Patric Faßbender and Marcus Stahl were just two fathers who cared for their kids. They thought that it was rather primitive for parents to remain struggling with CDs and their accompanying players just to turn on audiobooks or music for their little ones to enjoy. With their own children in mind, they created Tonies and the Toniebox.
What is Tonies & Toniebox?
It all begins with the Toniebox — a soft cube that couldn’t be a more safe option for your child. It has no screens, no cables, no complicated buttons, and no sharp corners or edges. However, it features a completely digital core, runs on a rechargeable battery, and even has an old school 3.5mm headphone jack.
While the box is completely free of complicated buttons, it still possesses useful controls. For example, the cute ‘ears’ actually double up as volume buttons — just squeeze them! In terms of its other controls, tilting the cube allows children to fast forward or rewind, as they’d like, and tapping the sides allows them to skip chapters.
However, you’ll need Tonies to fully unlock the fun of the Toniebox. Tonies are approximately two to three inches, hand-painted figurines that attach to the magnetic top surface of Tonieboxes. From there, the two items connect via NFC, and the audio player will automatically play Tonies’ content.
A great option for kids
Compared to a tablet or smartphone, the Toniebox allows your children to play and learn with their audio players. Adult supervision is also not necessary.
Leaving your child alone with a tablet or smartphone could expose them to inappropriate apps or websites. Not to mention that there’s always the risk of them dropping or breaking those smart devices.
However, with the Toniebox, you get complete control over what your child listens to. The Toniebox also syncs up to your Toniecloud online account — where you’ll be able to access everything.
Unleashing kids’ creativity with Creative-Tonies
If you or your child aren’t able to find an audiobook, you might want to look into Creative Tonies. These are Tonies that allow you to record 90 minutes of your own personal and creative songs, stories, or messages to be played on the Toniebox. This is a great option for both parents and children to unleash their creative sides.
Overall, there are approximately 60 Tonies for you and your child to choose from. As of January this year, the company has sold 15 million Tonieboxes and 14 million Tonies. I guess it’s safe to say that Tonies are popular among children and parents alike.
YouTube: Tonie-Tutorial: How to set up a Creative-Tonie and fill it with content
Photo credits: All images used are owned by Boxine GmbH and were made available for press usage.
