It's hard for eco-friendly toys to get a bad review these days, both because we all want to see mainstream toy companies clean up their act, and because we want to see these upstarts take over if (when?) they don't. This would only be a true Cinderella story if everyone in Fairyland had been calling her a beauty even when she slept in the fireplace. But for the sake of our story, let's pretend that even when Cinderella can't get a date to save her life, everyone in the kingdom is abuzz with how brightly she makes her wicked stepmother's marble floors shine.

We've been rooting for Sprig Toys ever since we heard about their first line of toy vehicles about a year ago. They're one of the standout companies that are recasting classic kids' toys for a greener age. With their new Sprig Hollow line, the company has truly lived up to its promise. But before I tell you how great Sprig Hollow is - in fact, because the line is so great - I first have to speak to anyone who might be disinclined to give the company a second chance, or who are debating between one of the toys from their early Adventure series and those in their new line.

Blends of recycled plastic and reclaimed wood have been used for years by the plastic lumber industry, and is a meaningful sign of construction technology running a tighter ship and reducing waste while capitalizing on new technology. Bringing this same material to the toy industry was an epiphany just waiting for the right company to capitalize on it.

But when Sprig sent us their Discover Rig and Baja Scout Side Kick vehicles to test drive last year, we were disappointed. The toy's "Sprigwood" material is attractive, with look both clean and "eco" communicated by rich colors and flecks of wood visible in the composite material. And we loved the concept - a USB-linked figure plugs into the vehicle, and the child's pushing (Discover Rig) or pumping (Side Kick) energy powers headlights and triggers sounds and stories. But the USB connection worked erratically from the get-go, neither had a battery to sock away even the few seconds of kinetic energy needed to offer smooth functioning with a child's erratic movements. If that wasn't bad enough, the sound quality was poor, making the USB-powered effects both a novelty and a nuisance. Ultimately, the toy's chunky, durable design virtually guaranteed that we'd treat it as an outdoor toy, which soon disabled its electronics.

All this for list prices of $60 and $25? We considered these toys a failure, and never reviewed them.

Despite our displeasure, the Discover Rig was nominated for three Toy of the Year Awards by the Toy Industry Association in advance of the NY Toy Fair: Most Innovative, Best Boy's Toy, and Best Specialty Toy. (They didn't win any of them.) We thought they needed to go back to the drawing board. With a high price tag and so-so features, Sprig's first line of toys had too many quirks borne of experimentation that just didn't pan out.

Later last year Sprig came out with a line of "Eco-Trucks" that went through a couple of drafts, and came out looking like pretty handsome, durable toy vehicles. They feature big chunky handles for kids to grab onto and use their toys like the tools they really are - the kind of "a-ha!" moment toy designers (and reviewers) live for. They also brought the price down to $15 a vehicle, which means they can actually compete with similar toys and beat them in the kind of obvious and compelling ways that make people ditch well-established brand names.

But even that couldn't have prepared us for Sprig Hollow. These toys are just plain brilliant.

Sprig Hollow is a world of agriculturally-employed "bugs" whose current operating capital include a couple of farm trucks, a helicopter, and a gadget-rich farm that are a little hard to describe. They snap together quickly and easily, but they are not building toys; they are full-featured, three-dimensional toys for an age of resource consciousness and, yes, scarcity. But they are designed in ways that turn their leanness into assets. The barn is lightweight and thus easy for our four-year-old Z to carry, and its permeable walls and lack of a roof don't bother her in the least - in fact, the skeletal design just offers her more access points. The only misstep is the farm's funnel and chute, which is supposed to clip together through a slot in the barn's planks but quickly slips apart every time. It's a casting or a materials issue - one that can be expected from a new company working with new materials, but that makes a component of the set frustratingly non-functional nonetheless.

The figures are small, unassuming achievements in their own right, consisting of brightly-colored SprigWood bodies and rubbery pieces that combine a unique facial expression (presented on a button-shaped knob that pushes through the head) and a pair of one-of-a-kind wings. The faces and wings are interchangeable, and the faces have been designed with eyes only, meaning they can also be rotated 180 degrees for a dramatically different expression (angry/frustrated becomes sad, etc.). It's a ton of good design packed into an astonishingly small bit of plastic, and the characters speak volumes about Sprig's commitment to thoughtful product design. The figures have a gap between their legs that matches slots on the various vehicles.

We've saved the best for last here: The trucks/ Bee and Butterfly's Farm, the largest set in the line (which retails for about $26), includes a flatbed truck, and Dune Bug's Sand Truck adds a pickup bed; both feature cabs that can be removed and used as shovels, while the Sand Truck's pickup bed and cap each double as independent play tools as well. The line also includes the fun Dragonfly's Heli-Scooper, with each separate vehicle selling for around $14 with a figure.

Here's a video of me putting a truck together - it's the flatbed truck, but I add the pickup bed and cap so you can see that these are interchangeable parts. Older kids may enjoy deconstructing and rebuilding these toys, but the most interesting thing about them is not in the building, it's in how they create the shape and strength of a one-piece, injection-molded plastic toy using smaller, lighter construction. Add to that the fact that this is recycled, wood/plastic composite material, and you're looking at a very environmentally-conscious take on "plastic" toys.


You can hit the ZRecs Archives for more of our thoughts on the nuances of what makes toys "green."

The company is planning new toys for the Sprig Hollow line, and we can't wait to see them.

We're naming the Sprig Hollow line a ZRecs Top Pick, and there's no hype about it. Sprig Hollow is one of the best new toy lines we've seen this year, and we believe that with it, the company has truly come into their own.