Kiwi designs for farm kids’ stockings
If Santa wants to avoid plastic this year, he has plenty of options to deliver to farmers in the making.
At Kumeu-based Pioneer Toys, cattle yards, stock trucks and ride-on diggers are on the mostpopular list.
The age of plastic is declining, toy-maker Bryan Millar says, people are ‘‘sick and tired of buying stuff that lasts a day or a week and then is thrown away, it’s not sustainable and it’s not environmentally friendly’’.
Millar was the national manager of an insurance company, on a big salary and successful in his corporate world, when he visited Pioneer Toys.
On a mission to buy a bandsaw, Millar ended up buying the whole company instead.
‘‘I had a six-figure salary, company car and all the trimmings but I was waking up each morning not wanting to go to work.’’
Drawing on the skills he learnt on a building apprenticeship years earlier, Millar now produces sturdy toys that he said pass the generations test.
Pioneer’s rural-themed toys include a farmyard set with a stock truck, loading race, cattle crate and farm shed.
For Christmas, Millar said tip trucks, graders and ride-on sandpit diggers were top of the list.
Millar upcycles kauri, rimu, totara and matai, relying on joiner friends for offcuts. He said sustainability was important.
‘‘It’s something that my clients really love, to know that maybe the bonnet on their stock truck has come from a rimu stud from a Sandringham villa.’’
The toys get a hard time but Millar said it was testimony to a ‘‘well-designed and well-respected toy’’.
‘‘They want something that comes from a sustainable resource, that can be repaired if it breaks and that can be handed down.’’
Pioneer’s wooden toys are priced from $10 to $280.
Another Kiwi company is using New Zealand wool to provide sustainable options for Santa’s sack.
Woolkin makes tractors, trucks, planes, masks and fire engines out of wool and pine.
The company was co-founded by Blythe and Anna Rees-Jones, and Luke Morreau.
Woolkin’s mini tractor, Dash the aeroplane and Brave Dave the fire engine were the most popular in its range, Morreau said.
‘‘Brave Dave is cool because wool does not burn, so metaphorically speaking, making fire engines out of wool – so perfect.’’
Morreau said it was when the group started having families of their own that they realised there was a need for a natural fibrebased business. Drawing on a rural background and New Zealand’s wool history, they decided to develop toys in line with their values.
‘‘We began questioning just what else could be done with wool outside traditional textile applications.’’
Christmas was a busy time for the toy-makers, Morreau said. ‘‘Come to think of it, most of the toys are a bright pohutukawa red, the colour of Christmas, maybe that helps.’’
He said making toys for a living was a lot of fun. ‘‘It’s also a really rich territory, to push the boundaries of what’s possible with wool.’’
Woolkin toys come flat packed with quick click-and-lock assembly, which was part of the fun for the parents and children, Morreau said.
Although using natural materials made the toys more expensive, with the toy range costing $9.50 to $149.90, the move was paying off.
The toys were popular with buyers overseas and had become a ‘‘cultural hit’’.
The toys are made using Naturesclip, a material system the company created with production partners.
Developed from New Zealand wool fibre, it can be shaped, coloured and moulded into almost any soft or rigid form. The wood is FSC certified timber sourced from New Zealand forests.
‘‘Good toys need to take a beating, not flake off paint chips and look damaged over time,’’ Morreau said.
For little shearers preparing to help the gang this summer, a wooden handset is a great way to go.
Jeremy and Dee Rolston run Needle and Nail from their home in Bay of Islands. They dreamed up the idea when Jeremy Rolston was on ACC after a back operation.
‘‘I made a few designs for our kids and they grew from there. Five years on and I’m still struggling to keep up with Christmas orders,’’ he said.
Needle and Nail’s most popular toy is the wooden rifle, which has a real scope. ‘‘I stamp serial numbers on every toy I’ve ever made, so I keep a close track of what I’m up to,’’ Jeremy Rolston said.
Wooden bow and arrow sets were second, ‘‘because they’re fun and a bit cheaper’’.
A doll’s pram was also hugely popular and their chainsaw captured the most attention at markets because it looked realistic, he said.
The couple, who grew up in the country, also sell a wooden sewing machine, lawnmower, a fishing set and rural letterboxes with delivery flags.
‘‘People love our toys as they are wooden, old-school, and can’t be bought at Kmart,’’ Jeremy Rolston said.
He said coming up with the designs was a simple process, ‘‘I decide on an idea and then dream up the best ways to make it as realistic as possible, while still being playable and robust.’’
The toys’ main material is New Zealand pine with natives like rimu and matai used to contrast the pine’s whiteness.
‘‘There is a certain feel to timber, and smell,’’ Jeremy Rolston said. ‘‘Even an adult can pick up one of our toys and it resonates with them.’’
They were gifts that would be heirlooms and needn’t be tidied up on Boxing Day. ‘‘Instead of trying to put the toys away and hide the mess, these are actually nice showpieces to be left out.’’