Clover Toys in Ballard, Top Ten Toys in Greenwood and Pacific Place, and Magic Mouse downtown are just a few of the city’s best toy stores—and like all independent stores, they could use your love this season. (The beloved Izilla Toys went out of business before the holiday season even got started.) If you must shop online, buy directly from the toymaker, like on Etsy, for god’s sake. Whatever you do, don’t just buy a bunch of crap. What’s the difference? Here, look.
Why are you spelled like that?
[Sigh] I know, right? It makes me feel stupid. Do you know they call me a “compound”? Not dough. Play-Doh compound.
Gross. I used to eat you back in the day. Where did you come from?
I’m made in China. What did you expect? Hasbro bought me in the ’90s. I’m like 99 cents. Don’t swallow.
Mmmm, you smell nice. What is that?
Aw, thanks. I come in lots of different scents—lavender, sweet orange, cardamom. It’s my organic essential oils.
Wait, what are you?
I’m like that other uh, compound, only better: I’m gluten-free, preservative-free, vegetable-colored, and made right here in Seattle. Even the little cookie cutters and rolling pins I come with are made in the United States. Find me at www.mama-ks.com, in mini versions ($9 for seven) or bigger tubs ($23.99 for five). Mama K is Kari Erickson-Valenzuela, a local mom. I’m pretty grown-up friendly, too—try keeping me at your desk for stress relief.
What are you?
I’m an ugly doll.
Obviously.
No, that’s what I’m called—UGLYDOLL is a brand name. I’m also a keychain.
Where were you—
CHINA. Stop asking.
Hi there, little whale. What are you made of?
[Whale sounds]
I can’t understand you.
Oh, sorry. That was just for authenticity. As you can see, I’m carefully stitched to look like one classy, realistic little whale. I’m made of old wool sweaters, and my guts are renewable corn fiber. Hey, do you have any krill on you?
No, sorry. Um, where can I find you?
I was at the Urban Craft Uprising last weekend, but usually my creator, Libby Chenault, sells at the Bellingham Farmers Market. You can go check out her blog—www.mothandsquirrel.blogspot.com—to see where else she’s selling this winter.
Where do you come from?
WHY DO YOU KEEP ASKING THIS SHIT??! China, okay? We’re all made in China. I’m shiny, rainbow plastic. I was not made by elves or magic. I was made in a big, soulless factory, probably by people being paid less than you’re comfortable with. I’m 15 bucks, and when your kid stacks me up right, “a musical reward awaits,” okay?
Maybe just chill out? You are a toy for babies. Goo-goo ga-ga?
Oh, fuck you. Everyone’s all up in my face about this China business. I didn’t choose to be sinfully ugly and smell of sadness. I just want to have fun.
Hi. What’s your name?
I’m Manzanita Kids’ “Star Stacker.” I’m made of four smoothly sanded maple-wood stars, with holes in the middle so we can sit on this peg. I’m not just gorgeous, I’m smart—kids use me to practice motor skills and stuff. And hiding under the blocks on my base are inlaid stars that form the Big Dipper.
Nice touch. Where did you come from?
A friendly fellow named David made me in his cottage in North Seattle. Manzanita Kids is a family business—he and his wife, Adrienne, run an Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/manzanitakids. You’ll find me there for $28, along with tons of other beautiful wooden toys, including sets of modular building walls, all made by David.
What are you?
[Robot Jack Black Voice:] Ready to train with the real dragon warrior?
Um. What?
Ha! Fists of justice!
All right, I’ll do the work: You’re a talking Kung Fu Panda doll. Your tag says you’re made in China. You’re $7.99 at Toys “R” Us. Your little talking button is impossibly hard to press.
Take that!
What are you?
I’m a needle-felting kit. Needle felting is pretty in vogue with the ol’ 8-and-up demographic these days. You just poke wool with a needle and form it into shapes. I make a panda.
Where are you from?
My creator, Laurie Sharp, has a studio in Suquamish where she makes her own needle-felted creatures, sometimes out of wool from her own flock of sheep. You can buy me at
Clover Toys in Ballard for $20.
Anything else?
Oh, yeah: You can make the box I came in into a bird feeder. It’s neat. 
Fantastic!
@JF I totally agree that sometimes people’s knee-jerk don’t-buy-stuff-made-in-China attitude has a racist tinge to it; I had many awkward conversations about that when I worked in retail. But I’m curious as to where in this piece you feel I display a “hatred of Chinese people.”
@JF Right now they probably can’t tell the difference between plastic toys full of chemicals that are banned in most countries (not ours and not China’s) that children put in their mouths and wooden toys that children also put in their mouths. In the future, they will tell the difference when their toy lasts all throughout their childhoods, and their siblings and cousins and friend’s childhoods, and sometimes even saved for their own children’s childhoods, instead of being chucked in the garbage & forgotten when the “robotic voice” or “musical reward” gets busted after a couple weeks of hard play.
If you’re looking for slightly more adult puzzles, check out Puzzled Postage, http://puzzledpostage.com/. They have all-hardwood math-based puzzles and miniature jigsaw puzzles made from postage stamps. And they’re from Duvall. I just picked up some more pentomino puzzles as gifts from them.
We lived & taught in China for 2 years (1999-2001) and I’m still wearing (and getting compliments on) clothes I bought there. Plus I still have a box of cool stuff that will eventually find its way into my own jewelry and other creations.
Lots of stuff from China is junk,but not all. The fact that almost everything seems to be made in China means that it includes a lot of junk.
I’m old enough so that, when I was a kid, junk toys came from Japan, then later from Taiwan & HongKong and Korea–not to mention some central & So. American countries.
Multinational corporations will have stuff made as cheaply as possible wherever they can, but that isn’t necessarily a reflection on the people who are being paid less than a living wage to produce it.
About kids and toys: kids who watch TV have their values and aesthetics messed up. However, giving them classic toys, handmade toys, toys that are art, even art for their walls, can expose them to another perspective. A good thing to do if you care about their intellectual and creative development.
@5 Ha ha! Glad you didn’t mean it like that. Oh, sarcasm on the internet. (Although it has started an entertaining trend of my friends calling/texting me to admonish me for my newly discovered hatred of Chinese people. So thanks for providing us with an in-joke.) Stay awesome, Awesome Person!
Hey Annie……
thanks for plugging Clover Toys in Ballard. I spent inordinate amounts of money there buying truly excellent boys for my grandsons.
The littlest one loved his wooden rainbow so much he took it into the bathtub where it promptly filled the tub with “rainbows ” from the paint on the wood.
Oh well- thanks for being so there .
Nana Jan
The Stranger reveals what a bullshit rag it is by stuffing a Toys’R’Us flyer into an edition that tells us all not to buy crappy Chinese-made toys sold by multinational stores, but to buy locally made things. Good going hypocrites!!
Thanks, Anna, for the wonderful locally crafted suggestions, and happy holidays!!
The replacements are so expensive… Wasn’t there anything that came close to sustainable without being three times the price? :-/
@12: Our advertising department and our editorial department are separate, so we’re not responsible for whatever’s stuffed into the paper. I’m sure the ad people would love to include an insert for a local toy store, too, but local toy stores don’t have the money. The irony!
The stranger supporting capitalism over (Chinese) communism. Whoda thunk? Where is Chuck Meurde on this one?
Great article though, I will def shop local for my neice.
To those who say boycotting China is racist, STFU. Boycotting China is about supporting human rights and the US economy.
@16….and hopefully getting a whole bunch of needed jobs back.
Well put, but I think it’s unfair to include the Ugly Doll as a “piece of crap.” First, the one you’ve depicted isn’t a keychain, which makes me wonder how closely you examined them. Second, they’re whimsical toys, well made, whose only flaw, as far as I can tell, is being made in China. The one you showed costs about $10. How much does that what cost? $50? $80? I don’t think it’s a fair comparison, plus it’s elitist to sneer at people who might need to buy lesser expensive toys, despite their lack of a local moral sheen. The Ugly Dolls have a great back story, created by a pair of young artists and, as the proud owner of several, I can tell you they are delightful companions.
I’m with you on this, except for the Ugly Doll. Ugly Dolls might be made in China, but they also cost $10 versus what for the whale? Fifty bucks? A hundred? It seems elitist to not even notice the price aspect. People don’t buy toys from China because they’re stupid. Money actually matters to some people. And the Ugly Dolls, despite being made by foreigners, are pleasant playthings — whimsical designs, well-made. My kids like ’em, and, to be honest, I do too. They are solid companions, and have an interesting backstory regarding two real artists who came up with the concept, and a certain whimsy not deserving of the term “piece of crap.” I think you were off base with that one selection.