According to Helena Grauberg, one of the exhibition's curators, toys that are mass-produced by global corporations are filling the shelves of stores all around the world. "Often, toys and games made by small Estonian manufacturers do not catch people's eyes in the store, which is why the aim of the exhibition is to introduce some of the toy companies that are in Estonia," explained Grauberg.

The Estonian toy industry began more than a hundred years ago, when Oskar Luik opened a small toy workshop in Tartu in 1916.

In the following decades, toys were mostly made in small workshops and mainly from wood and paper. It was not until the 1960s, when plastic was introduced and large industrial enterprises established. The he best-known toy manufacturers at that time being Norma, Salvo, Polymere and the Tartu Plastic Products Testing Factory.

In the 1990s, when Estonia regained its independence, the newly-privatized industries were not able to make a successful enough transition to the Western market. Large-scale toy production ceased in Estonian and Estonian toy manufacturing became the domain of small companies once again.

The exhibition "Estonia Plays" is a satellite exhibition of the Tartu Toy Museum's annual exhibition "Europe Plays" and is part of the program for Tartu 2024 European Capital of Culture.

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