Method: how we choose, quote and check

What we publish

A maker is listed only when its own website says it makes toys in the United States. Each card and page states what the maker says, which products the statement covers, and what kind of place it names (a factory, a workshop, a headquarters, or just a state). We quote short passages where the wording matters and summarize the rest, always with a numbered link to the source.

Sources we use, and sources we don't

Allowed: the makers' own websites, ftc.gov, ecfr.gov and cpsc.gov. Not allowed: retailers, review or listicle sites, Wikipedia and social media. Retail listings can mix in imports and other brands, so they never support an origin claim here. A maker's reply by email can point us to a public page we can quote. Replies are never evidence for a claim and are not published.

One example of the rule in practice: ecfr.gov answered our first request with a bot check, so we dropped it rather than working around it, and quote the Labeling Rule from the FTC's own pages instead.

How quotes are checked

A script re-fetches every source page and confirms each quote is still there, word for word (it ignores only case, spacing and quote-mark style). It also confirms that phrases we say are missing from a page are still missing. It identifies itself with this user agent:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MadeInUSToysSourceCheck/1.0; +https://madeinustoys.com/method/)

It reads robots.txt first and fetches nothing robots.txt doesn't allow, waits at least three seconds between requests to the same site, and treats a refusal (401, 403 or 429) as final: no retries, no other user agent, no cached copies. If any page can't be read or any quote can't be found, the check fails, the site isn't rebuilt, and the “last checked” date doesn't move; we keep the last good evidence and fix the source by hand.

Sources last checked: October 21, 2026. Quotes were first retrieved October 21, 2026.

A quote that still loads isn't proof it is current, so each one is stored with the products it covers and where it sits on the page. A company-wide line is never stretched to cover a specific toy.

Years and dates

We print a year only when the maker's quote prints it, and only when the year belongs to the claim itself. A founding year is shown as a founding year; it is never presented as how long a company has made toys in the US unless the quote says that.

What earns a maker page

A maker gets its own page only when its own site lets us answer, with citations: which products or lines it says are made in the US and with what qualifiers; whether each place it names is a factory, a headquarters or something else; what is unresolved; and what that means for a buyer. A build check refuses any maker page that lacks one of these, or that cites fewer than two of the maker's own pages, or that is too short to help. Makers that don't clear the bar stay as cards on the directory.

A worked example

KEVA Planks' home page says its planks are precision-cut in Maine; its FAQ says Bridgewater, Virginia. Both pages say the planks are made in the US. We don't pick one: the card names both places, and the maker page shows both quotes and says the pages don't explain the difference.[1][2]

KEVA Planks maker page

The gift guide

A gift pick needs a maker statement that covers that specific product: usually its own product page. In one case, Bannor Toys, the statement is the FAQ's line that all its wooden toys are made in the US, which we read as covering an all-maple product. Ages are the maker's printed age grading for that product, quoted; promotional wording such as “fun for all ages” isn't treated as an age grade, and if a product page prints none, we say so. We don't print prices. The age filter is a button on the page, not a separate page.[3][4]

Makers removed in this audit

None of these removals is a finding about where a maker's toys are made. Each means we couldn't support the card from the maker's own pages under the rules above; our checker's limits are not conclusions about a maker's production. If you make one of these brands, send us the page that says what you make here.

Other cards were corrected rather than removed: Green Toys (now made in the US and abroad), American Plastic Toys (now Kentucky), Buffalo Games (some production in China), Springbok (one brand made overseas), KEVA Planks (location), Carrom (headquarters), Wiffle (when production moved), Simplay3 (founding year) and Little Tikes (no town named; its statement names only Ohio). We also dropped the age chips from the directory: they were our rough grouping, not the makers' age grading.[5][6][7][8][2][9][10][11][12]

Ads, affiliate links and listing

The site shows Google ads. On the directory and the gift guide, “Find on Amazon” links carry our Amazon Associates tag; as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Maker pages link only to the maker's own site, with no tag. Nobody pays to be listed, and neither ads nor affiliate links affect who is listed or what we write.

Publishers' terms

Each quote is a short excerpt, attributed and linked, used alongside our own explanation. We don't copy product photos or logos. FTC and CPSC pages are U.S. government works.

Corrections and suggestions

If something here differs from a maker's own site, or you make toys in the US and want to be considered, tell us below with a link to the maker's page. We correct against makers' own pages and government sources only.

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