Faber-Castell, 3 Bros and a Card Store win

Faber-Castell won the MMR Buyers Choice Award for its Creativity for Kids Grow N’ Glow terrarium during ECRM’s recent Toy & Learning Program. 3 Bros and a Card Store was a finalist for its MLB Baseball Wax Pack.

The products were selected from dozens of entries submitted by participating suppliers. Buyers were able to evaluate each entry and cast their votes based on product packaging and innovation via the MMR-branded Buyers Choice Awards section of the ECRM Connect platform.

“Toy suppliers are increasingly incorporating learning components into their products,” said Tony Giovanini, SVP of General Merchandise for ECRM. “The two winning brands combine collecting, crafting and DIY into the experience to add fun and excitement to the learning process. Congratulations to both winners.”

Faber-Castell USA is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio and is part of the global network of Faber-Castell companies. The company was founded 260 years ago as a pencil manufacturer and today is known for its professional art supplies, writing instruments, and accessories. Its children’s’ brands include Faber-Castell Premium Children’s Art Products (GreatArtStartsHere.com) and Creativity for Kids (CreativityforKids.com). Creativity for Kids products are designed to provide children with experiences that stimulate and encourage their natural creativity.

The Grow N’ Glow Terrarium is a kid-friendly activity kit and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, ART, Math) experience that aims to teach botany, eco-systems, and the life cycle of plants by showing kids how seeds, soil, sun, and water blossom into green plants. The chia and wheat grass seeds were purposely included because they take only a few days to grow. The terrarium kit includes a plastic mason-style jar, decorative night sky lid, potting mix, organic chia and wheat grass seeds, glow in the dark forest figurines, glowing sand, river stones, and a plant mister.

3 Bros and A Card Store was founded by three brothers who shared a childhood hobby of collecting sports cards. They used this hobby as an opportunity to teach first-time collectors about what is now the company motto: Collecting-Sharing-Learning. The brand is geared toward starting collectors and has combined the hobby of collecting cards with education.

The (MLB) Baseball Wax Pack product was developed specifically for first-time collectors. Each 10-card foil pack is loaded with modern and vintage baseball players from different years, brands, and teams. Designed to be displayed as a quick impulse purchase in any brick-and-mortar store, these packs are for starter collectors to get a sense of what collecting cards is all about.