Review ~ Bundspecht wood figures via The Puppenstube

Guess where I'm going today????!!!!!!!!! Run over to We're Not That Stupid to find out!

On to the toy review.
When I was a little girl, I just LOVED playing with little animals. My first collection consisted of these weird clear plastic animals like this one(remember these?!?!)

that I collected from the Ben Franklin's near my Grandma in Connecticut. From there I graduated to a collection of adorable Hagen-Renaker Hand Painted Miniature figures at a gift shop by my other Grandma. Those things saw the love, man. I played the bejesus out of them-each one wound up with chips and missing appendages but we continued to play together for years. I think I still have 2 or 3 at my Mom's house... A few years ago I saw them in an Anchorage shop and decided to start a collection for Dea. We didn't get too far! Those things disappeared so many times in the bowels of her room! We still have 3 of them. A mama kitty and her kittens-the ones that were my favorites when I was a kid. Here they are, all chipped up!

I had thought of starting a collection for Lo, and still might, ... But these figurines would have to wait a couple 3 years until Lo's a bit older or else she'll have them pulverised in no time. Very loved but destroyed!

I shifted my focus to wood. Lo enjoys playing with the wood animals that I make her, and I love making them, but I wanted her to have something of a more collectible quality. Something that could hold up to rigorous play and still look good. We have some Ostheimer woodland animals that I've always thought were great, but I had also been seeing both Buntspecht and Georgian wood toys online and at Lo's school. The Puppenstube, an online store featuring handmade dolls and Buntspecht toys, keeps popping up on various blogs I read like A Small Tribe. I went over to the Puppenstube take a look and was very impressed with what Christine has to offer! A nice variety of animals, people, trees and buildings(not to mention her dolls and knits!). I also perused the official Buntspecht site.

I decided to order any array from both The Puppenstub and Georgian Wood toys. The figures you see below are the Buntspecht and I'll post about the Georgians another time. These were birthday gifts for Lo between Huz and myself and my mother. Christine was great about notifying me when certain animals had arrived in her store and her processing and shipping was fast! Definitely check out her site!

What impresses me about these toys is the minimal details and coloring. They are so smooth, rounded and organic. They just feel so "right" and natural in your hands. They are painted with just a wash of colors-everything else is left up to the imagination...

Lo is ADORING these new additions to our toy store</, <> livingroom!

badger

I just love the mother and daughter bathed in colors like a typical Waldorf water color painting!

Wolf pup. Can't wait for the Mama to come available!