My brittle smart home setup is hanging on by a thread in the spousal approval department. I can’t handle the fury that will befall me if I fuck with the TonieBox.
I'd vastly prefer being able to load an SD card in it instead of having it connect to the wifi, though.
I'm also in the process of trying to get my extended family to record something about their life for sort of an oral family history yoto card.
Also I thought that the physical design was poor. Because the figures just sit on top of the box, you cant move it around whilst playing it or the figures just fall off and the audio stops. It was very frustrating watching my kid try to use it in the car on a long journery.
Scrapped that and invested in Yoto player, its pretty much the same thing but its so much better in every way. The cards push into a slot and so dont fall out, it has an app which enables full control of the player which Tonies didnt, and you dont have to hit it to change tracks (which we found incredibly violent). Also there are some nice extras like being able to tap the nfc cards against your phone to set the content.
I would encourage any prospective TonieBox buyer to check out Yoto before taking the plunge.
Really? Huh, that's interesting because I find them exceptionally well designed and very sturdy (i.e., kids-ready).
> Because the figures just sit on top of the box, you cant move it around whilst playing it or the figures just fall off and the audio stops.
The figures are magnetic and stay on the box when you move it.
> It was very frustrating watching my kid try to use it in the car on a long journery.
Do you have a different version, perhaps, than me?
Built one for my niece. She liked it.
But then I remind myself: it’s not a product made for me. I don’t have to like it. Clearly, the target group loves it. My kids have adored it for years. Even now, with my oldest having access to Spotify Kids, she still prefers her Toniebox in the evening before bed. The figurines aren’t just a medium, they’re toys in their own right. They’re shared, traded, and loved. And they really enjoy squeezing those silly ears.
Many other families in my circle tell the same story. Some tried similar products that launched soon after the original, often ones using cards (though not Yoto). But after a few weeks, their kids lost interest and asked for a Toniebox instead. (It reminds me of when my parents bought me a Sega Master System, even though all I wanted was a Super Nintendo.)
That’s not the point of the article, though.
It never says it’s not a good product. The issue is not that, it’s that it is a disposable product : the day the company behind it closes or decides to unplug the wires, the toniebox instantly becomes a paperweight.
That’s at least an ecological issue, but also a moral issue. I think it’s wrong in 2025 to give objects to our kids that we know have no future.
Disclaimer : someone offered a toniebox to my son so we own one. I agree it’s a good product.
But there was an opportunity to make it working fully offline and they decided not to for money reasons. The figurines could have had some mb of embedded memory, it’s not like they were cheap to buy.
Making your own cards is awesome and the players themselves are very repairable and sound great.
So we bought them a cassette/CD player from Sony for €100.
The idea that you’d buy a speaker with super expensive and proprietary figurines is a bit crazy to me.
Just like Nintendo Switch cartridges, kids can borrow the figures to each other. And here in northern Germany, we even have a public library where you can borrow a selection of figures for free (up to 2 at a time, up to 2 weeks). That means apart from the pricey initial purchase, you can get a wide variety of content legally for free, if you're willing to accept the slight inconvenience of renting/returning the figures in person. Plus no spyware, no notifications, no ads, no subscription. It's superior to YouTube kids in every way.
My children absolutely adore their Tonuino box, and the community around the project is fantastic, constantly sharing creative and impressive builds. If you're a bit handy and enjoy a good DIY project, I highly recommend checking it out. https://www.voss.earth/tonuino/
The toniebox can be put into an offline mode, plus I'm blocking the Mac address on my router. The box works fine, you can download new content (for which, of course, you must temporarily remove the above restrictions) and all my kids are doing with the box is put a tonie on top.
I'm all for privacy, especially wrt. to my kids, but I find this box less intrusive than their grandmother with her WhatsApp account.
Jake (Yoto daily podcast guy) is a legend in our house.
harryscholes•3h ago
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