tonies Tonieplay: kids steer audio games with a controller, no screen — Red Dot BoB 2026

tonies created the category of screen-free audio play for children with the original Toniebox in 2016, but listening alone is passive. Watching families use it, the product team saw children tilting, turning, pressing and experimenting with the box in ways the design had never intended — behaviour the company read as a demand for hands-on interaction, not a bug.

Tonieplay turns that observation into product. Exclusive to Toniebox 2, it adds a board-game layer: printed game discs are placed on the box, and a rounded controller lets children tap, tilt and answer as audio prompts guide them through quizzes, adventures and team challenges; a dynamic LED light ring on the box gives visual feedback. Red Dot's jury noted that interaction never depends on a complex interface — only simple physical actions — and that decisions children make actively steer the course of the story.

The launch was timed with the new hardware: Toniebox 2 went on sale on 15 September 2025 in DACH and October in the US, with twelve Tonieplay titles from PAW Patrol, Gabby's Dollhouse, Winnie the Pooh, Disney classics and tonies' own Lalalinos. The system runs on a proprietary game engine connecting NFC, save games and cloud services, and extends the platform's age range from 3–7 to 1–9+.

The bet paid off quickly. Red Dot awarded Tonieplay Best of the Best in its 2026 Product Design competition, The Independent's multi-month family review reported that children grasped the games instantly, and within days of launch tonies announced it had passed 10 million Tonieboxes sold worldwide — the 10 millionth unit sold was a Toniebox 2 — with 125 million Tonies figurines sold.