You turn your back on that Big Blue Box for a minute, and what do they do? They plop down bins full of interesting painted wood pull toys by Canadian-in-Copenhagen designer Francis Cayouette.
Cayouette seems to be one of Ikea's goto guys for toys. [Check out his firm Unit10D's portfolio for a bit of deja vu. Why does it feel slightly weird to consider that Ikea products are designed by actual humans?]
Anyway, the Klappar series includes a frog and a fish [which are cool but nearly indistinguishable to me] and this awesome hedgehog. It would be really cool if those spines flop and click-clack together as it rolls along [really cool as long as I don't have to hear it non-stop, that is.] The hedgehog may look better, but those frogs and fish are sounding better every minute.
KLAPPAR IGELKOTT hedgehog pull-along toy, $7.99 in stores [ikea.com]
via notcot, which has a bunch of photos of Ikea playthings, including some really weird and random plush potato bugs [??] [notcot.com]
Excellent stuff. We were just saying today that we needed to make a trip to Ikea sometime soon. Although, that "klappar maskaral" makes me think of "The Shining".
Yes... but were they built in China???
In all seriousness though, I'm liking the little hedgehog, he's pretty cute!