Postcrossing Blog

By now, many of you already know our Little Mail Carriers, a set of Playmobil toys that go around the world, visiting places and going on adventures… but did you know that this “toy hosting” activity is actually a popular hobby, shared by thousands of people worldwide?

Gwennie, Bernie, Nana, Luc Zeke, Captain Caramel and Bzzz attending a Postcrossing meetup and Lupus-Tigger visiting the TARDIS at Caernarfon Castle.

The intrepid travelers (often plastic or plush toys) are called “toy voyagers”, and they’re all registered on ToyVoyagers.com. Many of them are forgotten or rescued toys, getting a second chance to see the world… isn’t that nice? On the website, each toy has its own profile and travel log, which documents its globetrotting adventures. It’s fascinating to see the places they go to!

The website’s tagline is “little things on big adventures” and accordingly, each host takes care of the little ones on their trips, showing them around their towns and bringing them on adventures. They enjoy discovering the local festivals and traditions, tasting food specialities, seeing the sights… everything goes! Some of them even have special life missions, or goals that they’d like to achieve, such as visiting a chocolate factory or attending a Postcrossing meetup!

Dotdog inspects the pumpking patch.

ToyVoyagers gives everyone a fun opportunity to learn more about their own town. It’s the perfect excuse to visit the more touristy places you’ve been meaning to check out for so long… but never got around to! It’s also a very nice way to showcase your own region to the world, and learn about other countries and cultures as well.

Though the website isn’t very actively maintained these days (and many links don’t work), it’s still going strong, and everyday many toys start their voyages. Would you like to host or send a little traveler out to the world? Sign up at ToyVoyagers.com and bon voyage! :)

Gwennie visiting a museum with an RNLI lifeboats exhibit and MuhKuh making muffins.

A big thanks to FelipeDuarte, who first suggested this article, and to to manme and FairyFoot, two experienced ToyVoyagers.com hosts who kindly replied to all our questions and provided us with photos to illustrate this post! :)

PS – The ToyVoyager’s website is currently unavailable while going through some changes. For more details, please check this forum thread or their Facebook page.

Hello friendly postcrossers!

We’re really excited to introduce you to some cute additions to the Postcrossing “family”. Meet postman Paulo and postwoman Ana:

Like us, they love to travel, and so we’ve given them a mission: to go around the world, visiting as many postcrossers as they can! They are going to hop from mailbox to mailbox, see different towns and cities and try to attend Postcrossing meetups now and then. And of course, they’ll share their experiences at the end of each visit, with pictures! :)

They’re especially curious about post boxes, and would like to know what they look like in all the different countries out there. Here they are, perched on a Slovenian pillar box:

They’re already on their way to their next destination, but if you’d like to host them, leave a comment below and we’ll get back to you in due time. Let us know why you think they’d like to visit your town! :)

PS – If you’d like a set for yourself (or to offer a child that loves Postcrossing!), you can get them at Amazon.com. They come with a cute post box, a mail delivery cart, a bike and plenty of mail! :)