By now, many of you already know our Little Mail Carriers, a set of Playmobil toys that go around the world, visiting places and going on adventures… but did you know that this “toy hosting” activity is actually a popular hobby, shared by thousands of people worldwide?
Gwennie, Bernie, Nana, Luc Zeke, Captain Caramel and Bzzz attending a Postcrossing meetup and Lupus-Tigger visiting the TARDIS at Caernarfon Castle.
The intrepid travelers (often plastic or plush toys) are called “toy voyagers”, and they’re all registered on ToyVoyagers.com. Many of them are forgotten or rescued toys, getting a second chance to see the world… isn’t that nice? On the website, each toy has its own profile and travel log, which documents its globetrotting adventures. It’s fascinating to see the places they go to!
The website’s tagline is “little things on big adventures” and accordingly, each host takes care of the little ones on their trips, showing them around their towns and bringing them on adventures. They enjoy discovering the local festivals and traditions, tasting food specialities, seeing the sights… everything goes! Some of them even have special life missions, or goals that they’d like to achieve, such as visiting a chocolate factory or attending a Postcrossing meetup!
Dotdog inspects the pumpking patch.
ToyVoyagers gives everyone a fun opportunity to learn more about their own town. It’s the perfect excuse to visit the more touristy places you’ve been meaning to check out for so long… but never got around to! It’s also a very nice way to showcase your own region to the world, and learn about other countries and cultures as well.
Though the website isn’t very actively maintained these days (and many links don’t work), it’s still going strong, and everyday many toys start their voyages. Would you like to host or send a little traveler out to the world? Sign up at ToyVoyagers.com and bon voyage! :)
Gwennie visiting a museum with an RNLI lifeboats exhibit and MuhKuh making muffins.
A big thanks to FelipeDuarte, who first suggested this article, and to to manme and FairyFoot, two experienced ToyVoyagers.com hosts who kindly replied to all our questions and provided us with photos to illustrate this post! :)
PS – The ToyVoyager’s website is currently unavailable while going through some changes. For more details, please check this forum thread or their Facebook page.
25 comments so far
thx for distribute this site more - many of us are members in www.toyvoyagers.com since years and have different blogs there for our different TVs!! I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
only one of mine I'll like to show you:
http://www.toyvoyagers.com/index.php?a=topic&t=1164491&view=std&min=210&num=15
also a playmo-couple, postcrossing-related, good-aunt Egni found their names!! and started in march 2010...
I'm following a group of Filipino bloggers who live in different country and do this type of activity,it is actually where I found the Postcrossing link.Here is their blog,http://missigorota.blogspot.com/.
I found in the Postcrossing Forum a thread over 'travelling toys' and hosted Grace! It was a fantastic experience! https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/619x334q90/r/12/3ux5.jpg
What a wonderful idea!!!
Very tempting as I have a house of soft toys now thanks to my beautiful son!!!
i have met many toyvoyagers hosted my manme and riutsi in Jyväskylä postcrossing meetups. funny creatures with stories.
Rick The Traveller from Poland - http://rick-the-traveller.blogspot.com/
I hosted Henrik and it was great. :) Got him in Brussels from Dandelion and gave him to Ipuenktchen in Iran. :)
I have my ToyVoyager too! It's nice!
We even have a permanent thread in the German forum for "our" traveltoys ... ;)
I hosted dotdog and lupus-tigger years ago, it's funny to see them here again.
Rick has attended a meet-up in Helsinki last summer :)
http://rick-the-traveller.blogspot.com/2013/08/postcrossing-gathering-in-helsinki.html
I take far too many photos of soft toys!
Fun idea! Dare I start another hobby??!!
Well, I just bought myself a toyvoyager. You inspired me. Can't wait to start. Thank you!!!
I am an active member of toyvoyagers.com since almost 2 years. I love it.
And that's where I heard about postcrossing. :-)
I was a toyvoyager host and owner of traveling toys a couple of years ago and had a lot of fun!!! really miss those days!!! :) but problems with the computer back then and less free time made me give up. Maybe one of these days I'll be back!!! ;)
I knew this article was coming (thanks to FairyFoot!) and it's cool to get to read it. :)
The blog post points out that ToyVoyagers.com website appears inactive but is going strong. Much of the activity is unseen, many members communicate by PM and emails and have made very good friends there. There is also a great deal of humor and running jokes going on in the Travelogs.
once my toy voyager went to Panama, and the host sent me the postcard with it: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-WpBgwH2tI1Y/TGFNn7Z1KxI/AAAAAAAABtQ/R8Kj-xOVtb0/s512/panama.JPG
I'm on toyvoyagers too!! But know I'm a bit disappeared because I'm busy, but it's so fun to take photos of the toys while you are walking and visiting places in the city or doing cakes or something else at home :)
If you wonder, what happened to the toyvoyagers website, please get in contact with me. I'm fam-united on toyvoyages and I'm the chief-moderator there.
Who knows what happened to the toyvoyages?
I know, what happened and will write a private message to you. You find an email-address on the website now, where you can get in contact with me.
News of the day: Neil and a friend of him are re-writing the website. They started with the travelogs, but of course they still have to do more work until they can go online with it.
Please keep on showing some of your photos here on postcrossing or on facebook. Tell us your nickname and the tv's name and owner's nickname, too. This will help to stay in contact.
And please spread the word and tell other members to come here or at least to get in contact with me via toyvoyagers.help(at)web.de.
Kind regards, Petra
↑ Back to top ↑