Toca Boca

We are happy to learn that Toca Kitchen has won the very first TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) Kids Audience Choice Favourite digiPlaySpace App Award (link to winners at the bottom of the page)!  The TIFF Kids Audience Choice Award including two new awards for digiPlaySpace, are voted on by Festival-goers who attended TIFF Kids public weekends and the entire run of TIFF Kids digiPlaySpace.

• • 2013-04-24 digiPlaySpace Patron Choice Award: Favourite App

Toca Boca Acquires zinc Roe Tickle Tap App Series and Development Team

SAN FRANCISCO - Toca Boca, (www.tocaboca.com), the world’s leading digital toy app developer, today announced that it inked a deal with zinc Roe (www.zincroe.com), a Toronto-based studio specializing in new media for kids, to acquire the award-winning Tickle Tap apps series and the company’s 10-person development team. zinc Roe Founder Jason Krogh will serve as the CEO of the newly named studio, Sago Sago. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

zinc Roe’s popular Tickle Tap apps, which encourage learning through practice and exploration, have been heralded by industry pundits, parents and kids as being innovative, creative and fun. Designed for children ages 2-4, the apps include Sound Shaker, a delightful sound toy, and Doodlecast for Kids, an app that records your voice as you draw to create short videos. Doodlecast for Kids has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today and The Guardian and received numerous accolades including a Gold Award from the Parent’s Choice Foundation and the Editor’s Choice from Children’s Technology Review.

“We are thrilled to welcome the incredibly talented zinc Roe team to the Toca Boca family and look forward to building on the momentum of the Tickle Tap series,” said Björn Jeffery, Co-Founder and CEO at Toca Boca. “Consumers can expect great things to come from this union as the two companies share a common vision and development philosophy toward creating the highest quality, innovative and fun digital toy play experiences on the market.”

In addition to the Tickle Tap app series, zinc Roe’s veteran development team has created engaging websites, games and activities for kids and youth including the Emmy Award-winning Zimmer Twins, Stella and Sam Interactive Adventures, Toot and Puddle games, and the children’s site for the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

“It is a very exciting time for zinc Roe as we join forces with Toca Boca to further expand the Tickle Tap series as well as create new, original digital toy properties that will delight youngsters around the globe,” said Jason Krogh. “This new venture brings together best-in-class creativity, design and development.”

The Sago Sago studio will remain in Toronto, marking Toca Boca parent company Bonnier AB’s first entrance into the Canadian market.

More information:

Foghorn Public Relations
Shelly Eckenroth, 717-852-7060
seckenroth@foghornpr.com
or
Mary Leddy, 508-872-3369
mleddy@foghornpr.com

• 2013-03-06

Emily over at iPad Kids (@iPadKids) wrote this amazing review of Toca Band a while ago: “Imagine my relief when Toca Band was released.  Not only do I worship in the temple of Toca Boca, but I also (despite my annoyance at the pet piano) encourage musical creativity.  If anyone could make the art of kids’ music production cool and kitschy, it’s the folks at Toca Boca.  And they certainly reached the high notes with this harmonious hit.”

• • 2013-02-20 iPad Kids

Toca Hair Salon got a spot in Apple’s latest iPad commercial for TV – Together.

• • 2013-02-18 Apple - Ipad - TV Ad - Together

The epic gaming magazine Edge interviews our producer Emil Ovemar about the huge success of Toca Boca’s open-ended digital toys, and our mission to let kids be kids and have fun.

• • 2013-02-18 Child’s play: Toca Boca on passing 20 million downloads

Toca Boca received an award for “Best Game App – 6 and Up” when the first annual iKids Awards event was held at the Kidscreen SuiKids Awardsmmit in New York on February 4. The awards, designed to celebrate the best digital offerings for preschoolers and kids ages six and up, precede the annual Kidscreen Awards. The 2013 iKids winners were selected unanimously by a panel of five industry judges per category.

• • 2013-02-11 2013 iKids Awards

TOCA BOCA DIGITAL TOY APPS SURPASS 27 MILLION DOWNLOADS;

COMPANY HONORED AS MOST PIONEERING TEAM IN CHILDREN’S TECHNOLOGY

Innovative, Original IPs Built Around Open-Ended Play Score Big Among Kids, Parents and Pundits

SAN FRANCISCO/STOCKHOLM, January 14, 2013 – Toca Boca (www.tocaboca.com), the world’s leading digital toy developer, today announced that its digital toy apps have surpassed 27 million downloads worldwide in just 21 months.  Since its first release in March 2011, the company has launched 17 apps for iOS and Kindle Fire platforms.  At any given time throughout fall/winter 2012, one or more Toca Boca digital toys were ranked in the Top 10 within the Education category.  Additionally, Toca Hair Salon was a Top 10 Entertainment app for nearly the entire year.  Toca Hair Salon 2, which just launched last month, now joins the top rankings as well.

In addition to fan validation, industry pundits have heralded Toca Boca as a breakaway success. Last week, Toca Boca was honored with a prestigious 2013 Kids at Play Interactive (KAPi) Award, being named the most pioneering team in children’s technology. The KAPi Awards are collaboratively produced by Living in Digital Times and Children’s Technology Review and judged by a panel of 13 journalists and experts in children’s interactive media.

“Winning the KAPi Award for the most pioneering team in the industry is an amazing honor and underscores that Toca Boca is truly changing the role of play on digital platforms in a way that is meaningful to kids and their parents,” said Toca Boca Founder and CEO Björn Jeffery.  “Our uniquely whimsical characters and play environments encourage exploration, imagination and creativity and the team looks forward to further raising the bar across these areas in 2013.”

Other recent awards and accolades bestowed on Toca Boca include:

  • The App Store Editors’ Choice, December 2012: Toca Hair Salon 2
  • Babble The Top 50 Apps for Kids 2012: Toca Kitchen
  • MacWorld 2012 App Gems Awards: Toca Train
  • Mom’s Choice Awards, Gold: Toca Tailor and Toca Band
  • National Parenting Publications Award (NAPPA) 2012, Gold : Toca Train
  • The Telegraph iOS Apps of the Year 2012: Toca Tailor
  • The Lovie Awards 2012, Bronze: Toca Kitchen

For more information about Toca Boca and its digital toy apps, visit www.tocaboca.com.

• 2013-01-14

Collaboratively organized and produced by Living in Digital Times and Children’s Technology Review, the annual KAPi Kids at Play Awards honor the best of the best in children’s technology. Therefore, we are proud and happy to announce that this year, Toca Boca won the KAPi “Pioneering Team” award. Since Toca Boca and our achievements are all about team spirit and working together, we are particularly happy that the whole team was awarded.

• 2013-01-08 2013 KAPi Awards

The US-based Mom’s Choice Awards® (MCA) evaluates products and services created for children and families, and “is globally recognized for establishing the benchmark of excellence in family-friendly media, products and services”. We’re very proud to have been awarded TWO gold medals – for Toca Band and Toca Tailor, both in the Apps & Software category!

• 2012-12-18 Mom's Choice Awards 2012

The iMums have given Toca Hair Salon 2 a great five-star review, summing things up with the following words: “Another great open ended imaginative play app from Toca Boca. It is like Toca Hair Salon on steroids – even bigger and better than the original. Even if you already have the original Toca Hair Salon you’ll still want to get this for all the fun new options.”

• 2012-12-13 The iMums

The crew at coolmomtech.com describe our free app Toca Tailor Fairy Tales as “Grimms paper dolls meets Project Runway. Sort of” and have given it a great review. “Be sure you have a full battery charge because kids won’t want to put this down”. Thanks!

• 2012-11-29 coolmomtech.com

Marc Saltzman of USA Today’s Tech section has tried out Toca Tailor and describes it as “a very clever and fun digital toy that offers many hours of playtime for young kids”, recommending it to parents looking to keep their kids busy while travelling during the holiday season. Thanks for the warm words!

 

• 2012-11-19 USA Today

Daniel Wieselberg at PappasAppar, one of Sweden’s most popular (and most discerning) reviewers of children’s apps, states that Toca Tailor is “perhaps Toca Boca’s best app to date” and has blessed us with a hard-to-get 5/5 rating. Thanks!

• 2012-10-31 PappasAppar

GeeksWithJuniors’ Eric Pramono reviewed Toca Tailor and called it “a great tool for experimentation”. His very comprehensive review highlights the app’s creative aspects and he ends by recommending Toca Tailor to parents “who want to provide an inspiring environment for their juniors to cultivate their creativity”. Thanks!

• 2012-10-31 GeeksWithJuniors

GeekMom at Wired.com gave Toca Tailor a great review. She and her kids are already big Toca Boca fans, and she writes:“Like all Toca Boca apps, the art is bright and colorful, and there are more than enough patterns, designs, and options to keep your child’s creative juices flowing for a long time. …[Toca Boca's] offerings continue to foster fun and creativity and have true staying power for the kiddos, which is no easy feat.”

• 2012-10-31 Wired.com