Toymaker plays Santa during winter visits

John Kent, a returning winter visitor from Oregon, has been making toys the better part of 45 years and has no plans of stopping — ever.

"As long as I can stand up and draw breath, I will make toys," Kent said at a residence in Crystal Beach. "It is all about the kids. It is the act of thinking of someone else, too. If you get your mind off yourself, great things happen," he said.

Kent said his toy designs have evolved in shape and size through the years to better fit a child's small hands.

"I just know kids like toys," he said.

The bare-bones design of the toys he creates exists for a reason.

"I hate to take the imagination away from the child. When they use their imagination, that is how they grow," Kent said.

The toymaker recalled a memory from his early childhood centered on a toy wood racecar made by his father's hands many years ago.

"The racecar didn't have any wheels, but we played with it anyway," he said.

Toy rocking-lions, biplanes and small vehicles of all shapes and sizes have made their way to existence through Kent's creativity.

"I have other toy patterns but the jeep in the most universal," he said.

The toymaker has made as many as 500 toys over the years and used to give them away to needy children in Baja California as he traveled there twice a year in his younger days, he said.

The charitable gift giving is nothing new to Kent. His grandmother and mother paved the way with helping others.

"They were do-gooders. They would help just for the sheer joy and pleasure of helping someone out," Kent said of his mother and grandmother.

Last year, Kent manufactured 24 toy cars of a different design and gave them to a food bank organization based in Oregon who in turn distributed them for Christmas.

"I get inspired at Christmastime," he said of his donations. The 32 toy jeeps this year will be donated to Desert Hills Fire Department to be distributed within the department's community fire district just in time for Christmas, Kent said.

Next year, he will create a different type of toy car to donate, he said.

Kent is also a strong believer in sharing his ideas as well as his toys.

"You have to duplicate yourself. This is about sharing ... Maybe there is a snowbird or someone who has the time and the tools that may want to make toys. The 30 toys I make is nothing for what the need is for children," Kent said.