Candylab Is Blowing Away the Toy Market With Perfect Vintage Cars and Vehicles

Most kids who grew up in a vehicle-oriented family remember countless evenings spent on the floor with nothing but a few toy cars and lots of creative obstacles and sounds to liven up the world around them. Actually, we were creating worlds altogether.

Nowadays, it seems like very few toys still leave room for the creative factor that childhood play yields. But one crew, Candylab Toys, has made it their mission to change all that.

If you've never heard of Candylab Toys, you're gonna love me after this one. Back in 2013, Vlad Dragusin, founder of Candylab Toys, hit the market with toys that looked like they were just pulled out of some corner of the attic, that dark and scary corner where you never dared venture as a kid. This startup seemed to want to keep the spirit of the childhood mentioned above alive. Since it's now 2021, this crew seems to have succeeded.

Today, Candylab is a massive company made up of gearheads, designers, engineers, and parents. Each toy that ends up in your child's hands has gone through years of development. Not only are they safe and completed from natural materials, mainly wood, but each unit is built and designed with "adherence to principles of mid-century pioneers of modern design." What more could you want?

The crew initially hit the market via a Kickstarter campaign that unleashed the Stinger, Carbon 77, and Doc Ryder units. They were a hit, and today, this company features a lineup of toys that extends several collections, styles, and even environments.

Now, for me to try and go through every toy this crew offers would be sheer insanity, so I'll stick to the grand scheme of things. If you make it to the Candylab website, you'll see two clear categories to explore, Candycar and Americana.

The Candycar category covers an array of vehicles, colors, and shapes. There's a Camper Friendly and RV collection which includes toys like teardrop campers, station wagons, and even RVs. The Suburbia collection gives children the opportunity to play with things like mail vans, sedans, and a New York Times Van. Yes, Candylab collaborates with The New York Times magazine for a special model. The Museum of Ice Cream has a collab, and so does Yves Saint Laurent. As part of the Candycar category, there's also a Food Trucks collection and a few others.

The Americana category is where Candylab sticks to iconic shapes and vehicles found in American car culture. With vehicles like the Sunbird and Waterbird, clear references to the Firebird and Thunderbird, and a GT-10 (I think the "1" is extra), this collection is sure to grab the attention of adults and children alike.

My two favorite collections from the American category are The Adventurer and The Beach Buses collections. If you follow along with autoevolution, this shouldn't surprise you. Under The Adventurer, you'll find pickup trucks and vehicles with roof racks. At the same time, The Beach Buses yields three beautiful and simple beach buses that feature a modular construction, depending on what your child's imagination requests in a particular moment.

Other collections offer extensions to your child's imagination with constructions that represent places like donut shops and burger shacks, and even a parking garage. Some sets represent speedways, cities, or the open road; imagination is the only sped limit here. With figurines starting as low as 10 USD (8.8 EUR at current exchange rates), there's a toy available for nearly every child and pocket size.

I said it at the beginning of this article, and I'll say it again, toys these days seem to limit a child's perception. Candylab appears to be working on boosting your child's creativity, not limiting it. Plus, they're dang nice for everything from "Stocking Stuffers" to "Under The Tree" gift ideas. Did somebody say Christmas?