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.
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.
We now carry TokiDoki blind boxes! In addition to their Unicornos we also have some extremely cute Sanrio/Hello Kitty figurines.
We brought back the Bucket Builder Wooden Train Set and a new Wooden Domino Set.
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.
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.
Jean Curvey has new ceramics on display!
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.
Sage also decked out our front windows with some giant Halloween-y spiders.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
What's New in July 2024
- 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!
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
What's New in March 2024
We rearranged the store! As a result we now have space for four more displays. Here's the HotWings diecast aircraft display and the Iwako figurine display.
The board game section gained 20 new titles this month. Sage and I have been playtesting through them, and we're very impressed with some of the new titles.
We re-upped our puzzle section. Piece counts range from 25 to 2000. We also have some easier wooden puzzles for little kids.
We expanded our kite section. We've got regular diamonds, sport kites, delta kites, a box kite, and a very cool dragonfly kite. Butterfly kites are back in stock too!
We just got a huge shipment of PicassoTiles. We've got regular and mini sets, a whole bunch of characters, magnetic race track, hedge blocks, and a magnetic marble run. We also got some super cool "Canvas Tiles" where you can draw on them with dry erase markers.
We also have a bunch of new plushies, diy miniature houses, Pokemon cards, and retro toys.
Hope to see you soon.
~David
What's New in December 2023 Part 2
A lot is new since the beginning of the month. Here's 4 things...
Pokemon Paradox Rift shipments arrived last week. We also have some older sets.
We now carry Modarri. These finger-powered, customizable cars have a fantastic build quality and are super fun to play with.
We re-stocked Milk Carton Purses, and we now have Orange Juice too!
We have a few new Blind Box Figurines. New arrivals include Sueno Dream, One Bite at Aowoo, and Trash Kitties. As always, they're extremely cute.
We're still blowing out a ton of toys and games at 33-50% off.
We'll be closing at 4pm on Christmas Eve.
What's New In December 2023
This month we're open every day until Christmas Day. Here are our holiday hours...
- Monday/Tuesday: 11am-2pm
- Wednesday-Friday: 10am-6pm
- Saturday: 10am-5pm
- Sunday: 11am-5pm
We expanded our book section! Check out our handsome shelf...
We also expanded our plush selection! Instead of having Douglas spill out all over our store we now have it contained in two towers.