Funky Planet Toys & Gifts is an Independent St. Louis Area Toy Store. We carry fun stuff for the young & young at heart. Visit Us in Downtown Alton, Illinois!

We're Back From Our Road Trip

May is and has always been our slowest month of the year (hence the vacation). I'm 4 hours into my shift and the only person I've seen is the FedEx guy and Lori over at Comfort Cuisine next door (great food).

So, you get an extra meandering blog post for May. Maybe this will become an annual tradition.

We're back from our vacation and boy did we pack it in. We saw 4 new states, 4 new toy stores, and about 15 new cities. I'll cover that after I tell you what's new.

We'd halted orders in the weeks leading up to the trip, but some backorders trickled in...

• Nee-Doh's Nice Cube Glow released. It's a glow-in-the-dark Nice Cube
• A new set of Nature Pocket ID books released
• We got a large shipment of books, including some great sticker and temp tattoo books
• As I was writing this post we received a re-stock of Penguin Dash and Nee-Doh Gummy Bears
• We now carry S'Noodles. A fun craft with colored packing peanut pieces you can stick together.

We're working on a bunch of orders: including some great Made in the USA novelties, more books, and hopefully some more dolls. I also want to expand our STEM section and give the axe to some of the corporate licensed stuff.

All right, our trip. In order of us visiting them, big love to the cities of...

• Columbia, MO - Bustling downtown, Mizzou is a beautiful campus
• Kansas City, MO/KS - State Line & 39th was a cool spot. Is that the Midtown Neighborhood? Idk. I'm not an expert, but that is the spot to stop.
• Lawrence, KS - Another bustling downtown. Spent way too much time there.
• Wilson, KS - Came for the 'World's Largest Czech Egg', stayed a while due to its charm. There's smaller Czech Eggs throughout the town, there's a great independent grocery store, a restaurant, and several working phone booths. Friendly friendly people. Any similar-sized Small, Midwest, Farm Country, USA town should take notes.
• Hayes, KS - Good food, great natural history museum, Arcade 11 was super fun.
• Limon, CO - What a windy city. PinBowl had a phenomenal pinball selection in perfect working condition (including 4 EM's, if, like me, you're into that sort of thing).
• Loveland, CO - My god. Food, parks, shopping, mountains. What a city. Don't move there though, it would upset the 10 remaining native Loveland-ites. I'm baffled how over-populated the Denver-Fort Collins area is.
• Lexington, NE - Pulled into the downtown on a whim. Ended up hitting 3 Guatemalan and 3 Somalian shops in quick succession. A big regret of the trip was not knowing about this town in advance. I could have spent a whole day here.
• St. Joseph, MO - Reminds me of the town where I went to college. A hollowed-out downtown with a bunch of bars, and a never-ending sea of corporate sprawl. Glore Psychiatric Museum was awesome. Regretfully didn't have time to visit the Chase Candy Shoppe.
• We visited other cities, but, they don't get "Big Love" from me.

Special shout out to all three floors of "The Toy Store" in Lawrence, Kansas. What a massive store. It's always a joy to talk to other people in the industry, but I think I could have spent 10 more hours with the owners. The store has been at it for 45+ years too, so we learned a whole lot from them. If you're in Lawrence or Topeka it's a must-visit.

A special anti-shout-out to the town of Marceline, MO. Y'all could milk that 'Disney's Boyhood Home' stuff for all it's worth, but you are squandering it. Disney's sons donated a ride to your city (unprecedented) and y'all don't do anything with it. What's up with the train cars in the park? Y'all put ladders leading up to them like, "Come hither for fun, children", and then you walk up to it and it says "NO CLIMBING". Y'all are no fun.

But really, I'm just mad because I drove off my route to visit the downtown toy store to find it was permanently closed. Bummer. Tiny toy stores in sub-1000 population towns are hard to come by.

Also, to all of y'all who told me Kansas was a boring state to drive through, I couldn't disagree more.

~David

We're Closed The First Week of May

We are closed from April 28th through May 6th. We'll re-open Wednesday May 7th.

A bunch is new. Here's two things...

Irr-Elephant is being displayed in the Playcade. It's an all-wood stacking game where first you build the tower, and then you carefully remove one elephant at a time until it tips over. Great for any age; even toddlers.

Our very cool science and optics company finally re-stocked Metal Detectors and Kids Binoculars (they've been backordered since November). We also re-stocked Microscopes and the ever-popular Monocular.

And we've got a whole bunch of new goofy cheapo novelty stuff.

We just placed a very large book order, and when we get back we're going to place another big book order with another company.

We also placed a big order for mini 3D-printed figurines.

I haven't heard anything about Pokemon Destined Rivals from my distributor. They'll be worth their weight in diamonds, so I'm not surprised (but I am a little disappointed). I'm still holding out hope that we'll get some in.

I'll post an update when we get back on the 7th.

~David

What's New in March 2025?

Well, for one, I just finished doing our taxes. Now I have time to update this blog.

January and February were kind of dull. The weather was bad and a huge chunk of our shipments were backordered. Now it's March! The weather is great and all of our shipments are coming at once!

We finally did a run of T-Shirts featuring our mascot Catpants! Shout out to Schwartzkopf Printing for being super chill and helpful through the whole process. I had never designed a T-shirt before, and was surprised by the learning curve.

The toddler toy section has a ton of new arrivals. A big chunk of them are made of wood.

We've got 3 new building sets featured in the Playcades. Hexagon Blocks, Slot-In Blocks & Wheels, and Pipe Construction.

We're now carrying a massive selection of HotWings Die-Cast Planes/Helicopters.

We re-stocked our Nature Books and Field Guides. We personally own a ton of these titles and can vouch for how great they are.

Our Spring kite shipment just arrived. Dragonfly kites are back, and we also have cool Shark, Octopus, and Peacock kites.

Nee-Doh's very popular Nice Cube collection is back in stock. We also just received the new Sploot Splat.

We've got a bunch of new Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty tins.

There's a bunch of new board games. We've got classics like Go, Yut Nori, Hexus, and one of those big ol' Checkers Rugs.

In electronics kits: we re-stocked the Retro Radio and Retro Arcade sets, and we now sell a Bat Detector kit. I'm hoping to get a few more by the end of the month.

In candy: Scorpion and Cricket suckers are back in stock. We're also selling Chili Lix (Jalapeno, Red Chili, and Habanero) and Larvets (BBQ, Cheddar, Mexican Spice). Also, Toxic Waste dropped a bunch of new flavors (they're delicious).

And, a big chunk of our Book selection is 25% off.

Also, our landlords added a step and ramp at our front entrance. It took a lot of deliberation between them and the contractors. Retrofitting an old downtown building that's on a slope is no joke, but they were able drum up something that I think is a massive improvement. Shout out to Sarah and Tom for making it happen. Sage and I are going to add some yellow paint to make the edges more visible tonight.

New Blind Boxes and Stickers are in transit. I'm hoping to get additional book, puzzle, arts & crafts, dolls, and STEM orders in soon. Lewis & Clark is holding their first Comic & Pop Culture Convention called Blazer Con on April 12th, and we'll have a booth there. Sage has been doing a lot of knitting classes, and will hopefully start another one this month. 

All right, I'm done. Stop by soon!

~David

What's New in December 2024

This month we're open every day until Christmas Day. Here's our hours.

Sage drew some very cute window art for Deck The Town a friendly contest between local business owners. Whoever gets the most votes for the best Christmas window display gets a prize. Such a great idea! If you like our display, shoot us a vote on their website. 

New in store, we have this very handsome shelf by Family Games America. On display this month is Inversé, an extremely easy-to-learn abstract strategy game for two. 

We've got more new games from Family Games, plus around 20 new titles ranging from Abstract Strategy, to Family Games, to Trivia. We've been very impressed with all of the games in this batch, but the one we are addicted to is Take 10 by Outset. It's similar to 20 Questions, but an elegant ruleset and a very fun bubble-popping mechanism takes it to the next level. Gabble and Tension are also family favorites.

We have the new Nee-Doh Nice Berg, and Nee-Doh Nice Ice Baby. We also restocked the original Nice Cube and the Dream Drop. They are flying off the shelf.

We now carry Estes Rockets, well two of them. We're starting with two beginner rocket sets. Estes has been in the rocket game for decades and their rockets are such a thrill to launch. If there's enough interest I'd love to expand the line.

On display in the lower level this month is the Mega Marble Run, Dino Journey Track, Squigz, and the ever popular Animal Sorting Houses (I only have 2 left).

We have tons and tons of different Iwako Erasers on display. These are one of our Japanese imports. Unfortunately there are a lot of copy cat bootlegs floating around. I encourage you to buy the real deal. Iwako's quality is unmatched. Plus they make Kewpie erasers, which I love.

We were able to restock Colorforms before the holidays. I wish I ordered more Bluey sets. I only have 2 left.

Jean Curvey just dropped off some new Catpants Ceramic Figurines. I loved the last batch, but this time she's really outdone herself.

All right, that's enough toy pictures for now. We also have new jigsaw puzzles, a ton of new books, some new dolls, and a billion different squishy things. The Small Business Saturday deals are done, but we're still blowing out a ton of toys at 25-75% off.

The Letters For Santa gift registry is out, click this link to learn more.

We had a Winter Advisory on Small Business Saturday. As a former Minnesotan, 3.5 inches of snow with 1 MPH winds is a pretty sad excuse to stay home, but unfortunately that seems to be what happened. No fun.

The Holiday Season has just begun, so we'll see. Hope to see you soon.

~David

Black Friday / Small Business Saturday 2024

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're having our biggest sales yet on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and the following Sunday...

• All Board Games: 10% off
• All Books: 15% off; some titles are 25% off.
• All Yarn: 15% off
• All Diamond Art: 15% off
• All Wooden Weapons & Rubber Band Guns: 15% off
• All Jigsaw Puzzles: 20% off
• Air Forts: 20% off Mushroom House, 33% off MSRP Cozy Cabin
• All Maisto Die-cast Cars/Trucks: 20% off
• All Blue-Q Bags: 20% off
• All RollMatz Vehicle Rugs: 25% off
• All Tutti Frutti Play Dough Sets: 30% off

Also, starting Black Friday at least 50 different products are 40%-75% off. These sales will carry over through December.

I'll get a proper "What's New" post out next week. Off the top of my head I know we have new Nee Doh Nice Cubes, Enamel Pins, Estes Rockets, Board Games, Dog Toys, Books, and Color Forms.

Also, a new shipment of Handscraft miniature house kits should arrive on Black Friday.

See you soon!

~David

What's New in October 2024

We refreshed our Douglas Cuddly Plush. We got a big mix of brand new, new to us, and beloved classics.

His Royal Majesty 'Pizza Rat', and 2 very-at-capacity Douglas shelves

You can only buy a newborn baby so many rattles. Luckily we have a ton of new baby and newborn items by Malarkey. From Crib Chompers to Munch Mitts to silicone Dribble Bibs that catch every missed bite; they have a ton of useful products.

Munch Mitts, Chew Cubes, Teether Tethers, Crib Chompers, Dribble Bibs

We now carry TokiDoki blind boxes! In addition to their Unicornos we also have some extremely cute Sanrio/Hello Kitty figurines.

Foodie Unicornos, Cactus Bunnies, Hello Kitty Sakura, and some more Unicornos/Hello Kitty

We brought back the Bucket Builder Wooden Train Set and a new Wooden Domino Set.

Great toys for 3+

Pokemon Stellar Crown is in! Highlights include the Dark Powers Ex Box and the new ETB.

We re-upped on Plus Plus! I say it every time, but this is one of my favorite toys.

And then we have a bunch of odds and ends like super deluxe Hour Glasses, Hoberman Spheres, Gyroscopes, and some cute new Miniature Playsets.

A whole mess of science toys... and we're about to order more!

Sun Smith Foret and Marty McKay are working on a spiritual successor to their Iconic Alton Coloring Book! This one will feature the Village of Elsah. The coloring books aren't out yet, but in the meantime we're selling hand-colored greeting cards by Sun featuring some of Elsah's landmarks.

We love these projects

Jean Curvey has new ceramics on display!

The Killdeer Chick is my favorite

Sage is selling knitted pumpkins as fast as she can make them. She's also starting two rounds of Beginner's Knitting Classes this week.

A bunch of cuties

Sage also decked out our front windows with some giant Halloween-y spiders.

Our store spider eats bananas.

Alton Main Street's 'First Fridays' started last night, as always, we participated. The event runs from 5-8pm this year, and takes place on the first Friday of every month.

Our experiment with being open Mondays is over. We had a couple of decent Mondays at the beginning, but then they plummeted to dismal levels this past month. The people have spoken with their wallets! We've changed our hours back to Wednesday-Sunday (closed Mon/Tues). We still plan to be open in some capacity 7 days a week during the Holiday Season.

A lot is on the horizon. We'll be getting some new board games soon, so another 'Funky Game Night' at the Old Bakery Brewery is in the works. We're working on orders for big wooden action games, books, science toys, art supplies, and some toddler toys. After that we'll be working on re-upping our stocking stuffers and bringing in some new toys we saw at the ASTRA toy show.

Our craziest time of year is just around the corner and we're very very excited.

~David

What's New in August 2024

New this month we have a bunch of Gigantic Trucks (and a Barbie Jeep). They're all made in the USA!

Hard to tell, but the trucks are two feet long.

We also brought in a new publisher. AdventureKEEN puts out books for nature, outdoors, and sports lovers young and old. 

Our family is passionately into nature. Sage is constantly foraging wild food and I'm an avid birdwatcher. We were slow to pick up some nature books for Funky Planet because there are a lot of crummy, low effort field guides floating around out there. AdventureKEEN graciously gave us review copies, so we were able to read through each book before we ordered them. We can definitely vouch for these books!

Board books for babies, field guides, quick guides, and kid's books

I was introduced to this publisher when I bought 'C Is For Cardinal' by Stan Tekiela on a whim last winter. Clover loves the book, and has memorized all of the birds within it. At 20 months old she would point to a robin and say, "American Robin" (but with the r's pronounced as w's). So, big recommendation from me.

Also, we have a ton of sports-themed and mystery-themed Choose Your Path books. Certain pages prompt you with a choice, and then based on that choice you turn to a specific page.

Football, Baseball, Soccer, another Football, Hockey, Wilderness Survival, Basketball, and Mystery

All right, moving on. We brought in some very cool and intricate Building Kits. You use actual miniature bricks to build structures brick by brick. The mortar is also water soluble, so if you soak the structure the building breaks down and you can build it again in the future.

Irish house, Windmill, Lighthouse, and a big ol' Castle

We also brought in more arty and crafty stuff. In the picture below we have a super deluxe Squeegee Paint Set with a bunch of stencils, a Mushroom DIY Paper Lantern, a paint-your-own ceramic Lowly Worm Apple Car, and a stylish Soap Making Kit. We also brought in a jewelry making kit, and bunch more basic art supplies.

Bright Stripes puts all of these products out, and we love them.

Last, we now carry Candylab wooden + diecast cars. I'm very excited to bring these in. For years I've been looking through their catalog and drooling over the beautiful, colorful, angular, mid-century modern vehicles. Seeing their super deluxe parking garage in-person at ASTRA pushed us over the edge. Pictures don't do it justice, so here's a video from their website...

Each parking spot has a magnet, so the die-cast frame snaps the cars into place.

I don't have pics, but we brought in some super satisfying squishies filled with a slow-rising goo, a pooping capybara keychain, a gigantic dollhouse by the same USA Gigantic Trucks company, oh jeez, I forgot a new arrival...

We now carry science toys by Discovery. I'd been struggling to find quality optics at an affordable price since we opened. But, we ran into Discovery at ASTRA, I got to test their products out, and their prices are great. At this time we have a Microscope, Telescope, Metal Detector, and a Rock Tumbler. I intend on getting kids Binoculars soon, but in the meantime we're stocking a Monocular. I bought one and now use it for kitchen-sink-window-birding daily.

A rushed, last-minute pic 😬

We've been rotating toys in-and-out of the Playcade. Two new games of note are Battle Box and Volley Shot. I don't wanna get into the mechanics here, so come in and play a game against one of us.

Right-to-left: Battle Box, Volley Shot, and Super Stadium Baseball

Funky Planet is hosting Riichi Mahjong tomorrow night. We're gonna be at the Nerd Market @ Old Bakery on August 17th. And we're doing another Funky Game Night @ Old Bakery on August 27th from 5-8pm. Hope to see you at at least one of those events!

~David

What's New in July 2024

As of the 23rd, Funky Planet Toys has been operating for 3 years! I don't wanna get too mushy, so I'll just say thank you to our customers, thank you to those who see the value in shopping small, thank you to the toy distributors who prioritize specialty brick & mortar mom & pop stores, and thank you to our families for all of your support. This store wouldn't exist without you. ♥

Okay, a bunch is new, so let's get into it...

We started carrying Fat Brain. I've always loved their toys (especially Dimpl and Squigz), and now that they're delving into more and more wooden tabletop games it's a no brainer to bring them into the store. Also, AirToobz are one of the coolest toys in existence. It's like a mini children's museum piece for the home. It's currently our front window display.

Clover is a fan.

We received a massive arts & crafts order which I'll have to show in two pictures. In the first one new items include Airbrush Pens you blow into, some new Macrame Kits, a bunch of Googly Eyes, and tons and tons of new Diamond Art Kits.

Also pictured: Glowing constellation kit, markers that take 7 days to dry out, multi-surface coloring tools, and Sun Art.

In the next picture is a ton of Fine Art Supplies, Face Paint Sticks, Origami Paper, Wooden Paint-And-Build Unicorns & T-Rexes, a Sumi Brush Set, and a lot of Clay.

We also have a ton of new Embroidery Kits and some 1000pc Puzzles that aren't pictured.

Our main makeup/beauty/style/all-things-pink supplier was turning to the dark side more-and-more (big box stores) and we'd been struggling to find an affordable alternative. Thanks to the ASTRA Toy Show we now have Hot Focus! In addition to the usual suspects like Nail Accessories, Eyeshadow, Lip Balm, and Stationery, they've also got some ultra-cute Earbuds, Drink Cups, and Bento Boxes.

We also have a Henna Kit

Last, we now sell Mystery Bags. We really cram em full of stuff. So far we've gotten great feedback on them, so I think they're going to stick around. 

They cost $3.71 Each, which is exactly $4.00 after sales tax

The 50% Off Clearance Section has been shrunk down to one gondola. It's been replenished a few times, so grab the deals while you can.

Here's what's planned for next month...

• Bringing in some more new lines, including a Baby/Toddler brand, a Nature-Focused publisher, and Mini Brick Crafting Kit (Like, actual clay bricks). 
• Re-upping on Pokemon Cards and HotWings diecast Airplanes.
• Getting more art supplies, kids jewelry making kits, and stickers.
• Doing another Funky Game Night at Old Bakery!

I'll post again once all that stuff is in the store. Stay tuned!

~David

What's New In June 2024

At the beginning of the month we went to ASTRA, the American Specialty Toy Retailers Association trade show. This was our first time going and it was CRAZY! There were over 300 booths! I got to talk to the owners of some of my favorite companies, and we met about 50 new companies that we're very excited to order from.

Since ASTRA we've placed a few orders. Unfortunately, so has every other independent toy store, so it's taking some time for them to process and ship the new stuff. In the meantime, here are some highlights from the past month...

Arcade Mini Golf is back! It's an awesome tabletop 9-hole putt-putt game. A flip of the switch makes some of the obstacles move. It's deceptively challenging, and very fun.

Running Press Minis have been restocked. We brought in a bunch of cool new titles.

We brought in some new baby/toddler books...

Indestructibles are rip-proof / chew-proof / drool-proof books. We can personally vouch for their durability.

Mini House Board Books are exactly what they claim to be. Look through the windows and watch as each page stacks together into a cute house. I already sold out of Dinosaurs and Mother Goose.

We also have new blind boxes, new keychains, new baby toys, new squishy fidget ball things, and Socker Boppers (formerly known as Sock'em Boppers before Mattel sued).

Alton Main Street's Night Market on Broadway started on the 6th, and once again we have a booth. Catch us at the pocket park next to the Jacoby Building Thursdays from 7pm to 10pm.

A huge amount of stuff is 40-60% off, and I mean it. This isn't one of those sales where the store-owner marks everything up and then "slashes prices" (I'm looking at you Office Depot). These are crazy deals. Out with the old, in with the new.

Stay tuned next month for another post. We're getting some very very cool displays with our next shipments.

-David