Over time, Ravensburger has grown into a group composed of three distinct brands, each with its own history and character, each contributing something different to the same idea: that play is one of the most powerful things human beings do.
RAVENSBURGER 1883 - Ravensburg, Germany
The original. The one with the blue triangle. Ravensburger makes puzzles, board games, and creative play experiences for everyone from toddlers to grandparents. We've created classics like memory® and Labyrinth. We've partnered with Disney, Marvel, and some of the world's most beloved artists, bringing jaw-dropping imagery to jigsaw puzzles from 1,000 pieces up to 40,320. Our Memorable Disney Moments puzzle stretches over 22 feet when complete.
What makes Ravensburger different isn't just the quality of our materials. Our jigsaw puzzles are printed to our own color standards, cut with proprietary dies, and made from FSC-certified cardboard sourced mainly in Europe. The SoftClick® fit is something you feel every time a piece locks into place. Behind all of it is a belief: that what's on the box, and what happens around the table, should both be worth your time.
BRIO 1884 - Osby, Sweden
A year after Otto Maier started publishing in Germany, a young businessman named Ivar Bengtsson used all his savings to start selling handwoven baskets from a small village near Osby, Sweden.
It would take until 1907 for BRIO to find its true calling: a simple wooden horse that children couldn't get enough of. The wooden train, the pull-along dachshund, and the stacking clown soon followed. Toys that grandparents recognize because they played with them too. Toys that BRIO still makes today, because why change something that works?
BRIO stands for "The Ivarsson Brothers of Osby", after the second generation who took the business and turned it into something lasting. In 2015, BRIO became part of the Ravensburger Group, and the fit was immediately obvious. Two 19th-century family businesses, both convinced that quality and childhood development belong in the same sentence.
Today, BRIO's wooden toys sit alongside smart technologies and rechargeable train systems, but the design philosophy hasn't moved. The wood is sustainably sourced. The materials are non-toxic. The toys are built to survive everything a child can throw at them and still be passed on.
ThinkFun 1985 - Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Andrea Barthello and Bill Ritchie founded ThinkFun on an unusual dream: that the world's craziest mathematicians, engineers, and inventors had ideas that could become toys, if someone was willing to translate them.
The company name says it all. ThinkFun games are built around the belief that thinking and fun are not opposites. They are the same thing when you get the design right.
Their 1996 breakthrough, Rush Hour, began as a Japanese sliding block puzzle invented by Nob Yoshigahara, who brought it to ThinkFun because he knew they'd understand what it was all about. A single player. 40 blocking vehicles. One car that needs to escape. Deceptively simple. Endlessly satisfying. It proved that a solo logic puzzle could be as compelling as any party game, and that children don't need to be tricked into problem-solving. They just need the right challenge.
In 2017, ThinkFun joined the Ravensburger Group. Their US roots brought something valuable to the family: a deep North American design perspective, a thriving creative pipeline, and a relentless focus on cognitive development disguised as pure entertainment.