Bigjigs Toys Celebrates 40th Anniversary

Happy New Year, readers! This year marks a special milestone for Bigjigs Toys as we celebrate 40 years of family, craftsmanship, and a passion for play. Since launching in 1985, we have grown from a small garden shed operation into a leading name in traditional toys, with our ranges loved by families worldwide.

As we step into this exciting anniversary year, we’re looking back at our incredible 40-year journey and looking ahead to see what 2025 has in store! 

The Bigjigs Story

Back in 1985, Peter Ireland, a Craft Design teacher-in-training, started making wooden puzzles out of old floorboards in his garden shed in Kent. Friends and family were so impressed with Peter’s creations that demand quickly grew! Peter and his wife Liz, both teachers with an interest in child development, began selling their handcrafted jigsaws at craft fairs across the UK. One school holiday, Peter and Liz decided to leave teaching behind and dedicate themselves fully to the toy-making business. Bigjigs Toys was born! 

At first, Bigjigs sold jigsaw puzzles only, which were lovingly cut, painted, and packed by hand. Every weekend, Peter and Liz would head to London’s Covent Garden market where they would sell their handcrafted goods amid the buzz of street theatre performers. Soon, their product range grew to include wellie pegs, magnets, pencil holders, and coat hooks, before evolving into a fabulous collection of wooden toys for kids of all ages. In the early 1990s, Bigjigs Toys launched its first mail-order catalogue and began sending handmade toys to families across the country. 

Fast forward 40 years and our toys are now sold in 100+ countries around the world and our range has expanded far beyond wooden puzzles! Now, we have a huge collection of over 2,500 products, including wooden railway sets, arts & crafts, dress-up & role play, sensory toys, ride-ons, educational games, kids gardening tools, plush toys, and so much more. 

However, our core values have remained the same since day one and we are still very much a family-run company with Liz, Peter, and their sons, Sam and Tom, at the helm.

New Product Launches For 2025

To celebrate our 40th year, we’re pulling out all the stops with over 100 brand-new products launching throughout 2025. This thrilling line-up has something for every interest, from timeless wooden classics to innovative new ranges designed to fuel curiosity and learning. 

Here’s a sneak peek of what’s coming:

• Exclusive Montessori Collection

• Bespoke London Range

• Simply Scandi wood & silicone toys

• Themed Bigjigs Rail train set & accessories

• Wooden food play sets

• Dress-up costumes

• Plush toys

• Musical instruments

• Retro pocket money classics

• Educational puzzles

• Garden toys & games

• NeeDoh fidgets

• Tiger Tribe craft sets & baby toys

• Green Toys eco-friendly vehicles

• The House of Puzzles Contemporary Range

Looking Ahead

While we’re proud of our heritage, we’re always looking ahead to what’s next! Sustainability remains at the heart of everything we do, so 2025 will also see the completion of a big project we’ve been working on over the past few years. This involves transitioning all of our wooden toys to eco-friendly FSC® Certified sources, and we’re well on track for our December target. 

As we enter this exciting new chapter, we can’t wait to share our latest creations with you and hope to continue inspiring young imaginations for many more generations to come. From all of us at Bigjigs Toys, we’d like to thank you for being part of our story and supporting us from the beginning. Here’s to the next 40 years!