The Problem with Grimm’s Wooden Toys

The scope of the frenzied market of wooden toys is hard to ascertain while you’re in it. As a consumer, I avidly wait for sale emails from Bella Luna and Magic Cabin. I hug my brand rep codes tight to my chest and always check retail price before I buy anything used. However, as a year has passed and the newbie fever has worn off, I am starting to get the eyes of a discerning customer.

We all know the megalith known as Grimm’s. Known for their rainbow stackers and peg people “friends”, the polychromatic giant sits at the very top of recent converts’ wishlists. Family owned, the company is based out of Hochdorf, Germany. The production of their toys is a boomerang journey. The toys are designed at headquarters in Germany, but the woodworking is outsourced to several woodshops across Europe. The toys return to Hochdorf for sanding, surface treatment, finishing, as well as packing and shipping. Quality control is also conducted at headquarters.

A lesser known brand is Gluckskafer. Part of a larger company named Nic | Spiel + Art GmbH, Gluckskafer shares its headquarters with several other product lines (including Walter Toys), under the banner of NIC Toys. Gluckskafer items are sourced from a variety of workshops, and also include arts and craft items, as well as pretend play items in their offering.

Gluckskafer first came to my attention when cruising around the website of Danny & Luca. My first reaction was that this was a wannabe Grimm’s, trying to piggy back off the stacking fervor. However, one look at their blue grotto changed all that. Gluckskafer had a look that was all their own.

But I digress, as I wouldn’t have looked twice at Gluckskafer if I had been pleased with my Grimm’s investment. For months I had saved up, squirreling away money on a very tight stay at home mom budget. It’s hard to rationalize spending all that money in one go, but I ended up getting a discount from Scandiborn and we made our rainbow dreams into rainbow realities.

However, I wasn’t happy. What had looked so welcoming and appealing on the internet seemed to be faded and scuffed. I mean, if I looked closely enough, I could see through the stain to the wood grain! It even seemed like the wood stain was applied unevenly on the underside.

I decided to compare it to my current Gluckskafer pieces and became dismayed. It seemed to me that the Grimm’s wasn’t standing up as well to normal playtime. Take a look below.

Finally, I decided to write about this. It seemed to me that a lot of parents were wasting their money and I planned on showcasing a better brand, Gluckskafer. My first step was to reach out to their headquarters. I was curious what they thought they were doing better than Grimm’s. I sent off a nicely worded email, singing their praises. They sent back a contact: Andrea Frost of The Wooden Wagon.

Well, this works out, I thought. The Wooden Wagon stocks both Grimm’s and Gluckskafer. If anyone can speak to the discrepancies, it’s Andrea. I did a little bit of research before reaching out. The Wooden Wagon was one of the first wooden toy stockists ever in the United States. If you can believe it, they opened their doors in 2003, over 17 years ago! Eager to source quality European toys for their three boys, the Frost family started stocking brands that aligned with their values, specifically Ostheimer and Grimm’s. Their current brand offering numbers in the double digits. I was more than a bit overwhelmed as I prepared to call her. But, I had my notes, I had my laptop, I was ready. I was about to find out what the heck was wrong with Grimm’s.

Andrea picked up and I introduced myself. I explained a little about Piedmont Pearls and prayed desperately my high pitched voice wouldn’t wake my daughter up from her nap. We began our conversation by talking about the origin of Grimm’s and Gluckskafer. She explained that the current iteration of Grimm’s was founded in the 70’s and that through relationships and acquisitions is actually quite closely connected to Gluckskafer. If you needed geographical proof of how close they are, check out my discovery on Google Maps. Their headquarters are roughly an hour away from each other, both nestled in a lovely little part of Germany, outside of Stuttgart.

Andrea was of the opinion that one wasn’t better than the other. They just appealed to different people. She spoke further about the market share. She explained that Grimm’s was operating at maximum capacity at this point, but there were still customers to be serviced. That’s where Gluckskafer and other brands were expanding their market share.

But, I wanted to get back to the case at hand. What did she think about the complaints about quality? Where did she think Grimm’s had gone wrong? And then she said the thing that changed everything for me:

“It’s not the toys that have changed. It’s the customer.”

She described how our much beloved rainbows come from a tree that has grown for 60 years, before ever gracing their woodshop. Grimm’s used to have the luxury of picking and choosing which wood would become toys – a choice they no longer have the flexibility in making.

I was taken aback and became quiet on the phone. The companies originally catered to what can be termed a “Waldorf” market, with a focus on anthroposophy. These customers, she explained, already had an understanding of what it meant to buy these wooden toys: the distinct variations that come from being handmade to the careful maintenance that they required. “People believe that they’re buying heirlooms,” she continued “and they are… if you leave them on a shelf. You have to play with wood much more gently than with plastic. But then people become upset when it breaks”. However, the original customers understood these things and understood that when you buy a unique handmade item online, it may not look like what is in the picture. In a blog article written in 2010, Sarah Baldwin (founder of Bella Luna) even acknowledges the distinction between mass produced and handmade: “A child is much more likely to feel reverence for a beautiful handcrafted toy and care for it accordingly than he is for a mass-produced plastic toy.”

So how can we sit at our keyboards and rail against our stockists for toys that break when they’re thrown from the couch onto tile floors? How can we complain that our natural grain rainbow doesn’t look exactly like the one online and *gasp* has a wood knot in the center?

The fact of the matter is it comes down to each individual customer. Nothing halts progress or a new philosophy; the customer is always right. As more and more parents turn to what are called “Waldorf toys”, the message will be watered down. But we can try to change our way of thinking.

So I for one am taking a step back, both from purchasing and venting about “flaws” of the product, which are actually just features. If I do want to pursue Waldorf ideals for my daughter I must acknowledge that these toys are meant to be played with and a facet of natural materials is to wear down over time. I have to acknowledge that each piece will be unique and if I wanted uniformity, I could’ve bought Fisher-Price. Moreover, I will work on abandoning my ever increasing case of FOMO (fear of missing out for those unaware) and try to internalize the knowledge that a shelf overflowing with wooden toys is just as restrictive and paralyzing to a child as a shelf with plastic ones.

It’s not the production line or the quality assurance falling below standards. It’s us. The two companies are servicing an ever increasing market that demands uniformity in a variable material. The product was originally designed for a consumer who appreciated the variation.

And just so we’re clear, there is one other very specific reason why some people have issues with their Grimm’s and Gluckskafer products and it doesn’t have to do with this particular discussion, but it does bear mentioning. Some issues arise because of improper vendor vetting. You should be buying from a reputable stockist. Personally, I buy my Gluckskafer from Danny&Luca. Andrea, the owner, is very thorough, and wouldn’t sell anything that she wouldn’t give her own son. When i have bought new Grimm’s, I have bought from Bella Luna and The Wooden Wagon. Amazon is littered with Grimm’s fakes. Unfortunately, new entrants into the wooden toy world may not know the difference. I know I didn’t. When you know better, you do better, so I try to shop small whenever I can.

I really struggled with writing the conclusion of this article. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t preachy or proselytizing. So, I hope I can turn this revelation and introspection into a movement in the wooden toy world. Most of the time, these toys are made lovingly by hand, painted by hand, and traveled long distances to grace our shelves. Let’s celebrate the wood knots or the beautiful wood grain. The variation and unique facets of the product derive from the beauty to be found in the natural world. Let us, as well, embrace that the playroom should be beautiful and not overwhelming. I’m going to examine what Vicky needs (“follow the child” being a main tenet of Montessori advocates) and go from there. And when I order some Grimm’s from Andrea or Gluckskafer from…Andrea (is there a name requirement for wooden toy stockists?) and there’s a beautiful wood knot in my rainbow, I’m going to email her “Thank you!” You should too.

Editor’s note: A previous version of the article incorrectly stated that all Gluckskafer items were made at the same location in Germany and limited to just wooden stackers and such toys. This is incorrect. The original NIC brand is made in Germany.