Arash Toys

Gift Your Child a Smile
به فرزند خود لبخندی هدیه دهید

Throughout history, every generation of children, in every civilisation, has played with toys. Toys may have changed through the ages as technology has grown apace but the purpose of toys has remained unchanged: giving children a way of learning about the world around them, exploring relationships and practicing skills they will need as adults.

Parents may now buy highly sophisticated electronic toys for their children but the earliest toys were made from natural materials such as rocks, sticks and clay. Two thousand figures have been unearthed at Catalhoyuk in Turkey – the world’s oldest known town – carved from stone and made of clay about 9000 years ago! These could have been the world’s first educational toys.

Some toys have been constant throughout history. Children in ancient Egypt played with similar toys to young children around the world today: toy soldiers, dolls, wooden animals, balls, marbles and spinning tops.

Dolls have always been and remain a highly popular toy. In 2004, archaeologists discovered a 4, 000 year old stone doll with straw hair (even buried with miniature terracotta kitchenware) in the ruins of a village on the Italian island of Pantelleria. And what about the toy car? Although the car is a modern invention, even a stone “car” with two axles and four wheels dating from about 7, 500 years ago was found in Mardin in Turkey!

The first ever toy shop was founded in London in 1760 – the world-famous “Hamleys”. Naser al-Din Shah Qajar brought toys to Iran around 1850, collected on his foreign travels.

So how did Arash (our chief executive) end up in the toy shop business? Well, the seed of the business was planted by Arash’s grandparents who identified the value in toys for children and were keen to set up a toy shop in 1970s when there were no proper toy shops to cater for Iran’s children. Unfortunately their well-laid plans came to nothing as Iran went to war in 1980 and the country and its people suffered much hardship.

Arash’s family did not give up on their dream, however, and with the war over, Arash’s father (Mehrab Mohammadvali) continued with his parents’ vision and opened the first toy shop in Tajrish, Tehran in 1994 and then moved and opened two more premium shops (one for boys and one for girls) in Saadat Abad, Tehran in 2001.

Just as his grandparents and parents before him, Arash has got an enormous passion for toys and he loves seeing the sheer joy and excitement on the faces of children when they go into the magical wonderland of one of his toy shops. But just as toys have developed and changed over the ages, so has business and technology and now Arash feels it is the right time to launch the online platform for his toy shop business in January 2017. It is Arash’s ambition to run the largest and best online kids shop in Iran, to share his passion for toys and kids products with many more children throughout the country. Toys are treasures of childhood and all children should be able to enjoy their magic!