Janod wooden toys at Target?

[zephyr]

Like I stated in an earlier post, I am a total newbie to the toy scene. And with all the plastic toys being recalled, I'm really leaning towards wooden ones not made in China. I saw some totally adorable wooden toys at Target today, that are made in France. The brand is Janod. They have a website www.janod.com, but it's all in French and I couldn't find any reviews online of the toys. They seem to be well made and I showed ds one of them at the store and he seemed pretty interested. The toys I saw at the store were: push toys, pull toys, stacking cubes, a stacking tower? (not sure if that's what it's called) They each come in their own colorful box and the toys themselves are pretty colorful. I would love to know if anyone else has these toys and what they think of them.

Zephyr

[nicknack]

We have the stacking toy with the monkey and it's really cute! Has held up well and I think Maeve will play with it for a while. Was so tempted to get that pull-toy too!

[Happy 2B mommy]

Check the labels carefully. The one I looked at was actually made in China. (Big nesting/stacking blocks on Clearance). Maybe others are made elsewhere?

[kayte]

That is a good brand. That being said, often companies who get a Target contract are forced by the pricing to have their items made somewhere else that they normally would. Sometimes company will make a new brand --the label will say "such and such by " then the company name, sometimes not. Before becoming a SAHM I was a product development director for a paper crafting company. I know several scrapbooking companies that produced (printed) their main line products here in the US, had their Target lines (identical in every way but the materials) made off source.

This is not say the toys you are looking at are inferior quality at all. I just want you to be aware that sometimes you are not comparing apples to apples when you buy a label at Target.

We have a knitted cat from a fancy website and a knitted bear from Target. I can't tell the difference. We also have several Shleich animals from Germany and several from Target. They are all aging the same (the paint chips).

[zephyr]

Thanks everyone for the input! I think I will go ahead and get some and see how it goes. Thanks.

Zephyr

[mamaecb]

Interesting that they are still around at some Targets -- my local store clearanced this brand and no longer carries it. We have a few of these things -- one received as a gift and a couple picked up on clearance. I don't feel like they would've been worth full price. The paint is somewhat "chippy" and I saw several toys on the shelf (still for sale!) with small pieces broken/breaking off.

I would recommend checking out www.oompa.com -- I think most anything they sell would be better quality than Janod.

Hope this helps.
Emilie, mama to Henry

[Masik]

ITA!!! I wouldn't recommend to buy them - for the price they still look cheap and a few I've seen on our Target shelves do not look good - chippy, broken, overall cheap looking :(

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k197/Masik_Kolbasik/ourfamily-1.jpg