WESTPORT, Conn. (October 14, 2026) –Jasey’s Toy Chest, the family-owned and run toy company dedicated to bettering childhood mental health and development, is touched to have earned 11 highly coveted national awards since they made their industry debut mere months ago. This outpouring of recognition is heartening for Brian and Lauren Bernstein, the couple behind Jasey’s Toy Chest. The company is named and run in honor of their late son Jason (“Jasey”) Bernstein and committed to supporting youth mental health through thoughtful toy development and meaningful connection through play.
This decorated first year in the industry is an encouraging and natural reflection of the Bernsteins’ passion and their commitment to creating high-quality, developmental wooden toys that help children build important early skills through screen-free play. Jasey’s Toy Chest’s mission is a deeply personal one, and it is their authenticity that resonates with so many authoritative voices in the toy space. Brian brings over 21 years of toy industry leadership from Melissa & Doug, where he helped his brother Doug and sister-in-law Melissa grow the company from a small family startup into a global brand and forged strategic partnerships with retailers across virtually every channel. Founding Jasey’s Toy Chest this year with his wife Lauren, turning their pain into purpose, has been deeply meaningful..
Jasey’s Toy Chest is built around a youth mental health mission, and Brian and Lauren backed it from the start, giving to their two nonprofit partners before they shipped a single toy. The company is a proud Corporate Collective partner of The Kids Mental Health Foundation, a group of national brands working to close the gap between parents who want mental health resources and those who know the daily habits that support a child’s well-being. Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which created the Foundation, welcomed Jasey’s Toy Chest to the Circle of Care level of its Annual Giving Society earlier this year. Jasey’s Toy Chest also partners with The Jed Foundation, which protects the emotional health of teens and young adults.
Jasey’s offers free, easy-to-use play tips and parenting suggestions, developed with the experts at The Kids Mental Health Foundation, whose work is grounded in the clinical expertise of Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
The latest of their 2026 winning streak comes from the highly discerning Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, which has recognized six of Jasey’s Toy Chest’s key offerings, all of which won the Oppenheim Gold Seal Award – one of their highest honors. “We are delighted with the quality of the new Jasey’s Toy Chest collection of wooden toys. They are a much needed and welcome addition to toyland,” remarked Stephanie Oppenheim, Co-founder of the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio.
The winners included Jasey’s Wooden Vehicles Puzzle & Play Pieces and Wooden Farm Puzzle & Play Pieces ($14.99 each | Ages 12 months +) which Oppenheim testers loved for their play versatility. “Our testers LOVE this puzzle that comes with eight different wooden vehicles that are taller than the puzzle board, making them easier to grasp. What’s especially fun is that the vehicles can be used for dramatic play on their own or used in block play.”
Oppenheim testers were equally eager to praise Jasey’s motor-skill focused toy puzzles like their Wooden Farm Easy-Grasp Peg Puzzle ($17.99 | Ages 18 months +). “The illustrations are lovely and have a storybook quality. The wooden knobs make these easier for younger toddlers to grasp, making this the perfect first puzzle. Your toddler will enjoy picking up the pieces and will eventually have the fine motor skills to place them back. You can talk about animal names and the sounds they make as you explore the puzzle together.”
Oppenheim Toy Portfolio testers were also quite taken with Jasey’s Toy Chest’s pretend play sets, such as their Wooden Slice & Play Fruit Crate and Wooden Press & Pop Toaster Set ($19.99 each | Ages 3+). Healthy motor skill development and confidence-building is key to Jasey’s toy design, and Oppenheim testers loved the ingenuity of their imaginative play sets.
Of the Fruit Crate Oppenheim wrote, “Our preschool testers loved the activity here of using the included wooden knife to open up the fruit pieces. Our parent testers noted that the set was well-crafted. The crate and the fruit were all smooth. A fun prop for pretend play. Our testers added this to their picnic setting.”
And the toaster won because “preschoolers love pretend cooking, especially when the props look like the real thing. This new Toaster set is adorable. There is a dial on the toaster as well as a pop-up mechanism that delighted our testers.”
Jasey’s Wooden Off to the Rescue Vehicle Carrier ($24.99 | Ages 3+) was also a big hit with Oppenheim’s young play-testers, who couldn’t get enough of the functioning vehicle carrier bed and front cab connection. “If you’re looking for a beautifully crafted wooden vehicle toy, look no further. Our preschoolers adored this wooden vehicle carrier that has two levels, and comes with four rescue vehicles: an ambulance, a fire truck, a police car and rescue helicopter. To unload the top vehicles the carrier unfolds. The front cab of the truck also disconnects.”
Even consumer media giants like Good Housekeeping and Parents recognized Jasey’s Toy Chest’s thoughtful designs. Good Housekeeping named Jasey’s On-the-Go Wooden Workbench ($89.99 | Ages 12 months +) a winner in their 2026 Toy Awards within the Baby & Toddler category. One parent of a two-year-old play tester remarked, “We played ‘repair’ for dozens of minutes at a time. She’s even gotten some skill with the wrench. It’s become a fixture of our living room.”
The company was also honored in October by Parents, which selected four of Jasey’s Toy Chest’s offerings as winners of their 2026 Best Toys Awards. The winners span the brand’s toddler and preschool range: the Wooden Big City Train Adventure Set & Table ($129.99 | Ages 3+), the Wooden Magnetic Mix & Match People ($19.99 | Ages 2+), plus the Wooden Slice & Play Fruit Crate, and Wooden Farm Easy-Grasp Peg Puzzle which were both also recognized by the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio!
The Big City Train Adventure Set & Table is a 46-piece wooden railway that creates an entire world on its own play table, from city skyline to seaside harbor to farm country, with a bright red bridge arching over the top. Kids roll three magnetic wooden train cars around the loop and invent their own adventures, side by side. Parents loved the attention to detail in the set, such as its perfectly calibrated height. The slightly elevated playset accommodates kneeling kiddos and sitting grown-ups alike. “Low to the ground, this set-up is the perfect height for sitting and working with fellow engineers. It made it really easy for the kids to kneel and walk around without having the train table directly on the floor,” the review said.
Another Parents tester observed how her three-year-old son was enamored by Jasey’s Magnetic Mix and Match People, commenting that he loved, “…mixing up the top and bottom pieces into fun combinations, then matching them back together” as well as “…naming the different professions (firefighter, police officer, chef, etc.) and the colors each of them were wearing.” The 6-piece set includes five wooden characters in total (a firefighter, chef, astronaut, doctor, and police officer) plus a storage bag for easy cleanup.
Parents were impressed by the pretend and imaginative play potential for Jasey’s Toy Chest offerings. One parent of a 21-month-old tester commented on the Wooden Farm Easy-Grasp Peg Puzzle, observing that it encouraged her daughter to, “…be imaginative as she played. She also interacted with the toy by imitating each animal’s sound.”
The Wooden Slice & Play Fruit Crate provided ripe opportunities for kiddos to learn shape recognition, color sorting, counting, and coordination skills through pretend play, which one parent tester of a four and six-year-old noted in her review. “My kids had fun pretending to cut the fruit and serving it to me in the wooden crate like we were at a restaurant, and they were the chefs.”
Jasey’s Toy Chest toys are available in more than 1,000 stores across all 50 states, including specialty toy shops, children’s boutiques, gift and home stores, school-supply retailers, and hospital gift shops, as well as Barnes & Noble nationwide and online. To see the full collection and the family’s story, visit https://www.jaseystoychest.com/.
About Jasey’s Toy Chest
At Jasey’s Toy Chest, we believe in the power of magical moments, the kind that grow through open-ended play, joyful learning, and heartfelt connection. This brand was created in loving memory of our son Jason (“Jasey”), who filled our home with creativity, adventure, and joy. His toy chest was a daily treasure hunt of blocks, puzzles, instruments, costumes, and dinosaurs, worlds of his own making. Our toys are a tribute to those memories, and to supporting youth mental health, a cause deeply personal to our family. Drawing on decades of toy industry experience, we make screen-free toys designed to build skills, nurture confidence, and create lasting memories.