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First, how did wooden toys come about? Wooden toys exist because that’s the most readily available material, and toys can be produced simply with a carving knife.
The price of a wooden toy depends very much on its age and general condition. The older it is, and the better the overall condition, the more valuable it will be.
In terms of price, wooden toys cannot match plastic toys upfront, as it’s cheaper to produce plastic toys. However, wooden toys often last much longer, resulting in substantial savings in the long run.
Wooden toys traditionally started out to be cheaper than all other toys. But as technology evolves, plastic eventually starts to replace wood when it comes to making toys. Hence, many toy makers switched to plastic. So if the decision to buy a toy is based on price alone, then perhaps plastic toys will win this battle. But often, toys mean more than just money alone.
Today, the price of a piece of wooden toy rises in proportion to the time and skill required to make the toy. In other words, the more time and skill needed, the higher the price. Still, people continue to buy wooden toys because they are suitable for everyone.
Whether you are an adult or a young child, you will fall in love with tiny wooden toys, as they are just too adorable to resist. Wooden toys are also suitable for both boys and girls. There are toys like toy cars and toy furniture that are suitable for both genders. Children love wooden toys because they can play with them both indoors and outdoors.
To preserve a wooden toy, clean the surface with a wet cloth before putting it away. Regular cleaning will make the wooden toy last longer. Some children like to use wooden toys for pretend play. Pretend play stimulates a child’s imagination. Simple wooden toys could engage children and motivate them to think. The secret to improving thinking and motor skills is to use simple wooden toys to play simple games. For example, use wooden blocks for counting games, or use puzzles to help encourage thinking.
But for most toy collectors, they like to collect wooden toys because wooden toys can last for a very long time, they are often kept for sentimental reasons. For an avid toy collector, there are many different types of wooden toys to choose from. But what makes a wooden toy a desirable artifact to collect?
For one, as wooden toys last so long, they are often still around even when their owners have grown up. And despite having grown up, the owners often refuse to give away their wooden toys as these toys bring back many happy memories. Also, one does not have to worry about harming the environment with wooden toys. In terms of durability, wooden toys can outlast any plastic toys with ease. They are also popular because of their versatility.
Case in point: skilled toy makers can create more complex wooden toys such as puppets. Pinocchio is a wooden puppet in a fairy tale, and he wants to become a boy. Puppets are interesting toys that can move. Simple wooden blocks can be used as educational toys. They can be used to playing counting games, or to build shapes. Such wooden toys can be used many times over.
So no matter simple or complicated, wood can be made into all sorts of different toys. That means, surely, there must be some wooden toys out there suitable for everyone.
The quantity of young kids under the age of 14 and babies, toddler and preschool children in China is over 300,000,000, accounting for 25% of the whole population. Among them 80,000,000 live in the city, which form a great number of toy consumption. Especially in recent years, parents identify with the concept that toys can enlighten children on their intelligence, moreover, majority of modern families in China only have one child, whose parents are willing to spend money on their child.
In recent years, it has appeared some features and special trends for toy sales in the mainland of China:
1. R/C Toys
Appeared with high technology, for instance, electronic toys that can sound or shine, R/C toys and interactive toys that can speak or perform a series of actions are salable goods. Presently, various R/C toys on sale in the market reach about 1 hundred kinds, mainly are variety of R/C toys (remote control toys) and hobby items, such as R/C car, R/C helicopter, nitro R/C car, R/C gas boat, remote control helicopter, remote control car etc., each R/C car(remote control car) costs about 20-65 dollars，R/C gas boat(remote control gas boat) is about 20-50 dollars，and the price of R/C helicopter differs between 450 - 2,000 dollars.
2. Model Toys
Electric model toys attract both children and adults, such as tank cars, cars installed with alarm whistle and so on. Though these toys are not cheap in price, especially the electric toys, commonly between 8-10 dollars, some even as high as 80-100 dollars, but they have a strong footing in the market.
3. Adult Toys
Besides the children toys, adult toys in mainland of China are also have large market. According to the latest investigation of China Social Investigation Office, 33% of adults think they are fond of toys and would like to buy them. It is investigated that except for traditional Chinese Chess, I-go and kite, adults prefer R/C toys (remote control toys) and hobby items, such as R/C car, R/C helicopter, nitro R/C car, R/C gas boat, remote control helicopter, remote control car etc. The last research of China Toys Association shows the acceptable toy price for most consumers in the large and medium sized cities is no more than 15 dollars. However, in some large cities and some medium sized cities, some ingenious and top graded toys reaching up 150 dollars and even 1200 dollars still have their market. It takes an average of about 5% of the whole year consumption for Chinese citizens to buy toys, and with the toy development of top grade, brightness and series, in particular, R/C toys (remote control toys) and hobby items, such as R/C car, R/C helicopter, nitro R/C car, R/C gas boat, remote control helicopter, remote control car etc., the toy consumption will be in the status of advancing.
4. Plastic Toys
Plastic has taken the place of metal, wood and have become the main material for toys making, because it costs low, easily deals with, safer and light.
Although according to the official statistic, the toy sales in mainland of China are no more than 2,000,000,000 dollars in 2006, it is estimated by people in this industry that the actual market demands should be 9,000,000,000 dollars. People in this industry believe that the forecast demands of Chinese toy market will increase at a rate of 40% per year in the following years, and the consumption of Chinese toy market will hopefully exceed 13,000,000,000 dollars.
