After the nutri-score, the “toy-score” has arrived for the end-of-year holidays.
Toy stores are among the businesses that have been waiting for Christmas for weeks. The endless rays of bright colors continue to make children dream every year. However, the origins of these toys that put stars in their eyes are not necessarily always so brilliant. For this Christmas 2023, a French company has tried to highlight more responsible toys that will satisfy both children and parents.
The Kingtoy company, based in Voiron in Isère, has unveiled the “Jouet score”. Based on the same concept as the nutri score, present in supermarkets, which makes it possible to measure the quality of the food products which are subject to it, the “toy-score” makes it possible to measure the level of responsibility of the toys. The objective for the brand is to highlight the best eco-designed toys. At the microphone of France Bleu Isère on November 6, 2023, the project manager, Coralie Gueydon specified that this system was born from the desire of consumers who are always demanding more transparency from brands and who wish to buy more responsibly.
How does this “score toy” work? This is a “toy rating system, to help customers consume more responsibly and offer better eco-designed toys”, toys are rated from 0 to 5. For this first year, there are 1,600 toys who are affected by this rating system. Coralie Gueydon was already planning: “The objective, next year, is to extend this rating system to our entire catalog, that is to say to 20,000 toys.”
The Kingtoy website explains that three criteria are taken into account in the rating: packaging, materials and place of manufacture. Regarding the first criterion, the highest score is given to products without packaging and earns 3 points. Packaging made from more than 95% recycled materials will receive 2 points. In terms of materials used for manufacturing, FSC wood mono materials, that is to say wood, paper and cardboard, are the big winners. A toy made of at least 95% of these materials earns 3 points. The use of single materials such as metal or even propylene (PP) and even recyclable materials used at 50% lower the bill. As for the place of manufacture, France is of course in the lead and earns 4 points for toys manufactured there. The rating then follows a geographical logic where the further away the toy is manufactured (Europe then outside Europe) the fewer points it obtains.
For example, LEGO brand toys, which many children wait to discover under the tree, get a rating of 2/5. Just like the modern version of the Twister board game, entitled Twister Air, which is reinvented in a digital version and which also obtains a rating of 2/5. For the little ones, the Smoby brand flower market receives a rating of 3/5. For lovers of logic games, the wooden construction game from the Wood n play brand gets an excellent rating of 5/5.
