NookMarket

Toys & Games

Toyday

Wooden toys that spark imagination, not screens

SustainableHandmadeIndependentEthical

Toyday retails traditional, mostly wooden toys and pocket-money novelties: spinning tops, marbles, skipping ropes, jack-in-the-boxes, wooden trains, hobby horses, puzzles, and classic board games. Price points sit in the budget-to-mid range, with two-thirds of items between £3 and £25 and only a handful of handmade pieces above £40. Sales are 95 % online through toyday.co.uk; the company closed its last physical shop in 2020 but still supplies a small network of museum gift shops and heritage attractions. The brand’s USP is a tightly curated catalogue of “pre-digital” toys that are CE-tested and largely UK-sourced from small turners, rope-works and family-owned factories. Best-known lines include their rainbow-striped “Playground” skipping ropes, tin-plate clickers sold in tens of thousands, and a re-issue of the 1950s “London” wooden yo-yo stocked by the Victoria & Albert Museum shop. Toyday positions itself as an antidote to plastic, battery-heavy playthings, emphasising tactile materials and open-ended play. Core buyers are 30-45-year-old parents and grandparents who value screen-free childhoods, eco-friendly materials and nostalgic design; 60 % of orders include a gift-wrap option and personal message. Teachers and child-minders also bulk-buy for classrooms, attracted by durability and low unit prices under £10. Toyday competes with mass-market toy chains, eco-boutique wooden brands, and Amazon marketplace sellers. It differentiates through depth of heritage range (over 300 SKUs unavailable in supermarkets), carbon-neutral UK shipping, and low minimum-order free delivery, undercutting boutique rivals while retaining ethical credentials mainstream chains lack.

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