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Two-legged carrots, heart-shaped tomatoes and curvy cucumbers. Many fruits and vegetables are wasted simply because they aren’t pretty enough – yet there is nothing wrong with the taste. How twisted! To change the way people think about the quality of fruit and vegetables, social enterprise Kromkommer and sustainable toy brand PlanToys launch the Wonky Fruit and Vegetables playset.  Food waste is one of the most pressing issues of our time. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) estimates that one-third of all the food in the world is wasted. This equates to be 1.3 billion tons of food per year. For fruit and vegetables specifically, almost half of it will never reach our plate. One of the main causes for this is the extreme focus on the aesthetic appearance of produce. Equal rights for all fruit and vegetables The Dutch social enterprise Kromkommer was founded in 2012 and ever since has been on a mission to achieve equal rights for all fruit and vegetables. Kromkommer believes that we should embrace all fruit and vegetables, regardless of looks. The perfectly imperfect ones should end up on our plates and not in the trash bin. To achieve this, they attempt to spread the love for “wonky” produce among as many people as possible. They do so with, for example, a delicious line of wonky vegetable soups. But, to take the next step and also involve the little ones, they reached out to PlanToys. PlanToys is a high-quality toy brand based in Thailand that produces toys in a sustainable and fair way made from wood of rubber trees that are no longer producing rubber. Kromkommer and PlanToys share a vision for a more sustainable world with less waste. By working together, they developed the Wonky Fruit and Vegetables playset. With these toys, children experience the beauty and diversity of wonky fruit and vegetables.  The Wonky Fruit and Vegetables Playset Meet Carl Carrot, Peter Pear, Adam Apple, Tammy Tomato Heart and Curly Cucumber. This perfectly imperfect bunch shows kids the beauty and diversity of wonky fruit and veggies. Kids can cut them up with the wooden knife that comes with the playset and then stick them back together. In the playset box, the story of Carl Carrot is included, and it can be used by parents to teach children about wonky fruit and vegetables and food waste. The toys are made from PlanWood, a unique material composed of leftover sawdust from toy production, natural glue and organic pigments. By using this material, the toys themselves are also contributing to less waste. Kromkommer launched the Wonky Fruit and Vegetables playset in October 2018, in the Netherlands with a successful crowd funding campaign. Now, it is finally time to bring the wonky heroes to the attention of little kids in the rest of the world. Since March 2019, the playset is available for sale in all PlanToys countries worldwide.  Order the PlanToys Wonky Fruit and Vegetables Playset on the littleCONCEPTS B2B Web-shop now.
Here at littleCONCEPTS we love the progressive nature of PlanToys. When we visit their factory, we are always amazed at the sense of community within the workplace. Lunchtime really highlights this! As you may know, PlanToys partnered with Kromkommer and created the beautiful Wonky Fruit & Vegetables Set, designed to help raise awareness around food waste and remind the world that food waste can be USEFUL! As we all know - to cook food, you need gas to power the stove. At PlanToys, they turn food waste into bio-gas, which is a renewable energy that is environmentally-friendly. This bio-gas is used to cook the lunchtime meals, and then the cycle repeats! ♻️ This is just one of the ways PlanToys continue to push the boundaries of sustainable wooden toy production!  Launched in 2014, the MOLUK Pluï Rain Cloud is the original cloud based bath toy. It followed on from the Pluï Rainball that hit the market in 2011. The Rain Cloud beautifully illustrates the cycle of water and magically turns kids into little rainmakers. The smart bath toy works like a pipette and makes simple physics tangible and fun. The Pluï Cloud is sure to inspire wonderful stories. It delights and surprises and quickly becomes an indispensable accessory during bath time. A hidden mechanism allows parents to open the Cloud for cleaning.  Founded in 2011, MOLUK is the brainchild of Alex Hochstrasser, the designer and inventor of Bilibo. As the business grew, he was soon joined by his sister Doris Hochstrasser, an architect. Alex has always been fascinated to look at the world from a child's perspective and create open-ended / gender neutral toys.  Alex states:
“Playing with water is essential. It offers a unique sensory experience while teaching about cause and effect. Our toys encourage children to play with different natural elements and open their eyes to the wonders of the world.” The Pluï Rain Cloud is produced from high quality BPA-free, phthalate-free, latex-free ABS. All MOLUK toys are multifunctional and designed to grow with the kids, offering new play possibilities as they get older. The toy has received the highest praise in the industry winning the Spiel Gut and receiving a special mention at the Science Toys Awards in 2016. Interesting in stocking the MOLUK range, contact littleCONCEPTS today for details. Do you know Makii? Our crazy Dutch partners create the perfect products for Easter fun! Makii develop, create and produce playful, vibrant, and -most important- fun toys. Our constant growing product Makii range contains giant colouring pictures, stickering posters, temporary tattoos, window clings and enamel pin badges  Makii (derived from the verb ‘make’) was founded in 2013 by illustrators Idris van Heffen and Mielo Pouwer from Rotterdam, the Netherlands. By bundling their talents they saw a great opportunity to create innovatory and creative products for kids. After releasing the first giant colouring picture they were picked up by lots of media, had their first international orders and started Makii Studio: making customised products for partners such as Rijksmuseum, HEMA (largest retail chain in the Netherlands), London Transport Museum and lots of other great companies. Nowadays, they supply to retailers all over the world. Sustainable wooden toy brand PlanToys have launched two new role-play sets for 2019! The Hairdresser Set and the Dentist Set have been a hit with retailers already and we are seeing rave reviews from end-consumers. Kids love to pretend to with this hair dresser set! Includes scissors, hair dryer, comb, straightener, hair clipper, and a waist bag. Kids will enjoy creating hairstyles on themselves, family members, friends or their dolls. Pretend to be a real dentist! This set teaches children at a young age to understand the importance of tooth care. It includes 4 basic dental tools, 1 toothbrush, 1 set of teeth with 3 spare teeth and 1 doctor case.
The new sets join the growing range of the Doctors Kit, Make-up Set, Vet Care, Pet Travel Set and the Toolbelt - allowing little ones to play in a big world. As with all PlanToys they sets are produced from sustainable rubber-wood in Thailand. PlanToys is a Thai company founded in 1981 by Vitool Viraponsavan to stop pollution in Thailand. You have to know that Thailand has the largest rubber tree plantation in the world. These trees were planted because of their rubber. After about 25 years, Mother Nature stops producing quality rubber. Then the farmers burn the entire plantation to plant new rubber trees and obtain new rubber. The pollution caused by the burning of these trees was terrible. Vitool wanted to help the children in their development by giving them wooden toys – toys made from these rubber trees. We have been making wooden toys since 1981 and never cut down a tree from the forest, but only use recycled wood from plantations. He was the first man to use this wood. Today nobody burns it anymore. So we are more than happy that he started this business. If you are interested stocking PlanToys in your store, contact littleCONCEPTS today.  Scribble Down transfer packs make ideal presents, they are great for party bags or for long journeys - or just for fun! Children can use their imagination and skill to make the pictures tell a story. To create your very own picture take the sheet of images and remove the backing paper. Then position an image on the fold-out background scene and rub it down using a ball point pen, pencil or coin.  Available in 14 fantastic designs, ranging from and enchanted castle to an alien encounter the product delights children young and old! The simple to use transfers even include an extra bonus of a drawing tutorial from the illustrator Clinton Banbury. Alongside the classic 14 designs which retail for the pickup price point of £2.99, there are four bumper packs which include an extra-large scene and 100+ transfers to rub down! The four new items include a quintessential London street scene, pirate adventure, fairy princess ball and a roarsome dino scene. The bumper packs retail for £7.99. Interested in stocking Scribble Down in your store? Contact littleCONCEPTS today!  Did you know you can place your B2B Orders for PlanToys, MOLUK, Makii, Makedo and Scribble Down online using our B2B Web-shop? The system is really simple to use and once setup you can check out our full product range, place orders, view previous orders and invoice history! Go check it out...  Oibo™ and Nigi, Nagi & Nogi™ were developed specifically for the first years – with a focus on grasping, teething and sensory stimulation for newborns and infants, however, like all MOLUK toys, they remain interesting and offer new possibilities when the child grows older. 
The new MOLUK items will be arriving with us in mid-March and are available to pre-order on our B2B webshop NOW.
We are just over a week away from the NEW 2019 PlanToys items landing in our warehouse! After such an amazing we can't wait to get the products out to our lovely retailers! Highlights of the new drop include the Dentist Set, which teaches children at a young age to understand the importance of tooth care. It includes 4 basic dental tools, 1 toothbrush, 1 set of teeth with 3 spare teeth and 1 doctor case. It's also pretty cool to extract the little velcro teeth!  Also arriving is the much anticipated Wonky Fruit and Vegetables produced in collaboration with the social enterprise Kromkommer to highlight the issue of food waste! Look past their appearance and get to the essence of these Wonky Fruits & Vegetables! This toy teaches children to understand that the imperfect shapes do not reduce the benefits of these fruits and vegetables, and then they will learn to reduce food waste. It also helps enhance fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. The set includes a knife and 5 slice-able fruits & vegetables: apple, pear, carrot, tomato and cucumber. Tactile details offer realistic play. For the little ones, we have this cute little wobbly Penguin. Rock the penguin gently and watch it tumble. This item encourages visual development for babies and is suitable from 12m+  These are just a few of the amazing new items coming from PlanToys, they really have out shone themselves this year with the new stuff! You can view the full range of PlanToys in our 2019 Trade Catalogue. All the new PlanToys are available to order on our B2B Webshop now! Hope you are having a great weekend!
 That's right! The new Makii Window Clings are winging their way from the Netherlands as we speak and will be in stock from next week! As usual with Makii products, the clings take you on a turbo adventure through 3 different themes; Farm, Baby Animals and Vehicles. The super static clings can be stuck multi times to whatever you fancy...the car window, your favourite glass or even your crazy brother or sister! They are available to order now on our B2B store and can be shipped with your next order! We also have the NEW PlanToys and MOLUK items arriving soon...more on that later!  |
