Hansa Toys offers a unique collection of hand crafted, highly realistic and very cuddly plush toys representing animals from around the world. Hansa is famous for their unique and close-to-nature plush stuffed animal reproductions of the world’s best-loved creatures. These popular stuffed animals are found in children’s playrooms, offices and upscale corporations.

Originally created for the most exclusive European clientele, Hansa began their rise in the toy industry specializing in true-to-life plush stuffed animal replicas for avid nature collectors. With their growing popularity, Hansa Toys began producing a larger array of both wild and domestic stuffed animals and introduced themselves to the North American market place where they continue to grow today.

What makes Hansa Toys plush stuffed animals so different from their competitors is the quality and pinpoint accuracy of specific animal characteristics that are used in each production. Each piece is designed with a unique personality by artists from portraits of animals in their natural habitat. The custom designed "coat" of each character is meticulously hand cut by seasoned craftsmen for a distinctive and personal look. From the tip of a giraffe nose to the bottom of a mouse foot and in every soulful eye, lovingly detail is present in each character to give them the life-like look that is unmistakably Hansa.

Hansa’s ten distinctively realistic collections of plush stuffed animals feature creatures from the plains of Africa, to the rain forests of Asia, the virgin beauty of the Arctic, and sweeping forests, mountains, and plains of North America.

The artist-designed assortment of these high quality plush stuffed animals is handcrafted, in green oriented artisan studios, where the lush tropical surroundings provide a healthy, supportive environment. Hansa’s stuffed animal designs feature attention to quality, care and commitment to detail that combine to give them individual personality. Fabrics are custom-designed, and meticulously hand cut, to match each characters coat. Gentle paws, swishing tails, and especially, soulful eyes and faces, are lovingly detailed to give each piece the lifelike look that is unmistakably Hansa.

More about Hansa Plush Stuffed Animal Quality

Hansa is respected the world over for its finely crafted collection of our planet’s animal kingdom. Each plush stuffed animal is meticulously handcrafted from portraits of real animals in their natural habitat.  Hansa’s goal is to help educate children and adults alike, about the natural lives of these magnificent creatures, and to understand, respect and appreciate the importance of our co-existence with all animals.

Each stuffed animal comes with a “Toys that Teach” tag describing in detail the animal’s habitat, lifestyle, gestation period, care of their young and eating habits.

Significant research goes into reproducing every animal species.  The fabric for the spotted and striped plush stuffed animals is custom designed and exclusively manufactured in small quantities to Hansa’s exacting specifications.  Their “coats” are meticulously hand-cut and trimmed, never stamped out by machine.  Hand sewn leather paws, swishing tails and especially soulful eyes and faces are lovingly detailed to give each stuffed animal its lifelike look.  Each and every animal produced is hand finished by Hansa’s artists to create each with their very own unique personality (just as in real life).  The life-sized plush stuffed animal have exceptionally strong yet lightweight titanium steel frames allowing children of all ages (up to 150 pounds) to actually go for a ride. 

On average, there are 42 separate pieces required to make each plush stuffed animal, which must be combined by a team of truly creative artists to create the distinctly realistic features that characterize Hansa plush stuffed animals. Each stuffed animal is individually hand sewn, to give it a unique "personality", there are more than 860 different fabrics and man-made furs from which the "coat" and "hides" are made, along with over 6000 sets of different eyes, whiskers, claws, noses, and related accessories allocated for creating these wonderful plush stuffed animals. Stuffing emphasizes careful attention to the placement of the highest quality man-made materials.

Hansa Toy International was founded by German-born Hans Axthelm in 1972 while living in Australia. Having spent most of his life in Australia, Hans has dedicated himself to the development and production of "true to life" plush stuffed animal replications of animals in their natural habitat.  His plush stuffed animal designs are as exact as possible in their detail.
 
Since those early years, Hansa Toy International's plush stuffed animal have received many awards for its designs including “Toy of the Year" as well as other internationally recognized awards and toy product nominations.
 
In 1989, Hansa launched its venture into the very large Plush Toy Industry.  The Philippines was chosen as the production hub because of its great source of artistic design talent, and artisans with an "eye for detail."  In addition, the educational standards of the country are high, and most of the workforce is bi-lingual, which facilitates excellent communication. Even with these important factors, the design and execution of high quality plush stuffed animals is only possible with a highly skilled, secure workforce of artisans.  Hansa is proud of the fact that an average of over nine years experience in the industry stands behind each design specialist.

Hansa is strongly opposed to employment of child labor and sub-standard work practices and firmly believes the treatment of their associates is reflected in the care, quality, and commitment to design excellence reflected in the face of each animal.  Hansa is also very proud to pay its workers at hourly rate, and not a per piece rate, providing a secure environment in which the creative minds and hands produce wonderfully lifelike results.

The unique combination of industry experience and European influence executed in the design, manufacturing, and quality control is what makes Hansa's animals exceptional.  Guided by their commitment to excellence, Hansa constantly works to improve their custom designed fabrics, raw materials, and manufacturing techniques.  Their design team continuously implements changes, enhancements, and improvements on a daily basis.  This philosophy and work ethic enables Hansa to produce the most detailed plush animals available today: from the 3-inch mole to the life-size woolly mammoth.