Minn. toymaker hits it big with 'Yoxo'

In a world filled with battery-powered toys that buzz and flash, St. Paul toymaker Jeff Freeland Nelson seeks toys powered by simplicity and imagination.

Last Christmas, the big item at his new toy company was "The World Famous Box of Boxes," consisting entirely of cardboard boxes for kids to play with. (It was followed by "The Enormous Tube of Tubes.")

This summer, Nelson took the next step, unveiling a series of cardboard connectors, laser-cut into colorful Y, O and X shapes. He christened it "Yoxo," pronounced Yock-so.

Durable, sustainable and cleverly designed, Yoxo was created so that kids could turn household items -- paper towel rolls, cereal boxes, paper plates -- into building blocks for play.

"The best thing is, you don't have to say anything -- kids just go," Nelson told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "The kids will show you what they can make with Yoxo."

Yoxo packages hit the store shelves in August, emblazoned with a silver "Made in MN" sticker. The colorful box contains 19 connectors that can be fashioned into a 17-inch-high Yoxo robot, dubbed YoxoBot.

Then the buzz about Yoxo began, aided by enthusiastic local toy stores.

"We brought it into our stores in August, we reordered in September, and then we reordered again," said Roberta Bonoff, CEO of Creative Kidstuff, a St. Paul-based toy store with six Twin Cities locations.

"We love to support free play, where you can just use your imagination," Bonoff said. "That's the beauty of this product. It's taking a very, very simple idea, a simple product, and letting kids use their imagination."

In a very brief time, Yoxo's cardboard connectors have shown signs of becoming a holiday hit. Now Yoxo is making a leap that would have been beyond imagination even a few weeks ago.

The toy recently was featured on NBC's "Today Show" in a segment about this year's top new educational toys.

For Nelson, it was an affirmation -- and a sign that he wasn't entirely crazy back in 2012, when he quit a prestigious lobbying job at Minnesota Public Radio to become a startup toymaker specializing in green, sustainable toys.

"We had (two) little kids and I just didn't like the travel," Nelson said, explaining why he made such a dramatic career change. "And there was this creative itch that I couldn't scratch. So one day, I announced to my wife that we were starting a toy company.

"I really had the germ of an idea," Nelson added. "I wanted my kids to have the experience of play that I had --which is, the world is your toy. You can create anything from anything."

By design, Yoxo dovetails into two of the toy industry's big trends: the booming popularity of building sets (fueled by Lego and led mostly by boys), and the growth of crafts (led more by girls).

Packaged in orange or turquoise, Yoxo is designed to appeal to both genders. A turquoise bag of connectors sells for $12.99. A larger orange box, featuring the robot kit, sells for $19.99.

"We hope it says to parents that anybody can play with this," Nelson said. "We went to great pains to design a toy that's as gender-neutral as we could -- knowing that there's a big robot on the cover."

Nelson is quick to credit those who have helped his young company, Play from Scratch. There's his advisory board, which he filled with people from inside and outside the toy industry. And funders, including some who invested via a Kickstarter campaign.

He cites talented designers, along with the disabled adults who do the packaging at the company's industrial warehouse-turned-toy factory.

But local toy stores played a special role, too. They've become Yoxo's champions.

Dan Marshall, owner of Peapods Natural Toys in St. Paul, has been sending word to other independent toy stores -- and industry opinion leaders -- about a made-in-Minnesota product and its clever creator.

"In this day and age, to have a successful made-in-the-USA toy company, you need that style and panache, you need that enthusiasm for your product, and that's what Jeff has," Marshall said.

Marshall's enthusiasm for Yoxo began after he gave a box to his 9-year-old son, "and he absolutely loved it. I knew we had a hit on our hands," Marshall said. Now, he has an oversized 7-foot-tall Yoxo Robot inside his store.

With Yoxo's growth and early success, Nelson is rapidly coming to a major decision point.

"Right now, our No. 1 problem is, we can't make Yoxo fast enough," Nelson said. "For this to become a business, we're going to have to make Yoxo faster."

Instead of making Yoxo pieces by the thousands, Nelson wonders what it would take to make Yoxo connectors by the millions.

"We're talking to a host of partners, we're talking to some of the big toy manufacturers," Nelson said.

Any big changes must wait until January, after the hectic Christmas rush has finished.

"When things slow down, there are a lot of business decisions we need to make," Nelson said, "because the big toy fair is in New York in February."

Editor's note: This is an AP Member Exchange Feature by Tom Webb of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.