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Play Like a Local: The Coolest Bay Area Toy Companies

From sturdy recyclable boats to ingenious building sets for girls—when it's time to check off that holiday shopping list, be sure check out some of these hometown favorites.

By rtmargaretswink November 17, 2015

The Bay Area isn’t just home to innovation in tech, it’s also one of the nation’s leaders in independent toys. From Kickstarter darlings to organic baby toys, cooperative games to old-school puppets, the Bay Area is producing some of the highest quality educational toys around. Many of them are prototyped and tested with local kids and are grounded firmly in the social and environmental values that the Bay Area is known for. So when it’s time to check off that holiday shopping list, check out some of these hometown favorites! Click through to see them all.

Local Kid Making Headlines: Goldieblox

Goldieblox burst onto the scene in 2012 with a viral video that inspired the girl engineer in all of us. Three years later, this Berkeley-based toy leading the charge to empower girls in STEM has added an action figure and characters of color to their lineup.

Our pick? Encourage open-ended building with the Goldieblox Craftstruction kit.

Want more toy recommendations? Bookmark Berkeley-based expert Stevanne Auerbach, or “Dr. Toy” for ratings and recs on this year’s best toys nationwide.

Do you have a favorite Bay Area brand that we missed? Tell us about it in the comments below!

–Margaret Swink

All images courtesy of the companies