Our production
The roots of HABA are in Germany – just like those of most of the trees we process into marble runs and building blocks, play figures and dice as well as many other toys for babies and toddlers.
As at HABA's founding in 1938, most wooden toys are produced at our site in Bad Rodach in Upper Franconia. Here, many wood machinists, turners, varnishers, toolmakers and a whole host of other employees ensure that planks are turned into toys, that make children's eyes light up.
From the forest yesterday to the children's room tomorrow
Everyone has seen them at least once: beech, birch, maple, linden – these are the trees whose wood we turn into toys and furniture, always colourful, high-quality and sustainable.
Beech wood is light brown, very hard and versatile. This is already shown by our product range: the figures of our play worlds, the HABA marble runs and building blocksgrasping toys and pacifier chains as well as the figures of our board games are all made from beech wood. It is easy to work with and grows in the forests around our company location.
Birch wood in turn, we mainly use it for our furniture accessories such as lamps or coat racks. The light wood is used either solid or in the form of veneer panels, which are then cut and further processed in our joinery.
Maple is considered one of the most valuable hardwoods. The light, hard wood turns well and is therefore used for the HABA grasping toys that contain a curve. In addition, our carpenters occasionally also work with linden wood, especially for children's room-accessories.
Our production – an example
How does a piece of beech wood become a sock monster?
In the HABA toy manufacturing plant almost every day a lorry load of beech wood arrives. The first stop is the drying chamber, after which it moves on to the toy production. HABA employees inspect each piece of wood closely, saw it and allocate the timber to the various sections of the toy manufacturing process. Several production steps are necessary for beech wood strips to become play figures like the funny sock monster from the game Socken Zocken , several production steps are required.
First, production needs the technical drawing, which is based on the designer's draft. It serves as the basis for manufacturing special milling heads. These cut the outer shape of the sock monster into the wooden strips. The resulting profiles are then sawn into slices and sent for sanding to smooth the edges and surfaces.
Little Sock Monster – Big Machines
How does the sock monster actually become light green? And how does it get its cheeky face, its dark green stripes and the orange feet? After the beech wood parts have been sanded, they go to the paint shop. There are many paint drums there with water-soluble paints in different shades. In the drums, the unpainted wooden parts are allowed to take a color-dipping bath. Then the light-green bodies are pushed by employees one by one into a special fixture on a large embossing machine.
In a single operation the recess is embossed into the wood and the color is applied. This gives the sock monster its funny face, the pink cheeks and the dark green stripes on its belly. The orange feet are dyed individually and then glued to the body with the help of dowels… and the sock monster is finished. So it’s quite complicated! Now the remaining game pieces can be placed into the yellow boxes. That also happens by hand, because the contents of each HABA game are different and usually consist of wooden and cardboard parts. Only then is the game ready for shipping – and it brings lots of fun to the children’s room!
Custom woodworking
Would you like play materials, decorative items, or craft supplies made from wood custom-made? We are specialists in wooden play materials and are happy to produce custom wooden pieces exactly to your specifications!
