I guess the owner of the Mexican restaurant down the street went to a big restaurant expo recently, because the other night, the kid got a little coloring placemat and a pack of triangular crayons called Crayangles.
Frankly, we just don't go to that many crayon restaurants; the kid gets to use the sushi pencil, but otherwise, I'm not much of a fan. But triangular crayons that don't roll off the table? I'm all over that.
Classy Kid, the kid kit manufacturer, doesn't seem to be in the consumer crayon business, though, just the "keep those crayons off my restaurant floor" business. So there may not even be triangular crayons in more than four colors.
But so what? Square beeswax crayons from countries beyond the reach of the Crayola hegemony are doing just fine, thanks. Kiosk waxes [heh] profound on the six-pack of Porvoo Beeswax Crayons, the national crayon of Finland. Meanwhile, a 12-pack [in 11 colors? huh?] of Lyra square beeswax crayons from Germany seem just as quirky and a better value.
Classy Kid CrayAngles triangular crayons, bulk and custom orders available [classy-kid.com]
Porvoo Beeswax Crayons, $10 [kioskkiosk.com]
Lyra Wax Giants Beeswax Square Crayons, $15 [naturalplay.com]
Actually, Crayola has been making anti-roll crayons for a while. They are of the Jumbo variety and pretty hard to find.
[indeed. never heard of them. thanks for the tip. -ed.]
Natural Play says the Lyra crayons are "nearly impossible to break". Anyone know for sure? Because that would be awesome.
[maybe it's just their shape; you can't get a good grip. -ed.]
Lots of triangular crayons in this world; try school supply stores. Here's 48! [sweet, but in just eight colors -ed.]
I hear the beeswax ones really do last forever, but we go for quantity. Or multi-use; Caran d'Ache Neocolor II are quite breakable, but they're also water soluble and can be used for facepainting, watercolor, and so on. And they're good strong colors, very satisfactory. DD is very careful with them; I use a holder.
We use Stockmar crayons, which are probably very similar to Lyra crayons. They are indeed seemingly unbreakable, and do last forever -- my 5 yo son has been using his for several years already and they're nowhere near worn out. You can get sets of 8, 16, or 24. Among other places, you can get the entire range at mercurius-usa.com.
Thanks for your comments about our CrayAngle triangular crayons. I conceived of this product concept as a new dad out with my family at a Buca di Beppo. Watching the crayons roll across the big round table, out of my reach, onto the floor.
We did do a 16 pack for retail and yes it had 16 colors. It's hard to find but I'll give an example link. Also Melissa & Doug now make a pack of triangular crayons for consumer retail. They're quite nice.
Cheers, enjoy,
AJ Mesalic
President, Classy Kid Inc.