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Anno 117: Pax Romana – is the pricey Governor’s Edition worth it?
by Domagoj Belancic
Spielwarenmesse Nürnberg: These are the 6 winners of the Toy Awards 2026
28/1/2026
Translation: machine translated
The jury announced the winners of the "Toy Awards 2026" punctually at 11 a.m. today at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. Who could convince.
The manufacturers submitted a total of 609 new products in advance. From these, the expert jury had to select the 18 finalists for six categories. Originality, fun to play, comprehensibility of the product concept and the potential for success in retail are the key factors for making it onto the shortlist.
Deserved winner among the start-ups
In the most colourful category of start-ups, the «Construction Kit» by Beaver Edu from Lebanon secured victory. Using thin real wood sticks and plug-in joints, young inventors either build the 22 design suggestions or develop their very own constructions. Using a patented cutting tool, children should be able to shorten the sticks without risk of injury. The jury liked the combination of technical thinking and tinkering.
Source: Toy Award
A price that is perfectly acceptable in my view. The solid wood building blocks from «Loggos-BN-M» may look chic, but the product could quickly end up unnoticed in a corner of the children's room. And «Akte Fehltritt» from Momentum Games is an investigation game. There are already plenty of them, and the 45-minute podcast doesn't change that.
That's what I call sustainable: toys made from old fridges
«Arches» from Waytoplay Toys is the jury's favourite. Although the «Sustainability» category is also about fun, it is primarily about producing toys from sustainable materials. This is exactly the case with the first-place winner. «Arches» is made in Europe from recycled plastic.
Source: Toy Award
And this comes primarily from old fridges. Without tools or magnets, children and adults use the creative toys to build tunnels, hills and figures.
A sleeping animal made from recycled material and a 3D puzzle made from cardboard did not make the cut.
So that teenagers and kids also have something to play with
«CluePuzzle - The Wonderbox of Alice» looks impressive even in the official photo. A box with locks and moving elements is created from over 180 wooden pieces: a mixture of escape room and 3D puzzle.
Source: Toys Award
The logic tasks are integrated directly into the mechanics. The tricky game can be played alone or with others. And could therefore encourage players to play it more often. A decisive criterion in this category according to the jury.
The «space ranger» from Toy Story had to admit defeat. A robot that can be operated via an app, which will probably gather dust just as quickly after the first bang (including 200 sound snippets) as the remote-controlled drone, which was also nominated.
Toys for «School Kids»
Learning is important, as was said at the awards ceremony, but so is relaxation from school. The winner in the category for school children is «Temple Twist» from Franckh-Kosmos.
Source: Toy Award
The players have to work together to discover the treasure chambers of a temple. Action cards that require the construction to be rotated are original here. And thus call into question the solution devised.
The short end of the stick is «3D Shapes & Shadows» from Miniland and «GyroDrive» from Fischertechnik. The construction of building shadows using wooden blocks may seem a little too simple. And the submission from Fischertechnik fits in seamlessly with the manufacturer's products. Possibly too seamlessly.
Activity for pre-school children
The game principle of «The mountain is calling» seems simple. At least two players try to climb the steep face quickly and safely. A strategy game with an age-appropriate level of complexity that parents can also take part in.
Source: Toy Award
From my point of view, the winner had it pretty easy. After all, the competing «Boxineers Cardboard Vehicles and Animals» are essentially just a cardboard box that I can customise with attachable parts. The «Thread-to-Calm Cube» is a rubber box into which I stick colourful strings for geometric patterns. Reassuringly safe. Both look pretty boring, I think.
And for the very little ones
The Tonies are also unlikely to have met with much resistance in the jury's discussions. The winners are the «My First Tonies» announced last year. These are silicone-padded figures for the box so that babies cannot injure themselves
Source: Toy Award
However, the other two nominations are also extremely well-behaved. The plug-in cube «Kuby» is the umpteenth version of a classic, and there are already plenty of bath books that change colour in bath water («Yookidoo Spray 'n' Roll») and figures.
Among the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Yes, there were many interesting game ideas among the nominees. But the winners were almost obvious, in my opinion. AI and digital games certainly didn't come out on top at the awards. The «classic» game may not be going out of fashion after all.
All nominations and winners can be found online in an overview.
Header image: Beaver Education
Hamburg local, bookworm, and ice hockey fan. Dad and granddad. Constantly tinkering around with my smart home setup. I love DIY, the outdoors, fashion, and cosmetics.
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