^{Affordable, Educational, High-Quality Toys for All Ages}

Norman Vincent Peale famously said “One person can make a difference. You don’t have to be a big shot. You don't have to have a lot of influence. You just have to have faith in your power to change things.” In TK’s Toy Box story, we follow the evolution of founder/owner Tara Kennedy-Kline from dog groomer and in-home daycare provider to toy industry veteran and educational toy manufacturing leader. Characterized by Tara’s relentless drive and unbreakable spirit, TK’s Toy Box is a story about the magic that happens when we follow our dreams—but hold fast to our values.

The Story Behind TK’s Toy Box

TK’s Toy Box begins with Tara Kennedy-Kline, who never liked to do things “small.”

When her early dream of becoming a veterinarian failed to come to fruition, she took her love of animals to the business world and founded Tara’s Pet Spa and Boutique, which offered comprehensive services including grooming, aromatherapy and doggie daycare. The boutique grew quickly, leaving Tara little time to spend with her two young boys. 

At the height of her business growth, Tara received the crushing news that a loved one had passed away. Her sons were being nannied by her sister—in the very same office Tara worked every day. Time was precious, Tara realized, so she decided that she needed to spend more of it with her sons and sooner rather than later.

She transitioned out of the dog grooming business and started an in-home daycare. The venture served two vehicles: she could bring in a good income and still spend quality time with her kids. During that season, Tara stumbled upon Discovery Toys, a powerhouse maker of toddler toys that enhance developmental skills. She fell in love with its products and business model, which allowed her to host parties and attend events on a flexible schedule. 

Becoming a Discovery Toys rep also opened the door to the toy industry, giving Tara a glimpse into an unexpectedly fast-paced and intense new world—including an introduction to Toys for Tots, which would become integral in Tara’s next steps.

One of Tara’s colleagues was working closely with Toys for Tots and Tara would often accompany her to sponsored drives. But as she got deeper into the program and the events, she became more and more disillusioned with what she saw.

“When I would go to these events, I would see the stuff people were bringing in and it was crap,” Tara remembers with frustration. “People would bring this really junky stuff, sometimes in bins, often second-hand or broken.”

“And then here I am,” she continued, “I’m selling these really great educational toys that are guaranteed forever. But no one is bringing these types of toys. Kids really learn when they play, I see it every day at my little home daycare…Why not give them the most educational, most awesome toys you can?”

Spurred by her conviction that no child, especially those facing difficult early childhoods, should feel “less than,” Tara brokered her first deal between Discovery Toys and Toys for Tots by bargaining her way into a Toys for Tots conference. Betting that the Toys for Tots coordinators would love the products, Tara approached Discovery Toys to see what it would take for them to sell their surplus inventory at a low cost. 

Her intuition paid off. The Toys for Tots coordinators absolutely fell in love with the toys and the Toys for Tots Foundation ended up purchasing every overstocked item in the Discovery Toys warehouse that year.

Tara’s growth within the toy industry took off at lightning speed; she halted her in-home daycare services and began selling and brokering toy deals full-time for major players including Hasbro and Mattel. She worked out of a small warehouse in Boyertown, PA, marshaling orders and shipping toys throughout the nation. 

Still unsatisfied with the low quality of many of the toys she was seeing, Tara went to some of her best contacts in the toy industry and said “Look, what would it take for me to design and brand my own stuff?”

And the rest is history.

Today, Tara oversees TK’s Toy Box from its headquarters in Reading, PA. Part of her growth strategy has included acquiring other educational toy brands; most notably, SNAPO and SNAPO Jr., which are now manufactured right here in Berks County. Focused on toy brokering and fundraising, brand management and quality manufacturing, TK’s Toy Box aims to become a premiere destination for incredible toys at affordable prices for years to come.

Meet Tara Kennedy-Kline
_{Owner & President, TK’s Toy Box}

Tara grew up on a farm in Lancaster County, often waking up early to feed the animals prior to heading off to school. As Tara approached her later elementary school years, her family experienced an unsteady season where they moved a lot—she remembers living in 16 different childhood homes. However, her bubbly spirit and zest for life, however, helped her make new friends in each new town or school district. The family finally settled down in Berks County where Tara attended Wyomissing High School. Her extended family owned a sports promotion company; it was all in a day’s work to wake up early and stay out late, not to mention communicate clearly and lead with confidence. 

As evidenced by her career and professional story, Tara is no stranger to hard work and loves a good challenge. But no matter how busy the days get, Tara clings fast and hard to her purpose, mission and her team. She recognizes the value her businesses provide and refuses to compromise when it comes to quality and care.

Part of Tara’s expansion plan for TK’s Toy Box was to move beyond brokering deals and begin creating herself. She began acquiring brands that met her standards for educational value and quality. Thanks to her early roots in facilitating and brokering toy deals, Tara became intimately acquainted with the toy industry and developed a knack for spotting budding brands with potential. 

So when she met the current owners of SNAPO at a toy fair in New York who were looking for investors after the passing of its inventor, she jumped at the opportunity. The new owners were seeking someone who wanted to take over the entire operation—from manufacturing to shipping to brand management. In February 2019, Tara closed the deal and had all their inventory and equipment shipped to Reading, Pa.

And although SNAPO is a major part of TK’s Toy Box portfolio, she’s building up additional exciting brands as well, including Within me Now and Rascals and Routines. Each brand has some sort of educational focus. Whether it teaches creativity, problem-solving, or social skills and kindness, each brand Tara acquires has to check the boxes of fun and function as well as mission and purpose.

So what makes SNAPO different from other toy block-building brands and products? Traditional blocks have many connective limitations and can only connect top to bottom, enabling connecting on just two of the block’s six sides. SNAPO’s creator often thought of how great it would be if blocks could be improved so that they could also connect on the remaining four sides of the blocks. This would open up the ability to create what you want without the usual limitations of connectivity.

SNAPO is an updated, supercharged, 21st-century version of traditional toy blocks that offers 3D-connective features, ushering in open-ended building and free play. The colorful, innovative building blocks can be combined into endless amounts of shapes and structures, providing outlets for both creativity and tactile satisfaction. 

On a user level, SNAPO is about creation. But on an industry level, it's about bringing manufacturing back to the United States. 

Because it’s cheaper to produce things overseas, plenty of conventional rhetoric says we might as well do it. But SNAPO believes that American manufacturing can produce simplicity and cost-effectiveness, and Tara is here to challenge mindsets that say otherwise.

“By employing American workers, we don’t have to be worried about things stuck on a port, waiting on the ocean, lost at sea or tied up in customs. And we have a lot more control over our safety standards and testing,” says Tara.

The company has its sights set on a worthy pursuit: local retail. Currently, most of its customers receive custom orders that are shipped and fulfilled worldwide. Tara, however, dreams of the day when she sees TK’s Toy Box toys and SNAPO on the shelves at some of Berks County’s biggest retailers. 

Thanks to their recent installation of new, high-production molds that pump out between four and 16 blocks at a time, SNAPO will be well-equipped to meet the demands of local, national, and international retailers.

“I want to see our product on store shelves, right here where we shop, work and play. That would just be amazing and I want to see us going in that direction,” Tara says. 

Tara also will continue to build up the toy brokering side of the business regardless of how big the manufacturing wing gets. The joy on Tara’s face is palpable as she shows off her warehouse, dotted with stacks of boxes that reach almost to the ceiling, ready to be shipped out to children in need. Why? Because, as TK’s Toy Box motto sagely states, “When we give; we receive.”