Creative Toyshop

Wallingford mom Martina McConnon hates, hates, hates plastic toys for the space they take up in your house, in your yard, then in landfills. So she found a German company that makes really cool white cardboard toys and started her own company, Creative Toyshop, to market them. There are sturdy, button-cute steamships, race cars, airplanes and dinosaurs for as little as $6.99 apiece, and more elaborate villas, palaces, treehouses and forts that top out at $24.99. (Cheap!) Pre-cut, easy to assemble, ready for kids to color with paint or markers … and they’re recyclable. Thanks, Martina.