Award Winning Toys take Over!

Well, it's that time of year again. Yes, it's the pre-holiday toy award giving season and they've been out in full force. Our pal Stephanie Oppenheim was on the Today show last week showing off some of the Oppenheim Award winning toys. Family Fun Magazine announced their winners on Regis & Kelly a couple weeks ago. Finally, the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA) - of which we are a member - announced our list of Best Toys For Kids.

Piles of toys that we already carry were honored - a couple games from Blue Orange Games won awards (Chickyboom & Yamslam are two of our favorites), Lego got lots of awards for many different sets (including the uber-cool Mindstorm, which allows you to program your Lego creations from your computer), the Playmobil Pyramid won lots of awards (Playmobil is pretty sure they are going to sell out of these soon!), Sprig's Eco Trucks were honored as was the Tea Set from Green Toys - both items underscore the move towards eco-friendly toys.

To set these award-winning toys apart, we've started marking them with little signs under the toys identifying which awards they were given. It's an easy way to let our customers know which toys were honored this year.

Top 3 Toys We Learned About from our Customers

One more thing that differentiates us from the big box stores is that when you walk into our store and talk to us, you're talking to the people who determine what toys appear on our shelves. Try to talk to the toy buyer at Walmart and make a suggestion on what toys they should sell. I dare ya!
Over the 10 months we've been opened, we've had lots of suggestions on things we should sell in our store. In many cases, we ordered the products and in several cases, they've turned out to be great selling items! Here's our choices for the top three items we've been suggested to sell in our store.

3 - Sandy Feet - A customer came in our store in July and said that she would buy several of these if we got them in and raved about how awesome they were. So, we just got these in last month, and they've sold well despite how late in the summer it is. This ingenious kit allows you to create foot castings from footprints in the sand. Use the sand & water from your beach, add their special powder, wait 20 minutes and get a footprint keepsake! $15.99

2 - Kids on Stage - This charades game for kids was suggested to us by a customer as "the best game they ever got." We've sold through on our first order and have placed a reorder for them. The nice thing about this game is that every child acts on every turn, and the game requires no reading! For ages 3-8. $18.99

1 - My Little Sandbox - These 10" x 10" sandboxes come in different themes (Beach Party and Big Builder are the two most popular). Each kit includes a 10" x 10" box, micro-sand, and accessories depending on the theme. The Beach Party set includes a sunbather, towel, beach chair, little dog & mini bucket, shovel and rake. The Big Builder set includes trucks, rocks, mini shovel and rake. It's a little zen garden for kids! A customer came in last November and raved about these, telling us how she would travel 45 minutes away to stock up on them for gifts. We ordered them, and in our first 10 months, they've been one of our top selling items! $27.99. Ages 3 & up.

Is a green wave coming? AKA "What's all the hub bub, bub?"

I've written about green toys before here and here, and certainly with all the recalls last year and the awareness of lead paint, there's been a new crop of toys coming out that, at the least, stress their safety and, at most, have gone above and beyond by making their toys from recycled material and natural finishes. But, is it a trend? Is it backlash against the safety issues from last year. OR will people demand safer toys until they see the pricetag on something completely safe then sneak back to Walmart to buy their $6.72 Barbie and figure "eh, I ate toy paint when I was a kid and feel OK?"

Consider the lastest in all natural toys. The Swedish company Playsam has introduced their latest to their line of 'executive toys,' the 'miljöbil' (above) - a 'green' wooden toy car that will set you back $50. If you're not aware of Playsam's products, they are absolutely gorgeous wooden toys made in Sweden and aimed squarely at the adult market. I've always had a dilemma about this kind of stuff. It looks cool, but will people really part with $50 for a wooden toy car?

Green Toys

I have to say, these toys look pretty cool. They're from a company called Green Toys, Inc. The main ingredient in the production of these toys are recycled milk jugs. They're also made entirely in the United States.

According to their website, each pound of recycled milk jugs saves energy of the equivalent of 3000 AA batteries, saves enough electricity to power your TV set for three weeks or saves enough electricity to power your laptop for a month.

And they don't forget the packaging. The packaging is made of 100% recycled cardboard with no plastic and no annoying twist ties.

Are we ready for green toys? Members of ASTRA (The American Specialty Toy Retailer Association - we're a member!) voted the tea set (above) one of the top 20 toys at Toy Fair. My only hesitation is the price tag - the tea set will retail for about $35. Otherwise, I'm sold...

This toy was a real snoozer at Toy Fair...

Coming out from a company named Cloud b is the Twilight Turtle, an impossibly cute plus turtle that projects a starry night sky onto the ceiling through his plastic shell. It actually projects real constellations (like the Big Dipper) onto the ceiling. It has three different color light options and automatically shuts off after 45 minutes.

Best Toy at Toy Fair

I had to post about the worst toy at Toy Fair first, well, because it was so awful!
This leads me into the best toy I saw at Toy Fair. Sprig Toys is a new Colorado based company that showed it's line of toys at Toy Fair. Their toys are made out of 'Sprigwood™' - which, according to their website is "a durable, child-safe, bio-composite material made from recycled wood and reclaimed plastic. No decorative paint is used in the production process." They're also battery free, but feature lights, sounds and speech - they're kid powered! Kids power the vehicles. And, they're cute to boot! They're slated to ship in the fall of 2008, and they promise to be a popular item come this Holiday season.