Creative Tonie: how to fill it, and personalised stories with your child's name coming soon

By Andrei Baciu

Co-founder of Wunderli and architect of its story engine

Updated 27 October 2026

You fill a Creative Tonie by recording in the tonies app or uploading audio files there or at my.tonies.com; the Toniebox fetches them over Wi-Fi and from then on plays them offline, like any other Tonie. A personalised Wunderli story with your child's name is coming soon: "Download MP3" is on its way, and the waitlist is open.

Everything below about the Toniebox comes from tonies' own help pages, checked 27 October 2026. App menus do change, so if a button has moved, the tonies help pages have the final word.

Coming soon: a personalised story on a Creative Tonie, step by step

This is how it will work once "Download MP3" is in Wunderli. Steps 3 and 4 work today with any audio file you own.

1. Make the story. Download Wunderli from the App Store or Google Play. With your child next to you, you shape the characters, the world and the mood together in six steps, and choose the length, the language and the language level. The character name is the one thing you type yourself, so the hero can carry your child's name. Wunderli writes the story and narrates it with several narration voices.
2. Save it as an MP3 (soon). "Download MP3" is coming soon: the finished story will then be saved to your phone, for private family use. Until then, you listen in the app.
3. Upload it to the Creative Tonie. In the tonies app, go to your Creative Tonies, tap the figure, tap the arrow icon and pick the file from your phone. tonies says you can add several files at once and assign them in one go. On a computer, sign in at my.tonies.com, click Edit Content, drag the file in and click Save Content.
4. Let the box sync. More on that below, because Toniebox 1 and Toniebox 2 behave differently.

A quick bit of arithmetic before you start. tonies says a Creative Tonie holds up to 90 minutes, a figure they chose to match a blank cassette. Wunderli stories come in 10+, 15+ or 20+ minutes, and each runs a little over its label. So once "Download MP3" arrives, six short stories will fit, or three long ones with room left for a song or a message from a grandparent. A fourth long story may not fit. For a whole series, swap the content now and then. Until then: get Wunderli, the first story is free, and listen in the app.

What a Creative Tonie is, and what it is for

A Creative Tonie is a figure that arrives empty. Ready-made Tonies carry one fixed audio play; a Creative Tonie carries whatever you put on it. That makes it the place for things nobody sells: grandparents reading aloud, the song you sing at bedtime, a birthday message, or a story built around your own child. Yoto cards take MP3 files too, which our guide to Yoto Make Your Own cards explains step by step.

Getting new content onto the box: Toniebox 1 and Toniebox 2

Uploading puts the file in your tonies account. The box still has to download it, and for that it needs Wi-Fi. You do not have to be at home to upload; you do have to let the box sync.

• Toniebox 1. Press and hold one ear for about three seconds. tonies says the light flashes blue while the box updates. Place the Creative Tonie once the light is solid green.
• Toniebox 2. tonies says that, unlike the Toniebox 1, it syncs automatically, starting around 30 seconds after it is switched on. If you put the figure on too early, the sync is blocked, so switch the box on, wait half a minute, then place the Tonie.

After that the story plays without a connection, which is what you want in the car or at the grandparents'.

Which files work

Deleting and replacing what is on it

There is no separate replace button. You delete, then upload again. In the tonies app, open the Creative Tonie, tap Edit, select the tracks, tap Delete and then Done. At my.tonies.com, click the bin icon next to a chapter, or Delete all content, then Save Content. Let the box sync afterwards, as above.

Christmas, gifts and the box you already have

December is when most families fill a Creative Tonie. For a story to read yourself, there is a short original one in our Christmas stories for kids, and our guide to a personalised Christmas story covers giving one as a present. Wunderli is meant to fill the Toniebox you already own, not to replace it, as soon as "Download MP3" is ready. If you are still choosing a box, Toniebox vs Yoto compares the two, our Toniebox alternative page covers listening without one, and how Wunderli works shows the six steps.

tonies®, Toniebox and Creative-Tonie are trademarks of tonies; Yoto is a trademark of its owner; Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Audible and Deezer are trademarks of their owners. Wunderli has no business relationship with any of them.

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