Play Staples puts a unique Indian twist to toy cars. They use their design to convey the importance of memory, sustainability and design literacy, and to preserve cultural textures such as routes, vehicles, and rituals that shape us, while proving that responsible materials and good form can be mainstream rather than niche. The story behind Play Staples begins with founder Yash Vadher’s lifelong fascination with toys, not just as objects to play with but as carriers of stories, scale, and culture. He was introduced to the world of miniatures while pursuing architecture, and the idea of ‘reducing until only the essential remained’. Moreover, when he realised that eighty-percent of Hot Wheels buyers were adults, he began to think of toys outside the constraits of age. This discipline shaped his eye, and went on to lay the foundation for his venture into creating toys that are ‘evocative, well-made objects, that live on a desk as easily as they do on a playmat.’
We’re in conversation with him about the importance of toys in shaping our lives, sustainable practices, and the idea of vehicles as universal toys.
Design Process
The process often begins with memory. A form, a vehicle, a fleeting image from my childhood becomes a sketch. That sketch is refined into an archetype - stripped down to its essence so that it feels universal, instantly recognizable without being a replica. From there, we prototype the wooden body, experimenting with proportions until it “clicks” visually and emotionally. We use steam beech wood, a dense and fine-grained timber. Interestingly, this choice came not from luxury but from constraint. Without resources to invest in metal or plastic tooling, we turned to wood. Today, we source offcuts from the furniture industry, giving them a second life. Each body is handcrafted, painted with food-grade, water-based paints, we do not coat our toys with PU (Polyurethane) so dents, chips, and scuffs become part of the story of play and says that it has fulfilled its purpose of a toy.
The toy is completed with a custom metal-alloy chassis and food-grade silicone wheels, designed to make it roll as smoothly as any metal or a plastic diecast car. The wooden body is fastened to this chassis, creating what I like to think of as a 'wooden-diecast' hybrid.
Ensuring Sustainability
Sustainability for me is about honesty and scale. We use steam beech wood offcuts from the furniture industry - reclaimed material that would otherwise go to waste. Everything is made locally in Mumbai, which reduces carbon footprint while also creating livelihoods among small craftsmen whom I have trained to make toys. We produce in small batches, intentionally resisting mass production, because that ensures minimum wastage and maximum care. Even our decision not to use plastic or polyurethane coating was conscious—our toys age with use, showing their journey in every mark.
Meaning Making through Names
The names came at the final stage of design, when the archetypes were ready. Each vehicle was rooted in a memory - my father’s Maruti 800, trucks I used to count on the highway journey, the old impala parked in my building garage since forever, the car that took us on our trip to the Corbett national park. These weren’t replicas, but distilled archetypes designed to spark recognition. When it came to naming, we leaned into atmosphere rather than literal description. We build a palette from skies, soil, foliage, signage; a silhouette from the dominant vehicle type; and small cues—number plates, stripes, roof carriers, roadside graphics - woven into the unboxing. Our box opens flat on the long face, revealing printed roads and place specific graphics (no plastic window), and even connects with 'S-locks' into a paper track.
The packaging is part of the product and the storytelling. The names followed - Malabar Trails, Little Andaman, Ladakh Nights. They carry a sense of place, memory, and longing, inviting the owner to connect their own story to the toy.
Every vehicle we design carries an archetype and a story in its name. For children, these become gentle starting points: a spark that helps them imagine their own worlds and build stories beyond the toy itself. For adults, the same names act differently - they stir up a memory, a place, or a time they thought they’d left behind.
(For children: agency and curiosity - the joy of building a city from the floor up. For adults: that quiet jolt of recognition—Marine Drive rain on the window, the hum of NH-48 at night, a conductor’s whistle. We want our pieces to sit on a shelf and still feel alive, like a postcard you can push.)
The purpose, then, is layered. On one hand, we’re encouraging open-ended play for children - giving them tools, not scripts. On the other, we’re inviting adults to reconnect with nostalgia and rediscover the joy of objects that feel personal, familiar, and deeply human. Play Staples exists in that overlap: where design meets memory, and where toys become more than toys.
A Special Moment
The Retro Rohtak (Maruti 800) will always be special. It was our family car for years until it had to be scrapped. That little car was an icon, not just for us, but for an entire generation of Indians. Designing it as a toy was my way of preserving it - distilled, minimal, yet instantly recognizable. Even details like the cassette deck in that car became emotional triggers. For me, this toy marked the beginning of Play Staples. It taught me that toys could be both nostalgic and contemporary - that they could carry memory while creating new play.
Toy Landscape in India
The toy market in India is rapidly growing, but much of it is focused on educational or STE(A)M-driven play. There’s very little that is design-led, heirloom-worthy, or emotionally resonant. Globally, toys are a huge industry, with entire categories dedicated to collectible and design-driven objects. In India, that space is still limited. Play Staples wants to bridge that gap by making toys that are not just functional but meaningful—objects you want to keep, gift, and pass on. Our focus is on design, memory, and craftsmanship - qualities that speak across age groups, from children to adults.
Play Staples is about memory, sustainability and design literacy. We use play to preserve cultural textures—routes, vehicles, and rituals that shaped us—while proving that responsible materials and good form can be mainstream, not niche. If our objects nudge families to talk about a road trip, a city, a bus route, or simply to slow down and notice detail - that’s the real purpose.
Intention and Impact
The vehicle is a universal toy. You don’t need to explain how to play with a car - children and adults alike intuitively understand it. By reimagining vehicles, we are working with a familiar staple of play, but one that carries cultural and emotional weight.
Vehicles are moving time capsules. A bus route, a taxi livery, a highway tempo—each holds the rhythms of a place. In India, so many of our memories happen in transit. A small, well-made vehicle can be both toy and keepsake: a reminder of where we’ve been and a prompt to keep wandering. Through toys, I want to capture that nostalgia and make it tangible again. My hope is that someone who grew up with a Kaali Peeli taxi, or who took a certain bus to school, can hold a miniature and feel that world return to them - even if just for a moment.
The Future
We’re expanding the system, not just the catalogue. Alongside Series 01 (Indian Terrain Vehicles), our Special Edition Taxis of the World begins with the Bombay Kaali-Peeli. It’s a tribute to a city and an era, layered with imagination. Alongside, we are developing landscape blocks inspired by India, like a PCO booth, etc and a lower-cost paper car line that snaps onto our magnetic chassis—extending play without adding plastic. The box-as-track will keep evolving with more modular connectors. We are also working on a more accessible DIY system of toy vehicles, so more people can engage with the process of making.
Play Staples, as the name suggests, is about reimagining classics—taking timeless toys and reinventing them with a contemporary eye. The future is about carrying that philosophy forward—small-batch, material-honest, and place-led; designing objects people keep, repair and pass along.
Words Neeraja Srinivasan
Date 3-09-2025