Grimm’s released some new toys in 2020! Let’s take a look at the newest additions. We will also share our favorites and top picks!
Note: This post may contain affiliate links. What does this mean?
Grimm’s (short for Grimm’s Spiel und Holz Design), is a German-based wooden toy company. They have a huge variety of hand-made, hand-stained wooden toys. Most are probably familiar with Grimm’s toys, whether or not they realize it. Grimm’s most recognizable and most popular toy is the 12-piece rainbow (purely speculation – we don’t have any hard data on this).
In 2020, Grimm’s released 16 new products! However, you will see that some are just different colors of the same toy & some are new color variations of prior toys! Let’s take a look!
From Grimm’s:
“We want to make an abstract topic comprehensible to children in a hands-on way. The beautiful shape and feel of the play pieces stimulates the child’s imagination and stories about the weather can be experienced and emulated: Let’s comfort Little Rabbit who has hidden under his bed out of fear of the thunderstorm! Through play fears can be processed and alleviated. In form and shape, The Weather Building Set is perfectly matched to our Large Twelve-Piece Rainbows. All young builders, of both small and large worlds, can use these pieces to bring sunshine to their day, to conjure up lightning and thunder, or let snow and rain fall from the sky. A good storm drives all the clouds from the sky so that the sun can dry and warm everything once again.”
13 pieces
Our Thoughts:
This is one our favorites of the new releases! It appears to be a hit among others as well, based on the fact that stores can’t keep it in stock. Natural Baby Co. sells the Weather Set for $55 (when it’s in stock). We agree that it pairs great with the Grimm’s rainbows! See pictures below showing the Weather Set paired with the large 12-piece Rainbow in the Original colors, Natural and Pastel! Not only is the Weather Set great for building, but also perfect for imaginative play and learning about different types of weather and seasons. We also love that many of the pieces fit together like a puzzle.
From Grimm’s:
“Our small wooden train runs on all standard wooden tracks as well as on smooth flooring. With this train, our rainbow friends can go on a long journey or transport ever-changing freight from here to there. We have made our little wooden train as a construction game, so it can sometimes race over the rails as a modern high speed train or be a more nostalgic-looking locomotive. We are already looking forward to the many travel stories that our construction toy train will soon tell!
To connect the wagons, the string is placed in a short loop over the dowels and fixed with the base plates.”
17 pieces + string
Our Thoughts:
If you have a train lover, the Grimm’s train is sure to be a hit! Natural Baby Co. sells the Weather Set for $70 (if it’s in stock). We love that it’s compatible with the wooden train tracks most of us have in our homes (Ikea, Thomas the Train, Brio, etc.). You get a nice variety of pieces in this set that can be arranged and re-arranged to create tons of variations. With this set comes: 1 Friend (peg doll), 1 heart, 2 train bases with wheels, 2 flat base plates/pieces, 2 single-sized boxes, 1 double-sized box, 2 round containers, 2 solid round blocks, 2 balls and 2 curved blocks. The blocks and boxes connect to the base of the train via the wooden dowels & holes.
From Grimm’s:
” Wonderfully tactile and versatile construction pieces.“
24 pieces
Our Thoughts:
Grimm’s wooden coins come in two color options – rainbow or pastel. You get two coins in each color, a larger one and a smaller one. These coins match the colors of the large 12-piece rainbow (in either original or pastel), which we love! Though seemingly simple, kids will find endless ways to play with wooden coins. You can stack them, count them, transfer them and use them in small world play, just to name a few!
From Grimm’s:
“Wonderfully tactile and versatile construction pieces. Watch as the element of movement is added to the play scene – see the rollers roll across the floor in all directions. Combine with our other building pieces, both small and large, to create color matched Castles, Palaces and entire Cities. Motor skills are encouraged with the Stacking Game and there is lots to discover with the various color sorting
options.”
12 pieces + a sorting board
Our Thoughts:
The “Stacking Game Small Rollers” comes in 3 color options – Rainbow, Pastel or Natural. The Natural Baby Co. sells the Rainbow and Pastel sets for $54 and the Natural set for $46. So how does this game work exactly? Well, it’s not really a “game” in the traditional sense. There are no rules or a right way to play. Young children can work on their fine motor skills by placing the blocks in the sorting board. The rainbow and pastel game have corresponding colors in the holes for matching. The circular blocks perfect for little hands. This set also goes along great with the “friends” sets (or peg people). The “friends” fit perfectly in the sorting board and you can color match if you get the same color sets in both. You can also buy the Rainbow or Pastel sorting boards separately for $24. However, these can be hard to get your hands on, so getting the Stacking Game Small Rollers is a good workaround!
Click here to check out the new “Stacking Game Small Rollers“
From Grimm’s:
“Wonderfully tactile and versatile construction pieces. Watch as the element of movement is added to the play scene – see the rollers roll across the floor in all directions. Combine with our other building pieces, both small and large, to create color matched Castles, Palaces and entire Cities. Motor skills are encouraged with the Stacking Game and there is lots to discover with the various color sorting
options.”
25 pieces + a wood frame
Our Thoughts:
The Grimm’s Large Building Rollers are large, cylinder blocks of various sizes that come with a wooden storage tray. They come in Rainbow, Pastel or Natural colors. These are great for building!
From Grimm’s:
“Funny sorting game with 12 rainbow dowels. Perfect storage for our 24 colored building rings.”
Our Thoughts:
The rings sorting helper comes in Rainbow or Pastel. The Natural Baby Co. sells the Grimm’s Sorting Helper for $32. We love that this offers a solution for storing the Grimm’s Rings (which we own & recommend). It also makes for a great challenge for younger kids. Not only can kids work on their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, but also their color matching skills!
From Grimm’s:
“A wonderful building set in a wooden frame that combines organic shapes in oiled natural wood and colourful geometric shapes.
The Majestic Building Set is more than a tribute to an endangered animal. With this set, we wish to bring a little HAKUNA MATATA into your life. The saying originates from the African Swahili language and means ‘There is no difficulty’ or ‘Do not worry’.
Frame L=44,5 cm, H=30/40mm
27 pieces
Our Thoughts:
Wow, is this toy stunning! It can double as a piece of art! Yes, it’s quite expensive – The Natural Baby Co. sells the Lion Puzzle $155 – but this is sure to bring joy and beauty into your home!
From Grimm’s:
“Extra large creative puzzle to be played on the floor.
In combination with our Stacking Tunnels or other building blocks one can build inventive and flexible dollhouses. Little architects can experience a versatile and modern Architecture.”
11 pieces
Our Thoughts:
The Grimm’s Semi Circles are by no means new, but they finally released them in pastel! We are so excited for this release. This is long overdue on our opinion. They coordinate with the other Grimm’s toys in Pastel. These are especially great in combination with the Pastel Rainbow, as you can build the unique dollhouse structure (as shown below in the original Rainbow colors). The Natural Baby Co. sells the Pastel Semi Circles for $58 – but they have proven to be quite popular and are hard to keep in stock!
From Grimm’s:
“This Rainbow tunnel is really versatile: the children can stack and sort or they will use it as a cradle for dolls, as fence for animals, like a tunnel or bridge for vehicles, as house for dwarfs and dollhouse dolls and build amazing sculptures… this rainbow will always be integrated in playing with a lot of fantasy.”
6 pieces
Our Thoughts:
It makes sense that Grimm’s added the small natural rainbow to their line of toys, since they have the natural rainbows in all the other sizes. The Natural Baby Co. sells the Pastel Semi Circles for $21 – if it’s in stock. Just a word of advice if you’re not familiar with the Grimm’s small rainbows – they are TINY, so make sure you read the dimensions so you aren’t surprised!
Click here to see if the small natural rainbow is in stock!
From Grimm’s:
“We are very happy with our first ever GRIMM’S book, created in collaboration with the German illustrator Sarah Settgast. The 26-page board book uses 24 lovingly designed illustrations to tell stories about the weather and everything associated with it. The 24 chosen themes are spelled out from our GRIMM’S wooden letters and frame each illustration in both German and English.
Sarah Settgast illustrated almost 100 of our wooden toys and then included them into her illustrations using collage technique. There is a lot to discover in this book, because anyone who loves GRIMM’s toys will happily search for the many toys made in our workshops that are hidden in the illustrations.
Even little ones will enjoy looking and telling stories together. The capital letters are wonderful for early learning and also for the introduction to foreign language learning in primary school or at home. And of course the board book is a delightful decoration for every season table. An experience for the whole family and for all the senses!
Sarah Settgast is a glasses designer, freelance illustrator, author and publisher. Born in the small Brandenburg town of Kyritz an der Knatter, she now lives in Berlin with her 7 and 8 year old children. Her style is influenced by the Waldorf tradition. So far 3 children‘s books have been published in German by the Deutsche Pappebuch Gesellschaft. The bilingual Weather book is produced in the last board book factory in Germany at Sachsdruck Plauen on FCI-certified 400g paper with ecological toy colours and produced in accordance with the EU toy standard EN-71. It is bite and saliva proof and has rounded corners.”
Our Thoughts:
What a beautifully illustrated book! We love that it features various Grimm’s toys! Though not technically a “toy”, it’s still worth mentioning in the new 2020 Grimm’s releases. As mentioned above, it’s the first book by Grimm’s! It’s definitely a little on the pricier side for a book (over $30!), but some may find it worth it – especially those obsessed with all things German and Grimm’s!
That concludes all the 2020 new releases from Grimm’s! Which one’s your favorite? Out top pick would have to be the Weather Set!
Thanks for reading! You may also enjoy these other articles about Grimm’s toys:
