Welcome to the toy rebellion

We’re trading tablets and algorithms for action figures and plushies

"Put the iPad down."

If you’re a parent in 2025, you’ve probably said that phrase about four thousand times. We say it too. In fact, that specific phrase is pretty much the reason you’re reading this right now.

Hi. We’re Mark and Sophie. We’re the parents behind Toykick, and we have a confession to make: We are tired of the doomscroll.

We’re tired of seeing kids glazed over, bathed in blue light, swiping through infinite shorts of people screaming at cameras. We missed the noise. We missed the mess. We missed the sound of a plastic hero crashing into a wall.

So, we decided to do something about it. We decided to launch a toy rebellion.

The Origin Story (Or: How We Got Here)

We aren't anti-tech Luddites living in a cabin in the woods. Far from it. We are the PlayStation 1 Generation.

• Mark: I grew up watching Batman: The Animated Series (still the GOAT), holding the power of Grayskull with He-Man, and wishing I was a Thundercat. I learned martial arts from the Ninja Turtles and vehicle mechanics from the Transformers.

• Sophie: She grew up in the golden age of Care Bears and My Little Pony, navigating the social dynamics of Barbie and trying to teach Furbies not to be creepy (mission: impossible).

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We love movies, cartoons and video games. We use screens every day. But we also know that there is a time and a place, and that childhood shouldn't be lived entirely in the Cloud.

The "Unboxing" Paradox

We have two young daughters. If your house is anything like ours, you are constantly bombarded with the "latest craze." And right now, kids are obsessed with the Unboxing Phenomenon. They love the mystery, the reveal, the ripping of the packaging.

We get it. It’s a rush.

But we noticed something. A lot of the stuff they were unboxing was… well, junk. It was filler. It was destined for the "landfill drawer" within 48 hours.

We wanted to hack the system. We wanted to take that modern "Blind Box" excitement that our kids love, but inject it with the quality and "soul" of the toys we grew up with.

Enter Toykick.

We built Toykick to be the bridge between generations. We still stock the blind boxes (because let’s be honest, the mystery is fun), but our core mission is our Curated Boxes.

This is where our little team hand-picks the action figures, the plushies, and the merch that hold a special place in our hearts. We aren't letting an algorithm decide what your kid plays with; we are deciding. And our standards are high.

We are looking for the toys that capture the magic we felt in 1990. We want to pass that torch to the next generation in a format they understand: A surprise box of epic stuff.

The Mission: "Whoosh" More, Scroll Less

Underpinning this whole crazy venture is a simple, desperate desire to see kids be kids again.

We want to see them open a new toy and actually play with it. We want to see them "whoosh" a spaceship around the living room. We want to see them throw a figure across the garden into a patch of mud. We want them to make up silly voices, build forts, and play out adventures using their minds and bodies, rather than losing themselves in a digital void.

An action figure doesn't need Wi-Fi. A plushie doesn't need a charger. The graphics engine of a child's imagination is more powerful than any console Sony will ever release.

Are You With Us?

Maybe we’re dreaming. Maybe we’re trying to fight the inevitable tide of technology. But looking around at our friends and fellow parents, we know we aren't the only ones who feel like this.

We believe that the best memories are analog. We believe in the smell of fresh plastic. We believe in play.

If you’re ready to get them playing like we used to... then welcome to the team.

Are you ready? Let’s Toykick this.