How did Uncle Goose blocks get featured in Vanity Fair?

The Uncle Goose State of Sound blocks were featured in the 2019/2020 Vanity Fair Gift Guide. Yes, we were in the issue with Ru Paul on the cover. And there’s a photo of Miley Cyrus singing next to our blocks.

Groovy. But how did we get that feature?

We have no idea. Last August, a woman ran up to the Uncle Goose booth at the New York Now trade show at Javits Center in Manhattan. She said she was working with Vanity Fair and that she needed us to send her our State of Sound Blocks. She also seemed to be in a tremendous hurry.

About 4 months later, we saw the State of Sound blocks in the Vanity Fair gift guide. That’s about all we know.

Every so often, your Uncle Goose seems to have some kind of inadvertent brush with a pop culture phenomenon. In 2014, Jimmy Fallon was using three of our blocks as a percussion instrument as Idina Menzel sang the theme song from Frozen. The Roots played backup on school instruments.

Jimmy Fallon later tweeted that he borrowed the L, I, and G blocks from his daughter. He also tweeted out a link where people could buy the blocks.

Cool. But this was not a product placement on our part. We didn’t seek this out. It just happened.

In the TV show Mad Men, you can spot Don Draper’s son Gene playing with Uncle Goose ABC blocks. Our timeless toys fit the shows 1960’s mid-century design sensibility, so we made them available the hit TV show.

And five years ago this month, Google used images of our blocks to announce the formation of the holding company Alphabet. You can still see Google's Alphabet announcement — along with our blocks — online at abc.xyz.

We feel flattered when we see Uncle Goose blocks featured next to famous faces or in exalted locales. Recognition from famous people may have helped to bring you to our toys.

But we also know there's more than one way to get to hang around with the stars! This month, we’ll be introducing a new block set featuring 32 constellations.

This star-struck block set contains all 12 zodiac constellations, along with 20 more constellations from both the Southern and Northern hemispheres. Enjoy the handsome basswood storage tray featuring a star map printed inside. 

Life is more than looking good and being seen in all the right places. For us, life is all about fun, creativity, learning, growing, and thoughtfulness.

Uncle Goose continues to exist because people love what we do. While it’s fun to be featured alongside the famous, it’s more fulfilling for us to play a featured role in a child’s growth and development.

Thanks for your continued support!