Guidecraft designer speaks with ToyQueen at ToyFair in New York city
Gary from Guidecraft previews some of their toys. Guidecraft is a creator of wooden toys and furniture for kids. They take pride in products that are more about dramatic and role play than they are about technology. There have a wooden cell phone without lights and sounds to role play being mom, dad, texting and a work environment. The laptop has moveable keys, a mirror and a magnetic background. Instead of typing, children can recreate the experience of being in an office to feel like they are involved in technology. It’s durable and a solid wood product that kids love.
Guidecraft has developed a number of wooden block sets for children. The blocks are made out of rubber wood and have round soft edges. They are an open ended construction toy. Children can play collaboratively and imaginatively together. Guidecraft has designed specialty blocks with tactile and sound experiences. They have designed mirrored blocks, as well as blocks with all different shapes and sizes. With Block Mates, children can take various pieces to add to the blocks to create animals like dinosaurs using the blocks. Blocks can be in the classroom and in the home.
They also developed fine motor and cognitive skills through the Construction Match Sort, to work on pattern recognition, shape sorting, sequencing and color matching. Children pick a card and they need to pick out the pieces that match from the pattern card and create it on the magnetic board. It has educational capabilities, but they can build with plastic pieces without the pattern card. The magnets are sonically welded in for safety.
Video Transcription:
Keri: Hi, this is Keri from ToyQueen.com, and we’re here today with Gary
from Guidecraft and he’s going to share with us some of the products that
Guidecraft has created that he has helped to design.
Gary: Hi, thank you for having me. Guidecraft is a creator of wooden
products and furniture, wooden toys and furniture for kids. We
take pride in some of our products that are more about the
dramatic play and role play than they are about technology. For
instance, we recently just came out with a wooden cell phone
that doesn’t have lights, it doesn’t have sounds, but what it
does, it has the ability to create an experience for a child
where they can role playing being mommy and daddy. They can role
play texting. They can role play a work environment.
To take it a step further, we have a wooden laptop, which also
doesn’t have lights and sound, but it has a magnetic mirrored
panel in it and it has moveable keys. When you give it to a
child, it’s an interesting experience. You and I might think
that they child is just going to type with the keys and try and
tap out words, but what they do is they recreate the experience
of being in an office, recreate the experience of creating
something on a computer. It’s a wonderful way for them to feel
like they’re involved in technology and doing what mom and dad
do without banging away on mom and dad’s keyboard.
It’s a solid wood product, and it has a nice magnetic panel and
it’s very durable. Kids love it.
Keri: What I like too is how actually they can see their reflection in it.
It’s a mirror. So it’s more important for them to also be able
to engage with the toy themselves.
Gary: Yes, they can see themselves in it. Guidecraft does a number of
wooden block sets for children. We make our blocks out of rubber
wood. It’s a very hard wood. They have round soft edges, and
it’s an open-ended construction toy for kids, which we like. We
like a toy that children can play with together. They can have a
collaborative experience and that is open to the imagination.
We make specialty blocks that I didn’t have when I was a kid,
and they’re a beautiful experience. There’s a tactile
experience. There’s a sound experience with these blocks. We
make mirrored blocks. We make many unit blocks. All different
shaped blocks that can go in a classroom or it can go in the
home.
Keri: Go ahead.
Gary: Okay. As part of the block play experience, we make a set of toys
calls Block Mates where a child can take various pieces and we
have different series. We have dinosaurs, we have farm animals,
and we have safari animals. They can create animals using the
different plastic pieces that have a connector.
What’s neat about it is, I might build a dinosaur using the four
pieces as such, but a child might take a horse’s head and put it
on here on the dinosaur’s legs and create fantastical creatures.
Keri: Guidecraft also has a nice series of fine motor toys as well.
Gary: Right. This is a set called Construction Match Sort. What the child
does, or what the parents does with the child or the educator
does with the child is they work on pattern recognition,
sequencing, shape sorting, and color matching. You take one of
the cards. I’m going to dump this. The child needs to pick out
the pieces. I’m doing this upside down.
Keri: Test your skills.
Gary: Right. Here we go. Pick out the pieces that match up on the pattern
card and create it on the board. It’s a great toy for kids to
play with because it has not only educational capabilities
inherent in it, but also the child can build with the plastic
pieces on the back. There are magnets that are sonically welded
in here for safety. They stick to the board so the child can
configure them in different configurations.
Keri: What I like too is, because it has the magnetic piece and it is safe,
there are all sorts of magnetic paints and things out there as
well, so it doesn’t even necessarily have to be a toy that works
within this particular box at the table. It’s something that you
can also move to another area of your home and play with as
well.
Gary: Yeah.
Keri: Great, Gary. Thanks a lot for talking with us today and I hope you
all like Guidecraft. This is Keri from ToyQueen.com. Gary,
really quickly, what is the website for Guidecraft?
Gary: www.guidecraft.com
Keri: Great. Thanks a lot.