by Barrett Baker
Did you know that a local toy company won a Toy of The Year (TOTY) award last year? It’s the biggest award a company can win in the industry, and Solobo Toys beat out huge company offerings such Spin Master, Moose Toys, Miss Rachel Doll, and even Hello Kitty. Best of all, the winning toy—called Emotional Baggage™—is an educational plush stress ball set designed to help children understand and express their emotions in a playful and supportive manner.
The company was started in 2022 by Courtney Peebles after her son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Courtney and her husband Daniel were looking for a way to provide for their family while still having the flexibility to manage their son’s care. Solobo—which comes from the company’s formal name, Solomon Boss LLC—is a combination of their sons’ middle names. It officially launched in March 2023 with two offerings—Emotions Coin Drop and Learn and Drop. Within three months, Emotions Coin drop was featured in Forbes, and the company took off from there.
“When we started, I designed toys that were simple but had good, strong learning possibilities,” said Courtney. “A lot of toys on the market are overly busy and just didn’t work for my kids. And a lot of the toys that were overly simple didn’t work for them either. Both of my kids are neurodivergent, and I’m late-diagnosed autistic, so I leaned into that and designed toys that I knew would be sensory-friendly and would be calming.”
Some of the company’s most popular toys are social-emotional products that help families talk about emotions with their kids. They have also become popular with specialists such as speech therapists, occupational therapists, and family therapists. Most recently, one of their biggest customer bases is public schools.
“Because of the way that I design our toys, they end up being versatile enough for a group or an individual; for someone who is three years old or someone who is nine years old,” explained Courtney. “The toys can be adapted to whoever is using them.”
In addition to learning toys, social-emotional learning, calming tools, and printables, Solobo offers two books written by Courtney. The first book she wrote, All The Ways Sterling Communicates, is about her son’s journey through speech therapy. The second, Feels, is a simple book about complex emotions.
“I think there are maybe all of three books on the market that are about AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) devices, so All The Ways Sterling Communicates is very popular for families who are either starting an AAC device or are looking for that kind of representation for their child in a book,” said Courtney. “Feels simplifies things down to understanding that emotions are complex and can coexist with each other, but we explain it in a very simple way. It’s also a slide-the-tab book that kids love to look for the little emotions behind the tabs.”
For additional information about their products and purpose, visit solobotoys.com.
Courtney and Daniel Peebles with their children.
