Dad Creates Eco-Friendly Toys Inspired By Kids

Dave Berglund doesn’t have to leave home to be inspired.

After working more than 20 years in corporate product design, the Minnetonka resident switched gears to become a stay-at-home dad. His career change didn’t stop him from creating.

Inspired almost entirely from his 7-year-old daughter, Berglund launched the Metamorphic Toy eco-friendly company with a line of toys created to evoke a child’s imagination.

“Kids have a natural ability to invent and create,” Berglund said. “They can take a stick and turn it into a sword or trombone. I want to come up with toys that encourage that kind of imaginative play and creative expression.”

The first two products of the Everythingland line – a toy mailbox and toy signs – were literally thought up by Berglund’s daughter Annika. They are easy-to-assemble play toys that double as art projects.

“As a stay-at-home dad, I worked on collaborative art projects with Annika and saw how rapidly kids can grow and transform,” he said, speaking to the “metamorphic” transformation of the toys he creates. “My daughter might use the mailbox for letters one day, but the next day it is a cave for her stuffed rabbit.”

While the street signs are already adorned with messages like “No Grown Ups Allowed” and “Caution: Unicorn Crossing,” Berglund included a reversible blank side for kids to create their own. The mailbox is made as a blank canvas, for kids to adorn with drawings, stickers and their favorite colors. Berglund provides a variety of themed ideas on the Metamorphic Toys web site for inspiration, but he prefers green.

“Today’s green-minded consumers have limited options when shopping for toys that not only spark creativity and foster pretend play, but are also manufactured using environmental best practices,” he said. “We want to be part of the solution by making toys kids love and parents feel good about purchasing.”

Simple recipes for sustainable glue and paint are also available online through Berglund.

The Everythingland Mailbox and Silly Signs are made from recyclable corrugated cardboard, a material Berglund said he chose because it’s eco-friendly, easy to decorate and light enough for kids to move at their leisure.

Metamorphic Toys are locally-made. Just three weeks ago Berglund was still making them out of his garage and now he works with Opportunity Partners, a Minnetonka production facility and non-profit organization that provides employment opportunities and services for people with disabilities.

When approached by Berglund about his Everythingland line, local toy store owner Amy Saldanha jumped at the chance to carry his products.

“I was immediately enamored with them because it is something that is so new and really open-ended,” said the owner of the and art studio for kids in St. Louis Park. “If I could sum up Dave’s concept,” Saldanha said, “it’s super creative, inspired and really thoughtful, from the perspective down to the every angle, even the manufacturing process.”

Berglund has more than a dozen other toy ideas in the works, but for now, he wants to focus on the sales and success of the products he has on the market. The Everythingland Mailbox and Silly Signs are available for $19.95 each at Kiddywampus and the Hopkins toy store, .