What's New in June 2022?
I've been wanting to make this post for a while, but shipping delays on shelf brackets was slowing me down. Now I'm ready!
First off, we now have a dedicated sticker rack! Putting stickers in a gondola was a really shabby use of space. We also added some Puffy Stickers.
Cute.
The former sticker gondola now houses loose stickers, all of our novelty pens, kawaii otaku stuff, and a bunch of odds and ends. We broke our loose stickers up into more categories too.
We now have a bunch of Smencils and Smens too.
We found a cute and affordable animal figurine company several months ago and now we finally have space to order them. So stay tuned. In the meantime, a bunch of Airzooka boxes are in their place.
Gumby and Pokey are here too.
We restocked a lot of our STEM stuff. The new Owl Pellets in particular have been very popular.
Owl Pellets are "Made in America" 😎
We're going to be on FOX 2 St. Louis today as a part of a segment covering some of Alton's downtown businesses! This was either of our's first TV appearance. Sage was a champ, but I was nervous as all get-up.
Exciting Stuff.
Lastly, our baby is due at the end of the month, so at some point we'll be closed for a while. Sage will be out for a while, but I'll try to return as soon as possible. I don't know how long we'll be gone, or if we'll do decreased hours for a bit, or what; but just be aware! I'll be keeping Google Maps and social media up-to-date.
Needless to say, we're both very excited.
~David
What's New in May 2022?
Spring had a couple of false starts, but it looks like the warm weather is finally here!
We had trouble getting Kites in last year, but they're finally in. We've got the classic diamond, the easy-to-fly delta, and some beautiful butterfly kites.
The Two Bros Bows archery sets continue to be beloved gifts. The sets come with a bow, two arrows, and a target. Many people wanted more than two arrows, so we now sell the arrows individually.
We also have some really nice Junior Gardening Sets, and an awesome Nature Adventure Pack that inspires all sorts of ways to have fun outdoors.
On May 14th we'll be taking part in the Alton, IL Pup Crawl (It's a pub crawl with dogs). We'll have a little booth set up outside where we'll be selling gifts for pups and pup lovers.
In the Playcade this month we have...
- Quaggle: The Stragetic Balance Game - An all-wood game that's similar to Jenga and Buildzi, but has players attempting to build a crazy looking structure out of super abstract shapes.
- Playlearn Pipe Construction Sets - Build vehicles, marble runs, and bizarre musical instruments out of the colorful pieces.
- Quercetti Fanta Color - Fit brightly colored pegs into the board to make cute pictures. It's also super portable.
- Brainflakes Engineering Sets - We had this one out in the Playcade when we opened, and since it was so popular, we brought them back out. Snap pieces together to make cool 3D sculptures.
Some other new items we have are Pokemon Cards, Wooden Train Sets, City Playmats, Wooden Engineer Sets, and Lava Lamps. And as always, we're constantly rotating in new Fidgets, Jigsaw Puzzles, and Board Games.
Lastly, Jean Curvey made some very very cute ceramic figures featuring our mascot Catpants! Dig those funky fellas...
All right, I could go on and on, but that's it for now. Keep up with us on Facebook/Instagram or check back here next month.
~David
What's New in March 2022?
The beginning of February was pretty boring. Just about every Wednesday & Thursday we had a snow storm. Luckily, the rest of the month brought a lot of new and exciting things to our store.
First, we now have way more books. The bulk of them are from Usborne, but we also carry a few titles from some independent publishers. We also carry flipbooks.
Second, we have a new kiddy ride! It's a '57 Chevrolet Bel Air. A ride will cost you a quarter.
Third, we upped both our board game and puzzle selection. We gained access to a hobby distributor, so in addition to new board games we'll soon be able to stock Pokemon Cards.
We also got approved to carry two more puzzle brands, including a brand that offers 2000pc jigsaw puzzles.
Fourth, there are new toys on display...
Playcade #1 has Cube Duel, an awesome solitaire or 2-player puzzle game.
Playcade #2 has PicassoTiles + Building Bricks, a mix of LEGOs and MagnaTiles.
Playcade #3 has Quaggle, which is like Jenga's insane cousin.
Playcade #4 has Roy Toy Log Building Sets, which are like Lincoln Logs, but actually affordable.
On the tables we have Klask, Crokinole, Penny Hockey, Hammer Fight, and Straw Construction.
The arcade machine once again has RealSports Volleyball, perhaps the best 2-player game of the 8-bit era.
Last, we just placed an order for a whole bunch of art supplies. We're getting things like paint and paint accessories, modeling clay, drawing sets, macramé, fiber arts, and whole bunch of other stuff. We can't carry everything due to being a small store, but if there's a particular art supply that the community wants access to we can carry it. Just let us know!
What's new in January 2022?
Not a whole lot yet, so this will be a short post.
Like many, I was hoping that we were through the worst of the shipping issues and materials shortages, but it's still been very difficult. Quite a few of our favorite companies aren't taking orders until March. In addition, Sage and I will be out of state from the 17th to the 24th, so I had to put ship dates for the end of the month for what purchases we could make.
But, we plan on quadrupling our selection of Usborne books and doubling our board game section. We also hope to greatly expand our arts and crafts section. Ever since Karen's Crafts closed, Alton hasn't had a store dedicated to Arts and Crafts. We're going to try to fill this gap as much as we can.
We do have two new games on display, and they're both really really fun.
The first is Super Stadium Baseball. This extremely detailed game pits two players against each other. The fielding team can arrange each of their fielding players in different configurations. Pitching also has a lot of depth, in the form two levers that enable the player to make a variety of pitches (curve balls, fast balls, slow balls, etc.) For expert play there's also the "Miracle Pitch", where a ramp opens up underneath the batter. All the batter can do against these pitches is quickly decide not to bat and get a "Ball".
The batter has to use quick reflexes to decide if a pitch is hittable or will be a "Ball". They can also choose their batting angle, and if they want to swing righty or lefty. It's been a huge hit with the kids, and during this slower post-holiday season I've had a lot of fun being player two.
That's about it! Keep up with us on Facebook/Instagram or check back here next month. The next couple of months will be exciting ones.
~David
What's New in December 2021?
Black Friday and Small Business Saturday came and went. What crazy days! Thank you so much to everybody from the surrounding communities who did their Christmas shopping with us. I think we'll be able to stick around for a while.
Well, we have A TON of new items. I don't want to take pictures of all of them (all of the new fidgets will probably be gone before the end of the month) but here are a couple of pictures.
We now have Placemats! Styles include US Map, Solar System, Flags, Dogs, and Cats
We also got transformable wacky track fidget spinners. Bend 'em, Stack 'em, Spin 'em
Assemblesaurus Dinosaurs are fun and easy building toys
PicassoTiles Magna Tiles are compatible with Legos, and enable builders to create cool 3D structures
It's a Pop-It, it's a purse, it's a Pop-It purse
A Shiba-Inu dressed as a Reindeer
If dinosaurs aren't your thing, we also have take apart trucks
We also have awesomely accurate rubber band guns made in the USA
In other news, we now have Freeway as our arcade game of the month. So far it's been a hit! The goal is to guide your chicken across a dangerous interstate highway. Way back in the day if you got 20+ points on Level 3, you could take a picture of your television screen, send the photo to Activision, and they would send you this "Save the Chicken Foundation" iron-on patch.
We don't have any patches to give out, but if you film yourself getting 34 points or higher on Level 3, you can break the world record.
Lastly, as you could have guessed, we'll be closed on Christmas. We will however be open on both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve (closing time pending). We've got a few plans for expansion in the New Year, but we want to see how much damage tax season does to us first, so stay tuned!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
~David
What's New in November 2021?
Halloween came and went, and with that, our first Alton Halloween Parade. The floats were super impressive! We never had any Halloween parades in Minnesota, probably because it was so freakin' cold by Halloween.
I've said it to a million people a million times now, but what a weird year to open a toy store...
- We're still waiting on items we ordered back in April.
- Many times when we place an order, we only receive 33% of it.
- Some of our companies stopped taking orders at the beginning of October, and won't resume until February 2022.
Despite all of that, our shelves are still stocked. We go through over 100 different companies, and have access to 100 more, so we should have no problem keeping the store full. But, I strongly recommend people take care of their holiday shopping as soon as possible (be it at our store or anywhere else). It's gonna be a crazy season. All right, here's what's new...
First off, we've got our "Letters to Santa" Gift Registry. Kids go around the store and write down whatever toys they want for Christmas in the book. Then parents, grandparents, and the big man himself can come in later and purchase items from the wish list. In the event a kid writes down an item that we know will be out of stock before Christmas, we'll let their parents/grandparent know.
Second, there are new toys in The Playcade! We're now featuring...
Zolo Blanko and Kwik Stix! Zolo is a bunch of quirky, high-quality plastic shapes that you can stick together to make zany creatures. Commercials were on TV all of the time when I was a kid. I begged and begged for them for Christmas and my parents got them for me. I was not disappointed! My Mom still has them to this day, and they're still a hit with my younger cousins. We carry some of the ones I had as a kid, but the Zolo Blanko are cool because you can draw and paint on them. So, we're also showcasing them with Metallic Kwik Stix, which are awesome, no-mess, washable, paint sticks.
Coilz! Cool springs with a cute design on the top. If you bounce them just right they make a cool sizzling sound. There are a bunch of ways to play with Coilz. At the Playcade you can practice bouncing them into a cup. Or you could play a game of H.O.R.S.E against a friend.
Zoob BuilderZ! An awesome creative building toy. Snap pieces together and move them at the ball-joints. There's not much contrast in this picture, but Sage made a technicolor rooster.
I tried putting an old Drag Racing game (one of my favorites) in the arcade machine, but, to put it lightly, everyone hated it! So now, Outlaw is the game of the month. Two cowpokes face off against each other bouncing their bullets along walls and around cactuses and stage coaches. It's a lot of fun.
Brain Flakes and Daruma Otoshi are still in the Playcades, and the Big Plus Plus are still on display in the creative building set section.
Lastly, we're now carrying cute ceramics by Alton-based artist Jean Curvey! The assortment includes a bunch of cute animals, a melting ice cream cone, snowmen, sea turtles, and a few baby's first Christmas ornaments. At the time of writing this, the Redbird and the Bunny were already both sold.
We're stocking a whole bunch of new items. Puzzles, wooden train tracks, and cute animal miniatures to name a few. The extremely popular marble run that we quickly sold out of will be back in stock and back on display by the beginning of next week. Many more new items will be rolling in throughout the month too. Hope to see you soon!
~David