Order before 16:00 on working days and we ship the same day!
A wooden cow. No sound, no battery, no moving legs, and yet it is one of those things children play with for years. Holztiger makes hand-carved wooden figures that you buy one by one: a hare, a farmer's wife, a mushroom, an oak tree. That way you slowly build a world, where every figure can mark its own occasion: a little Sinterklaas present, something for the shoe, or a birthday gift from grandma.
Ordered before 16:00 on a working day? Then your order is shipped the same day.
The figures are larger than average. That sounds like a detail, but it is the reason Holztiger works so well for young children: the animals and people sit firmly in a small hand, and there is nothing to break off. Where many play figures are finely detailed and therefore fragile, Holztiger chooses soft, rounded shapes with mass.
It is handwork. Every figure is carved and painted by hand, from maple and beech wood, in Europe. So no two pieces are exactly alike: a brushstroke that runs differently, a wood grain crossing the fur. That is part of it.
The paint lets the wood show. The figures are painted with non-toxic water-based paint, applied thinly enough to keep the structure of the wood visible and tangible. A Holztiger animal feels like wood, not like plastic with a coating.
Deliberately unfinished. The faces are simple, the shapes suggestive. There is no story built into the figure, so the child fills it in: today the hare is a pet, tomorrow a forest dweller, next week a prince.
You do not buy Holztiger as a set but as a collection, and that is exactly the charm. Four themes most people start with:
Everything combines with everything, and with loose parts too: put the animals next to a wooden rainbow and the arches become hills; combine with Grapat mandala pieces or the trees of Raduga Grez and a complete landscape appears. Also see our wooden animals and all our wooden toys.
Single figures do something a complete play set does not: they force choosing and inventing. A child who gets a farm with everything included plays the farm the manufacturer thought up. A child with five loose animals invents a world around them, and that world changes every week.
We also see how these figures set language in motion. Children talk to the animals, give them names, invent quarrels and reconciliations. That pretend play is one of the strongest drivers of language development there is, and it works for children of very different ages, each at their own level.
And practically: toys that survive a year on our childcare groups are toys we dare to sell. These figures go through the sandpit, the water tray and the laundry basket, and still come out well.
Most figures cost between eight and fifteen euros, which makes Holztiger the ideal small gift: something for the shoe, a little present with a card, a birthday gift that fits what is already there. It is a collection that grows along: many families buy one or two figures per occasion for years on end, until a whole farm or a complete forest has appeared. Also worth knowing: Holztiger figures hold up so well that they often pass on to the next generation.
Most figures are intended for ages 3 and up; it is stated per product. Thanks to their size and rounded shapes, the larger animals are also pleasant for younger children under supervision, but follow the indication on the product page.
Maple and beech wood, carved and painted by hand in Europe with non-toxic water-based paint.
Because they are carved and painted by hand, from natural wood. Small differences in colour and grain are part of the product.
Briefly, but not for long. Wipe the figures afterwards with a slightly damp cloth and let them dry well. Never soak them and never put them in the dishwasher: that damages the paint and makes the wood swell.
Wipe with a slightly damp cloth and dry straight away. A rough spot can be sanded very lightly and treated with beeswax.
Yes. Because they are loose figures without a fixed system, they combine with everything: blocks, arches, mandala pieces, play mats and animals from other brands.
The farm is the easiest starting point: choose three or four animals your child knows, plus a tree if you like. From there it grows by itself.
