~ Promoting DEI* through toys
with children! ~
*Diversity・Equity・Inclusion
TOMY International, which is responsible for overseas business in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe develop diversity toys which recognize the diversity of each other’s ethnicities and cultural backgrounds and learn through Asobi (play). Here, we introduce the toys that make the world smile.
A Little Spot
A Little Spot is a toy line aimed at preschoolers around age 3. It is based on Diane Alber’s popular picture book, and helps children to articulate and express their emotions. Using the faces of characters of various colors—such as yellow for happiness, and blue for sadness—as a canvas, children can choose and place facial features such as eyes and mouths in various shapes to convey their feelings through play.
Chris Lutchen
Director Design
Comments from developer
Children choose facial features that they think are close to their feelings—such as eyes with tears spilling out of them, smiling mouths, and eyebrows—to create the character’s face. Through this process, we created toys that enable children to express their feelings well. I think the point was to provide a wide variety of facial parts with various expressions, such as the way the mouth opens and the angle of the eyebrows, so that children can choose parts that match their emotions in more detail. “The eyes are like this, the mouth is like this,” and so on.
Some children struggle to express their emotions, which can also be frustrating for their parents in terms of communication. I hope that many children will be able to learn to express their emotions through this toy line.
A Little Spot is a trademark of Inspire to Create Enterprises, LLC. Copyright © 2023 Inspire to Create Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved. © ＴＯＭＹ
