What Can You Tegu?

Two weeks ago we wrote about Tegu, a young for-profit company founded to bring living-wage jobs to Honduras by developing an innovative line of wooden toys. Founded by brothers Chris and Will Haughey, the company isn’t a charity–it has set out to make its products commercially appealing. You don’t have to care about deforestation, unemployment, or educational opportunities in Central America to buy their products, because the products are designed to speak for themselves. In other words, there’s no attempt to “guilt” customers into buying an inferior product for some higher cause—the product itself is designed to be pleasing. As a website interested in both service and family fun, we wanted to see for ourselves what they came up with.

Tegu’s signature product is a set of very high-quality hardwood blocks with an interesting twist. Normal wooden blocks depend on gravity to hold the design together. Tegu’s blocks escape this limitation with some very cleverly hidden, powerful magnets. You wouldn’t suspect anything by looking at the blocks. It’s only when you first touch the blocks–taking them out of their beautiful green and white box, moving them around–that you realize you have something really different.

This is the kind of creative, open-ended toy for which no instructions are needed. My kids (boys and girls ages 7-15) had some time with the blocks and all had a “whoa” moment when the blocks seemingly defied gravity. They were hooked. For each of the kids, the Tegu blocks stimulated a set of questions to be worked out by trial and error: how do the blocks stick together? Which ends stick, and which repel? Then they noticed new properties that the magnets allowed, like sliding and rotating, which allowed them to make an amazing variety of sculptural creations. My 7 year-old son came up with a kind of sculpture that can “walk” as its legs shift back and forth. His brother made a box with lid pieces that slide shut with a snap. The pictures may give you some idea, but you have to get your hands on these blocks to appreciate them.

Getting your hands off of them may be harder. My 7-year-old was very concerned when he heard I was reviewing the blocks. “Dad, did you pay for these?” Yes, I replied. “Good. That means we can keep them. Right?” And especially for the first few days, I had to make my kids take turns–they each were having so much fun, they each wanted the starter set of 26 blocks to themselves. Besides the starter sets, Tegu also offers a larger “original” set of 52 blocks–which might be a must if you grow addicted, or have more than one child.

Tegu has clearly sweated the details on its blocks. They are beautiful enough to end up as executive toys (but that seems like a waste), and their refined packaging is filled with educational facts about Honduras. All of this innovation and beauty doesn’t make for a cheap purchase–the block sets start at about $50. But all together–considering their beauty, the long-lasting kid pleasure, and the good work the company is doing in Honduras–the blocks are a worthy investment.

Whether or not you care about deforestation.