B. TOYS are the most original toys that you will find on the shelves of toy stores. Aside from nontraditional baby colors and fully recycled and recyclable packaging, B. Toys truly represent what is, in my mind, creativity and innovation.
I remember when I first bumped into B Toys online. I was going over and over their toy list literally excited for all the toys I will get to buy for Alexis. It wasn’t long after B. Toys sent me a few of their items to try, that I went ahead and ordered most of their Lexi-appropriate toys.
When it comes to safety, here is where B. Toys are at according to their customer service. B. Toys do not have any BPA, they meet the standard requirements for lead and other substances. MOST of their toys are PVC free, except for soft squishy ones ( damn those soft toys that just require PVC!). And while I personally do not buy ANYTHING PVC if I can help it, if you do have soft squishy B toys, you can breathe a sigh of relief over the fact that B. Toys does not use phthalates at all. Instead they use citric acid as a softener (unlike most other companies that use PVC who DO use phthalates and simply try to keep it under the government mandated maximum)
One fun thing that B. Toys does is include funny quotes from real children in their toy tags, so whenever we get a new BToy, Andrew and I sit down and read through those and laugh.
So here are some of our favorite toys.
B. Toys sent us the Hugs Links and Fish and Splish and these remain huge hits to this day.
After seeing Alexis play with them, I decided to buy the following toys: Meowsic keyboard, Rain Rush, Loopty Loo, Parum Pum Pum, Piccolo Bells, Bazillion Buckets.
So I’ll talk about each toy we have to give you an idea if it’s something your baby might like.
B. HUGS Links
These are hard plastic rings that hook together and can be made into a big (or small) chain. What makes these different from other links I’ve seen around ( besides the fact that they are just cooler looking), is that they are significantly thicker with two round balls on both ends which makes it more comfortable for babies to suck on and each link has a “rattle”, a little attached piece of plastics that slides when moved and makes a sound. So when you put a bunch of Hug Links together you create one big and loud rattle.
It also comes in a convenient bucket that can be made a toy, as well. It rolls around, it rattles if you put a few links in it and is perfect for pre-crawlers. It’s great for keeping the links organized ( Though who am I kidding? Our links are always out and all over the place). It has been more about 6 months since Alexis first got her Hug links and you will still see her like this with a link in her mouth and two in her hands daily.
Next up, a huge favorite is a Fish and Splish.
I can say that along with a few toys I’ve mentioned in previous features, this one is A MUST HAVE (and I don’t take this “nomination” lightly). First of all, it’s a bathtub toy, and we’ve already discussed how difficult it is to find bathtub toy that is not made of PVC. Secondly, it’s great bang for your buck. You get a TON of toys in the Fish&Splish set (I think it’s 12 different items by my calculations). Thirdly, it will grow with you baby. Once you’re not worried about your baby poking his eye out, you can bring out the fishing rod that comes with it and teach him to catch fish ( it’s a fishhook that those cute tails of fish get hooked on perfectly). And finally, this toy might very well turn into a favorite “land” toy, serving double duty.
In our case, Lexi was so obsessed with it that we didn’t even get a chance to use it in the bath until only recently. The boat is supposed to move in water, I think, but we haven’t really been able to get it to move well. That’s just us, we didn’t try hard 🙂 There were months, where she wouldn’t go ANYWHERE without her jellyfish comb or the fish-brush. It must have really gotten to those teething gums of her, because she would gnaw at it like there is no tomorrow.
The stacking cups are a perfect first stacking toys ( Lexi learned to knock things over with these cups) and are great for the bathtub because they act as a strainer with different sized holes. Great toy to teach water play, gravity and “baby physics” to your little one.
Every single item in this set was loved upon at one time or another. Even the boat itself was Alexis’ first bucket to place and take toys out of. I am truly impressed by the design of Fish N Splish.
So the next toy we bought was Bazillion Buckets. Also, money well spent since there are many uses and games you can come up with using these buckets. The favorite one is, of course, the good old ” stack them up, knock them down”. Countless hours of entertainment and a sure way to get her attention. “What? Something is getting stacked? That’s not right! I’ve gotta go destroy it!”
From the very first moment that we pulled out the keyboard from the box, it became the first toy that Alexis would spend ACTIVELY playing with for extended periods of time, aside from her books. I haven’t tried other baby pianos and to be honest, I have no desire to. This is a brilliant toy! She has recently starting “singing” into the microphone which is adorable. But otherwise her time with Meowsic is spent hitting the keys, changing the songs with buttons and making the keyboard meow ( you can set the keys to make meow sounds). There is a recorder, a drum base, tempo speed, different voices. It’s a full fledged kid’s sized keyboard. The funniest part: when you stop playing with it and move on, it reminds you of its existence (unless you’ve turned it off) by purring and meowing.
The other three things we bought that I mentioned in the beginning of the post are sitting patiently waiting for Lexi to get old enough to play with them (except for the egg shakers from the Parum Pum Pum )
Disclosure: B Toys sent us Hugs Links and Fish&Splish to faciliate this review. All opinions are our own, as always.
I love B Toys! I wanted to point out though that they are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper at Target than on Amazon. We just bought our youngest kiddo that keyboard for $26 there.
That’s possible that they discount certain items in store. Target website has the same prices. I rarely go to target unfortunately, so it’s easier to buy online 🙂
But thanks for the tip!
Definitely easier but….if it’s going to save someone $20 it’s worth the trip IMO. We also bought the bath set and it was $23 there (wasn’t a sale or anything). Thanks for the review though, these are great toys. I’m a fan!
Definitely worth the trip!
Great review, I also love B. Toys, we have bought our lil one a few of them for Christmas, my fav is the Zany Zoo, can’t wait for him to play with it.
My son loves LOVES the B. Wheeee-ls maybe Alexis would too?
My 2 year old just got the dog guitar and absolutely lives it.
We simply adore B. Toys! The activity box (we have the zany zoo version) is another winner in our household. Great review!
Chelsea
Haute Child in the City
Hi Elena just found your blog when trying to figure out if B. toys were pvc free! It’s been such a stress trying to find fun chewable toys for my baby. I noticed that the packages say phthalate free and bpa free but no pvc free labels. You said that the softer plastics have pvc? How exactly can I sort that out? I saw some sensory balls by B. toys that seemed like so much fun!
Last time I checked, B toys had PVC in some of the squishy toys however the component that was dangerous (softner, called phthalates) is replaced with something natural (I can’t remember what it was). I still prefer not using PVC if I can, but if you’re gonna go for it, this is the safest. Opt for harder B Toys instead if you’re concerned.