Our Ugly Dolls are looking for a good home.

Just arrived today and looking for a good home. We have most styles in the classic and 7" size for 19.99 and 9.99 respectively. We will try and get them on the site asap but like always email us and we can help you out.
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LegGo my LEGO!

Finally finished putting it all out. Probably won't go onto the site until December since we are limited in quantity. But like always email us and let us know if your looking for something. We carry the full line.
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Well Actually...

So far this guy is gonna be hard to beat for quote of the day.
Grandma says,"Does this Lego set look good to you?" Followed by a long pause by the 4 year while he stares deep into Han Solo's eyes. So she repeats again,"Hey buddy, what do you think? Does that look like a good set?" Another pause and he let's out,"No... Not really...... Well ACTUALLY it looks AWESOME!" Followed by a dance around the store making boooojah booojah sounds. Trying to imitate the sound Luke's light saber makes. So far I think he's shoe in but I'll keep you posted.
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Funny quote of the day.

So if I can remember to keep up, ill try and post something funny we've heard children or parents say in the store. Today it was a little boy asking Michael a very serious question. "Are you a stranger?" Michael was left dumbfounded. Only to answer moments later, "Yeah I guess I am."
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Iwako Mania!

Just finished checking in another shipment of Erasers. 6 BOXES full of smaller boxes full of even smaller erasers. Over 4000 of them! While not on the site feel free to email me if you are interested. We carry the full line and pictures can be found at iwako usa.com
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I think ill move to Australia.

New special limited edition copy of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day just arrived. One of my all time favorite children's books is now partially colored. Heck it might just fall into my All Time Favorite Books children's or not category. Every time we had a bad day or woke up crabby my Mom would pull out our copy at home and read it to us. Even though I never believed that Australians really had bad days it still made me feel better. It should be up on the website in the next week but email me if your interested before it makes it. $17.99 HC
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We've Gone Mobile

Now I have the ability to update more often through my phone so look for more pictures of new products we have found or maybe something cool that just arrived. Who knows what will turn up.
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We're kinda a big deal.

A few weeks ago my father, Bill Sartain, was featured on a local TV show talking about Iwako Japanese Erasers. Here's the clip.

I Love Monopoly

I love Monopoly! It has always been a favorite game in our family. This real life collaboration with Google maps has peaked my curiosity. Ill let you know how it is once its working again. But sounds fun.

May the Force be with You!

Star Wars Lego Chess Set. Found this today and thought it was really well done. Its amazing what people can do with Lego.


View more pictures at Brandon Griffith's Flickr

Marshmellow Test

Trying to be more consistent with the posts. Its hard but we are gonna make an effort to entertain and inform more often. On that note enjoy some entertainment. I found this the other day somewhere and searched it out on Vimeo. i thought it was too cute not to share.
-Casey

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

Handmade Toy Alliance CPSIA needs some work

HELP!! This is really scary for many of our toy companies. Without some serious change in these new laws say good buy to european toys and handmade US Toys.
Go to www.handmadetoyalliance.org

In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.

For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers and manufacturers of children's products, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.

• A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
• A work at home mom in Minnesota who makes cloth diapers to sell online must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
• A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
• And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of children's goods that have earned and kept the public's trust: Toys, clothes, and accessories made in the US, Canada, and Europe. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade children's products will no longer be legal in the US.

If this law had been applied to the food industry, every farmers market in the country would be forced to close while Kraft and Dole prospered.

How You can Help:
Please write to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys and children's products. Use our sample letter or write your own. You can find your Congress Person here and Senator here

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:02 PM on 30th October 2008

At 8ft tall and wearing a garish green jersey he's not the sort of chap to get lost down the sofa.

In fact, you'd think he was unlikely to get lost at all. But someone (possibly someone big), somewhere is missing a key bit of their Lego set.

The colourful character mysteriously washed up on Brighton beach yesterday spawning dozens of tales - soon to become local legend - about where he may have come from....

Read the rest at the Daily Mail.

GREEN TOYS

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 28, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Green Toys(TM) Inc., a company dedicated to providing environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional toys, announced today that it has been honored with Parenting Magazine's 2008 Mom-Tested Toys of the Year Award, as well as, named Dr. Toy's 2008 Green Toy Company of the Year for the Green Toys(TM) Cookware and Dining Set, among other accolades. Green Toys' line of classic toys uses recycled plastic milk containers to make safe, eco-friendly children's toys that do not contain phthalates or Bispenol-A (BPA), and meet FDA food contact standards.

"Industry experts are using new benchmarks for products they recommend. Safety, country of origin, and environmental footprint are now considered when evaluating a toy," said Robert von Goeben, co-founder of Green Toys Inc. "Our products are environmentally friendly, non-toxic, USA-made, and now, award-winning. Green Toys brand toys make excellent gifts because they make people feel good about giving and receiving them, and they contribute to the overall health and happiness of the planet."

Green Toys' 100% recycled-plastic toys save energy and reduce greenhouse gases. Being "green" also means doing business locally. All Green Toys Inc. operations are located within close proximity of one another in California, which helps reduce its carbon footprint by avoiding long transportation distances.

In its first year, Green Toys has received the following recognition:

-- Toys of the Year 2008 -- Parenting Magazine

-- 2008 Green Toy Company of the Year -- Dr. Toy

-- 2008 Top 100 Toys -- Dr. Toy

Green Toys products are available at over 2,000 retail and online stores in the US and Canada at a wide of range of distribution outlets including specialty toy, museum, organic grocery, and eco-friendly gift shops. A complete list of stores can be found at www.greentoys.com. The product line includes the Green Toys(TM) Tea Set, Cookware and Dining Set, Indoor Gardening Kit, and Sand Play Set.

Green Toys(TM) Inc. was created to provide an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional plastic toys while making an effort to improve and preserve the world around us. Green Toys' classic toys promote recycling, save energy and greenhouse gas emissions, and increase the overall health and happiness of the planet. More information is available at www.greentoys.com.

This is TOO cute not to Post

This is Moey check out his websiteCANDY VOTE. This was forwarded to us by a friend and is just too cute not to share. This little guy is conducting his own little poll is Georgia using candy as the ballots.

Where is Michael Phelps in Lego Form???

These are some great Lego recreations I found today of the Olympics in Beijing. They were created by the Hong Kong Lego User Group.

GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!

This is a fun setup Playmobil had at its fun park in Nurnberg. I Like seeing Playmobil in action like this so I thought I would share it.

A nice little write up.

This is a great little write up we received a few years ago and I think it sums us up pretty well. A good way to start off this Blog.

This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.

If you have young children with you, you may not want them to hear this program because we'll be talking about toys and how they can help your children learn and develop. So if you want to keep it a secret that your children might actually be learning when they play with their toys, I suggest you send them away from the radio or read the script later online.

I recently had the delightful opportunity to visit with Bill and Diane Sartain at their store, The Tutoring Toy Shoppe, in Salt Lake City.

Parents have long understood that with the right toys, playtime and learning can coincide. Many stores offer educational toys and games.

But often, parents don't match the toys they buy to the developmental stage of their child. And toy stores aren't usually very helpful with this. Toys are often labeled for a specific age group, but the labels can be extremely broad or inaccurate.

Bill and Diane felt there must be others like them who want to find developmentally appropriate toys for their children. So they opened a toy store to help parents do just that.

Bill has a business background and Diane is a former pediatric intensive care nurse, so they are naturally suited to the business.

The Tutoring Toy Shoppe has a myriad of toys and games for children ranging from infants to adolescents. As customers move around the store, the toys are organized from youngest to oldest. Because Bill and Diane want to make sure that each toy really fits, they evaluate each toy themselves based on their knowledge of child development. Often they have found they disagree with the labeling provided by the manufacturer.

Bill and Diane actually work with each customer to help him or her find the toy that matches not only each child's age but his or her personality as well, making the Tutoring Toy Shoppe the perfect place to find the perfect toy.

For Zions Bank, I'm Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.