To points east

The Toy Fair has ended and we are now in Slovakia, where we used to live, recruiting summer employees. Though it was our first Nuremberg Fair, and we had no real standard by which to judge it, apart from our experiences at the New York Toy Fair, we would call it a success. We discovered many, many lines of toys that we plan to import directly, and several that we may consider distributing if we can reach an agreement with the manufacturers.

In the end, we walked almost the entire show twice (excepting the remote control and model train halls) and thankfully, we saw a lot the second time that we didn't see in the first round! We hope to make this an annual event, perhaps even combining it with the Paris Gift Show in late January (for a nice peek at the Paris show, check out the Modern Tots blog).

Departing from our weeklong home in Zirndorf, we hopped the train for Munich, then on to Salzburg, where we spent the night (and Ryan spent the evening lolling about the hotel room with a fever). Then 2 dear friends picked us up in Bratislava and we are now in Trnava for the week. Unfortunately, Sarah now has caught the "German Grippe" and is in no fine state. Hopefully the children will escape it!


Tomorrow Ryan is off to NY for the Toy Fair there, while the rest of the group will catch up with old friends and find new employees here in Trnava. You might catch a glimpse of our kids feeding bread to pigeons in the town square on the Trnava web cam aimed at the heart of the old town (use the username and password listed at the top of the cam page).

Dovidenia!

On non-american interests

After walking through 2 massive halls (0f 12 total halls at Toy Fair) yesterday, one of model trains and one of remote control planes, boats, helicopters, cars & everything else, I have been thinking about the European demand for this type of product versus our own. Then, I ran into a former colleague today in the aisles of Nuremberg, and he commented that most Europeans have much more free time than we have in the US of A. They work 35 hours a week (as opposed to our 50 or 60) and have long, cold winters to sit inside and build their train sets, cars and planes.

And so, after their long winters, they emerge in the Spring to race their fast cars and fly their huge helicopters (this argument doesn't work for trains, unless we're talking about huge garden trains in Switzerland, but anyhow...). The hobby arts are dying off in the U.S. As a child, I was hugely into model trains, with subscription to Model Railroader magazine and the whole works (of course, I was a little nerd...). But now, you would be hard pressed to get an 11 or 12 year old American boy excited about a train set. And we built many model cars and planes, but now most big box stores are devoid of good car model kits. Maybe it's the toxic glue and paint, or maybe it's a lack of patience, I'm not sure.

Well, that's our observation of the day. Guten nacht from Germany.

New products and old friends

It's the end of Day 2 of Spielwarenmesse, the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany. At left is a beautiful tower in the old city, festooned with banners welcoming Toy Fair. Our feet are weary and our brains are full, but it's been a thrilling couple of days. The show is massive. I wish we could sneak some snapshots of the interior, but not only would the show organizers not take kindly to it, it simply couldn't capture the buzz of the place.

We have seen fabulous, brand new toys from Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Austria, Japan, Finland and many more places from around the globe. We always strive to find unique things for our shop, and that will be no struggle here. The only problem will be trying not to buy too much!

We are thrilled to have our good friend and colleague, Michaela "Mishka" Bodorikova with us from Slovakia. Mishka has worked for us in Lakeside for several summers and is now working on a Master's Thesis on the differences between American and European businesses and how the two interact. So what better place to do a little research! After our time here in Germany, we are heading to our old homeplace in Slovakia to find some more employees, because alas, Mishka will not come again this summer.

It's hard to choose one representative toy to show how much fun we're having here. There are updates on existing products (Bilibo Pixel "dice", anyone? Trust us, it's great!) and totally new concepts (a construction kit made of colored felt and wooden screws? We're in!). Perhaps one good example is this little contraption:

Sturdy enough to support my 200 pound frame, this deceptively simple device could scoot a child up and down the street in no time! First impressions? Let us know!

Well, we've miles to go here, so it's off for a night's rest. In the mean time, please write to us and let us know what you think we should be looking for!

hi ho, hi ho, to Germany we go!

We have embarked on one of our most ambitious ventures to date! Thus the first post in quite some time. Yesterday we arrived in Germany for the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg. The fair starts on February 1st, but we wanted to give ourselves a couple of days to adjust and settle in. We have brought our 1 and 3 year old as well (the real workers at Kids on Third Street!) along for the journey.

We are staying in Zirndorf, about 30 minutes by rail from Nuremberg. Our lodging for the week is a lovingly restored flat owned by the oh-so-gracious Eder family. For the kids, the best part about the flat are the resident cats, Einstein and Mowgli. We love the location and attention to detail of this Ferienwohnungen or "holiday apartment".


The highlight of the second day (today, 1/30), though, was certainly the Playmobil Fun Park! Truly amazing. We think they will be there more days than not. And if we weren't working at Toy Fair, we might too!


So, tomorrow, one more planning day, and then Thursday we begin shopping. Our hope is to sleuth out more rarely seen European (or other parts of the world) toys to bring back to our store.

on the appropriateness of film

The credit for this post goes to my mother.

Last week, my mom emailed me a link to an article in the Denver Post entitled "Worms and Butterflies - or 'Shrek'", an insightful article about the innocence of childhood, or the lack thereof, when it comes to "kids'" films such as Shrek, Aladdin, Cars, the recent Barnyard, and countless others. These movie creations are targeted at both kids and adults, with a blend of humor for each. Typically, author Michael P. Mazenko points out, parents argue that the adult humor portions (often either sexual or cynical -- or both-- in my opinion) go right over the kids' heads. Not so, he says. I won't rehash the whole article here; much better to read it for yourself.

Kudos to Mr. Mazenko, a high school English teacher with a young son himself, for stating such a clear argument ranging from Neil Postman (a personal favorite) to sitcoms to fashion. He notes that just as adult humor is increasingly peddled to children, so is adult couture. We certainly find this to be true in our life of late : as my wife shops for clothing for our 3-year-old daughter, she is hard-pressed to find anything that isn't in this general toddler fashion trend. Crazy.

Do I sound like an old man when I ask "what's the world coming to?"

Send 'em stacking

This summer has been a tumultuous one for one of our favorite suppliers, Plan Toys. Until June 2006, Plan was distributed by Brio, with whom any parent is familiar. Brio has fallen on hard times, though, and is now part of the K'nex company (a strange marriage, indeed), and Plan Toys is on their own.

The great news, though, is that some of our favorite items are available again from Plan that were not available from Brio. One of those is the Fun Stacker, an odd little object that is never far from the coffee table in our living room. To be honest, it gets as much attention from the adults as from the kids. Really endless possibilities of arrangement and connection.

We treasure Plan Toys for their sturdy yet elegant designs and their wide-ranging and unique product offerings. From pounding benches to working cranes, water blocks to xylophones, they have it all!

Rainy days in Lakeside

As if to confirm that summer is over here in this resort town, the rain has been falling for days and the skies are a still grey. But, at least it encourages me to stay inside and keep working!


We are working hard to get more items up online every day and are preparing madly for our first show, Jubilee! at the Columbus School for Girls in Columbus, Ohio. Last year, this was our first show ever and we loved the location, the organizers and the other vendors. CSG is located in Bexley, a beautfiul community within Columbus that is worth a visit itself. We hope to see you there!

One year anniversary....of being absent!

Ok, folks. Shame on us. Believe it or not, we finally got inspired to get back on the ol' blog horse tonight, and once logged on, we realized that it has been one year to the day since our last post. Shame, shame.


But, the past is behind us, water under the bridge and all that. The good news is that part of the reason (aka excuse) for our absence is that it has been a very busy year. We are now bringing hundreds of fine toys and other kidgear to eBay and Amazon among other places. These two huge marketplaces have kept us hopping and customer response has been great! So, thanks to all of you who shop with us through all kinds of methods.


We have also been busy in Lakeside. This summer was another crazy one, and our sister store, Home on Third Street continues to thrive and grow. Its shopping site is coming soon!


This Fall we will be doing 4 travelling shows, bringing us to Columbus and Perrysburg, Ohio; Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and Lake Forest, Illinois. More information soon on those shows.


So there -- for those of you paying attention, we're back. We are committed to keeping this up this fall -- striving for daily, but at least semi-daily -- with new posts. Til then--

The Minds of Boys: observations about hands-on toys

Listening to the Diane Rehm show on Friday, I heard a remarkable comment by Michael Gurian, author of The Minds of Boys. He and Diane were discussing the impact of screen time (tv, movies, video games) on the growing brains of kids, and here's the idea that struck me: children's brains grow and develop based on their physical interactions with three-dimensional objects in real space and time. That is, when children handle objects and interact with the world, they are growing brain tissue as they learn about the world. By contrast, when kids are in front of a screen, that medium (video, tv, etc.) is what is dealing with the 3-d world, doing the work for them, so brains are not developing in the way that they are designed. This is just one of the reasons that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television for kids younger than 2 years old.



One more comment from Mr. Gurian that struck me: if you compare a 12-year-old child who has used a computer since they were 2 years old with a 12-year-old child who is introduced to computers at 12 years of age, within 2 weeks of introducing a computer to the latter child, the computer proficiency of the two will be nearly the same. I hear many parents say that their kids will fall behind if they do not start them on computers (or video games) at a young age, but this seems to be a misunderstanding and perhaps an underestimation of how quickly kids are able to learn.

"is a ball...is two balls"

Last week we received the latest product from Bilibo creator Alex Hochstrasser, the Babal. Simply, Babal is a large ball with a smaller ball nested inside of it. I liked it, but would kids? I immediately cracked one open and gave it to my daugher (2) and her cousins (2 and 4), and they took to it right away. It's a giant fist, it's a hat, it's a game...but the best moment was when Eli, upon being asked "what is this Eli?" said "is a ball..is two balls!" Which, coincidentally (or not) is what it says on the package! Amazing. Anyway, you can see more about Babal here. This toy is all imagination with 3-dimensional spaces. More about the benefits of this coming tomorrow!

End of Summer

Well, it's official. Labor Day has come and gone, closing ceremonies have concluded, and the fireworks have punctuated another Lakeside summer. We breathe a sigh of relief in one moment, but the next moment we are gearing up for two holiday shopping fairs that we are participating in this fall, Jubilee at the Columbus School for Girls in Columbus (Bexley) Ohio, which is October 6-9, and then Kingswood Giftorama at the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, running November 11-13. We hope that you will come see us there! We will have many new products for Fall and, of course, lots of hands-on fun for kids and adults alike.

Final Holiday of the Summer

Here's a photo from the last big summer event - preparing for the 4th of July parade here in Lakeside. Hard to believe that it was almost 2 months ago! Now we are on the verge of Labor Day weekend, preparing for our big holiday sale and the official end of the summer. Saying goodbye to friends, both newly-made and time-tested. Until next summer. I enjoy the seasonality of Lakeside -- always ends, times for reflection, and new beginnings. And looking forward to seeing what the next 9 months until summer brings our way.

Mountain Buggy - a life with two children

So after being devoted users of the Bugaboo Frog for 2 years, we recently faced the reality of two kids and a single stroller! On a recent trip to New York, I spied the Mountain Buggy on the streets and stopped a couple of (reticent) mothers/nannies to ask them about the stroller. We ended up purchasing the Urban Double and liked it so much that we became a retailer! As with all of the products we sell, we are firm believers in real-world testing. We have Charles (3 months old) in the carrycot and Isabel (2 years) in the regular seat, side-by-side. Comfort for all! Sure makes life easier around Lakeside, where walking is the default means of transportation. You can see our selection of Mountain Buggies here.

First Post

Our thought in creating this blog is have a place to talk about play for kids, recommend new toys, share store developments, and stay in touch (especially with our loyal Lakeside summer customers!) all year 'round. Stay tuned!