set is changing the game, with these magnetic blocks designed to be safe for even the youngest children.
Wumbas blocks come in the shapes of 5 different animals, cute as could be. The pieces’ broad curved shapes and completely embedded magnets allow young children to mix-and-match all sorts of fun combinations.
One thing I appreciate about these blocks is their large, chunky sizes and their gummy rounded edges.
As parents, we’ll worry that small blocks could become a choking hazard, especially during our child’s teething stage. But this set is designed safety-first, even for our littlest ones.
9. Hope Montgomery: All American Wood Blocks
Funding Period: May 2018 – June 2018
As a collaboration between designer Hope Montgomery and manufacturer Maple Landmark, All American Wood Blocks makes a bold statement about diversity in the United States of America.
The set comes with 3 blocks, each as a different section of a character — a head, a torso, and a pair of legs. Painted onto each side of the block, the characters are intended to dispel racial, gender, and classist stereotypes.
In a country becoming more and more divided by invisible lines, this toy delivers an important message.
No matter how you combine the pieces, the words “I AM AMERICAN” will remain.
10. Cavalcade: Wooden Rocking Animals
Funding Period: March 2018 – April 2018
Cavalcade is the flagship product line of an Amsterdam-based toy startup founded by toy industry veterans Luca Boscardin and Valentina Raffaelli.
They’ve taken the old-style drab rocking horse and remixed it into a festive modern collection of wooden rocking animals.
The founders ideated their design based on the solid principles of simplicity, sustainability, and functionality. Low and behold, their vision of doing well by doing good has culminated into an eye-catching eclectic series of rocking animals — including a horse, zebra, giraffe, deer, and even an iguana!
11. Ikonic Toys: Minimalistic wooden animal blocks
Funding Period: October 2017 – November 2017
As the result of a masterful collaboration between Ikonic Toys and Floris Hovers, this innovative wooden toy set includes 13 ultra-minimal animal-shaped wooden blocks.
My opinion is this type of minimal toy design is amply welcome in the modern-day playroom.
These blocks are so abstract — if a piece is viewed in singularity out of context, it’s not 100% clear what it is exactly. Viewed in aggregate, however, one can easily connect the dots — they’re animals!
That’s one of my favorite moments — when the lines between art and toy are blurred.
12. Big Future Toys: Earthtiles Wooden Magnetic Tiles
Funding Period: April 2017 – May 2017
Under the slogan “What if toys could change the world?”, the people at Big Future Toys are on a mission to create sustainable toys that inspire creative play.
Earthtiles, their Kickstarter debut, is a modular set of magnetic wooden tiles that fit together to create all kinds of shapes — everything from soccer-ball-like spheres to fully-functional dollhouses.
Hand-made from high-quality birch, Earthtiles are an innovative and eco-friendly way to play.
The complete 32 piece set comes with 20 squares, 8 equilateral triangles, and 4 isosceles triangles — made from unpainted natural ethically-sourced wood. The magnets are embedded along the full length of each tile’s edge, allowing even the youngest architects to find a fit.
13. Candy Lab: Americana Wooden Toys
Funding Period: July 2016 – August 2016
Most of the toys in this list have been building blocks for open-ended play, but this one is proof that classic wooden car toys are still kicking!
The Midcentury Americana wooden toy set by Candy Lab is a testament to modernist design and a tribute to good ole’ American roadside car culture.
The toy set feels like a road trip to Reno from the 1960s, with nostalgic wood-paneled station wagons, checkered roadsters, drive-in burger joints, and swanky roadside motels.
In starting this Kickstarter campaign, Candy Lab not only reminisces about America’s glorious past but looks forward to a promising future.
Proceeds from the campaign were put towards the development of a brand new American toy factory with homegrown, sustainable, All-American values.
14. The Empathy Toy: The Wooden Toy That Teaches Empathy
Funding Period: November 2013 – December 2013
I simply love the innovative idea behind The Empathy Toy! As adults, it’s so easy to get preoccupied with our own stresses.
It’s an important reminder that other people — that our friend, our kids, our parents — are dealing with their own set of strange emotions.
This toy touts “empathy and play are how we learn”, and the way they implemented the toy is on-point for helping people of all ages practice empathy.
The set comes with 10 toy pieces, some light, some dark, and each with its own unique shape and texture.
How to play? You try to connect the pieces into a pattern based on specific instructions. Except there’s one catch! Players must put on a blindfold, so they can only rely on their unblinded teammates’ verbal help to solve the puzzle.
A toy that builds greater empathy and trust between friends and family? Yes, please!
Over to you!
I am still awe-struck by the innovative wooden toys I found on Kickstarter!
I fully support our world’s transition towards sustainable, educational, and minimal toys — and general life practice. I believe the creative minds at Kickstarter are doing the world a favor bigger than they know.
And I can’t wait to see what’s next!
- Have you backed a wooden toy crowdfunding campaign?
- What kinds of wooden toys do you hope to see next?
- What do you think will become the future of wooden toys?
I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
