Hape Toys and the Metropolitan Museum of Art Toy Collaboration is Brilliant!
Hape Toys and the World-Famous New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art collaboration on Fine Art toys is brilliant!
The MET Museum in NYC is located entirely in Central Park. A destination for almost every visitor to NYC, they come from all over the world to se the beautiful art collection housed within. This incredible collaboration, between a toy company and a museum, is a prime example of how the toy industry is helping introduce children to fine art and instilling in them early on a recognition of fine art, as highlighted in our earlier article, Toy Fair 2026 Top Trend Review – Fine Arts, either through entire works or individual elements of fine artworks. And these items are gorgeous, perfect for all kids, and collectibles for the adults!
HAPE introduced this incredible toy line at the recent Toy Fair in NYC, we were thrilled to preview the collection!
Starting them off young are the Hape x The MET Animal Peg Puzzles, which are wooden puzzles with pegged pieces to help little hands place the pieces in the frame. Each of the pegged animals is a recognizable animal from fine artworks. The Majestic Animal Peg Puzzle includes the unicorn from the Unicorn tapestries, a stallion from a 16th century painting, a Babylonian lion, and a 17th century elephant. The Animal Friends Peg Puzzle includes four animals from sculptures: an 18th century porcelain owl, a Japanese rabbit; an Indonesian boar, and the MET’s unofficial mascot, William the Hippopotamus from ancient Egypt. These toys are for ages 12-24 months.
Moving up to toddler age, we have the Puzzle Cubes. As with all puzzle cubes, this can be solved six different ways, revealing six different works of art. These fine artworks are from the 15th through the 20th centuries, and includes examples of medieval tapestry, Japanese ukiyo-e, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, and Abstact Art. It’s a brilliant introduction of different styles of art from the quintessential artists of those styles.
For older children, there is a serious of jigsaw puzzles, suitable for ages 4-7. These puzzles are great! They include the Unicorn again (my favorite), a Van Gogh, a Klimpt, a Monet, and a Hokusai, covering, again, a wide span of time and artistic styles that will appeal to just about any child. These puzzles, like the peg puzzles, come in a wooden frame (making them suitable for décor) and have sturdy cardboard pieces. These are double-sided puzzles, too. One on side is the puzzle image in full color. On the reverse, it’s a coloring page image of the puzzle, so your littles can express their own way of coloring in the images. Crayons are not included, but Hape does make crayons, both easy-grip and standard.
TOP TIP: Are you impressed by my fine arts knowledge? Don’t be. While I do recognize some of these pieces, especially The Unicorn Rests in a Garden, which lives just a couple of blocks away from me in the Cloisters, each box includes a side panel that names all of the fine artwork inspirations. Inspiring the kids to go to museums to see the real thing is brilliant!
Any and all of these Hape x The MET toys would work wonderfully as decorative items, too. And not just for children’s rooms. The Puzzle Cube, in particular, would be a great conversation piece on any coffee or side table. There are kaleidoscopes and plush toys, building blocks and more. I started with an older infant toy, but there are toys that are safe for newborns (Tree of Life Play Mat), and you can find Hape x THE MET fine art toys for children all the up through age 7/8 (the jigsaw puzzles). I can’t wait to see what Hape comes up with next.
And this was GayNYCDad’s (who said that he worked on Summer at the Met Museum in the Egyptian Wing! haul for his grandnieces and grandnephews:
Use my Affiliate link at Amazon to purchase everything available from this Hape Toys and Met Museum collaboration!
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