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