Big, BIG news for our Larchmont Customers!

Ugly, Fraggle, and Poodle are first in line to shop at our second Larchmont store.  Little do they know that the only thing in there right now is old carpet and some outlets that belong in Europe.  They should probably just go down to 140 until the fall to get toys.

 We know the rumor's been going around, and now, we can finally confirm it... Landis' Labyrinth is indeed opening a second shop on Larchmont Blvd.!  We'll be opening it at 144 N. Larchmont (where the old ticket place was), and it will be an expansion upon what we already have.  So the plan is to have the same toys/games, only divided up by sections, in much larger quantities, and to bring in some lines that we've wanted to have but didn't have the space for!  We are proud and thankful to the community for allowing us to expand our business and the Landis name, and to be a part of your lives.  It's getting so that it's hard to walk around the shop on Saturdays because we have so many customers in looking for gifts or just hanging out!  Now, we'll have more stuff to check out, and we're aiming to have the sections in each shop make sense with each other.  Of course, we want your input on this... what toys do YOU want to see more of?  And please, tell us how we can make shopping with us easier for you with the store essentially split in half (if you come into buy a puzzle, would you also consider a boardgame?).  We want to know what you want.

Squishables!

YOU

CAN'T

LOOK

AWAY.

I mean, really, how could you?  That intense stare... that squishy-softness... that utter expression of "Get me out of the toy store and into your life?!?".

Yes folk, we have Squishables.  We've been carrying them at our Manhattan Beach location for some time now, and they've been so successful that we're letting some of them hang out at Larchmont 'til we can get a full-size reorder in for both shops.  They come in various sizes and styles, so if you haven't seen them yet, now's the perfect opportunity to acquaint yourself with these guys.  And if you HAVE heard of them, please, let us know which styles you'd like to see at Landis' Labyrinth.  

The narwhal is my personal favorite... what's yours?

Rubbabu... fun to say, even more fun to play with.

If you read this blog, you'll know how much we adore Rubbabu, possibly the best customer recommendation we've ever gotten.  It's a squishy, soft line of infant/toddler toys that have to be handled to really be appreciated.  They're one of the most unique lines we carry, and one we haven't seen in major chains, so if you're looking for something different, this is the toy for you.  We have vehicles, animals, letters, and balls all in from Rubbabu waiting for someone to discover them. 

Why are we so low on Thomas the Train and Lego?

We've been getting these questions a lot lately.  And for good reason.... you guys love both of these lines and we've been desperately trying to fill in the shelves with alternate merchandise.  But, there is a reason why we're so low on stock on both of these lines.  For Lego, we should get a double shipment in very, very soon.  We've been trying to contact them for over a month now, and because they are such a large company, it's hard to get connected to the person that can make things happen sometimes!  But we're confident that we'll be surrounded by boxes and boxes of Legos soon, so don't worry, we will have them back.   As for Thomas, well, let's put it this way.  When a train leave the depot, it leaves a station, and until it reaches the next station, you can't exactly board it.  That's the case with Thomas right now.  Mattel is now the proud distributor of Thomas, but the train isn't quite at their station yet, and won't be for about 6 more months for us (not sure if chain stores are in this situation, but us independents are).  And the previous owner of Thomas is out of stock, so for us, the Thomas train is in transit and can't be boarded at the moment.  We still have some stock left, so get it now before it's gone!

The good news is that Schylling, one of our best-selling companies, is now distributing Brio!  Brio has been unavailable to American consumers for a few years now, but it's back, and we plan on bringing it Landis' Labyrinth in the near future.  Stay tuned!  We also just got in some large shipments of Hasbro and Toysmith (they do tons of good classic toys), so we're full to the roof with new goodies to tide you over til Lego and Thomas are back at full volume.

Yes! We can has Hasbro!

And boy, did we make the most of this last order.  Our quickest selling section, the 'boy' wall (I put boy in quotes because that's where I would have shopped when I was little and I'm not a boy!), is filled with goodies from Hasbro.  We're still waiting on some more Avengers items to come in, but we have the Hawkeye Bow from Nerf, the Hulk Gamma Green Smash Fists, and the Iron Man Tri-Power Repulsor all in, as well as some action figures that are selling fast.  We also have three kinds of Beyblades in, and of course, some great Star Wars items.  Also for Star Wars, we have a new line called Underground Toys in that feature talking plush and clips from Star Wars, as well as a Ghostbusters Stay Puft clip that plays the Ghostbusters' theme song. 

Okay, back to Hasbro... We have an assortment of board games turned travel-size, including Trouble. Hungry Hungry Hippos, and Perfection.  We also have the new version of Monopoly Deal in, which is different from the original Monopoly Deal in that you're trying to become the first millionaire, rather than to be the first to have 3 sets of property like the old one.  Another cool retro game brought back is Rubik's Race, a two player version of the Rubik's Cube (which we are also well stocked with now) where you have to replicate a flat version of a Rubik's Cube and be the first to do so. 

Some other classics back include a mountain of Play-Doh, a pile of Mr. (and Mrs.) Potato Head, and a couple Lite Brites.  And for other classics, we also had a massive shipment of Toysmith come in, which consists primarily of classic toys and goofy games and tricks.  So we are doing pretty well for summer fun. 

It's the end of school and that means it's time for camp and traveling!

As we had a customer come in today to get some care package items for their granddaughter, I think it's safe to say that camp season has officially begun.  Which means we'll be having a ton of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. in for small trinkets to send away to their children at camp.  Generally, most camps don't allow food items to be sent, and some even limit the size of the items to ones that can fit in an envelope.  Some of our bestsellers for camp are temporary tattoos, stickers (we have stickers from Peaceable Kingdom, Mrs. Grossman, and Dover), cool bookmarks (such as our 3D ones from Bookmark Trenz and Moovie Studio), and those little number puzzles that for whatever reason are a huge hit for campers. 

Playing cards, or card games like Top Trumps, are also a favorite for camp, since they encourage playing with other campers and socialization.  We also have a great selection of tin can card games from Blue Orange Games, maker of Spot It!, that would be perfect for playing on a picnic table.  Moving back to crafts, we have a whole spinner full of activity books from Lee Publications (including those 'Magic Pen' books that are apparently difficult for parents to find nowadays), and coloring books/activity books from Dover.  We also have some Scratch and Sketch books in from Peter Pauper Press that sell out almost as soon as put them out, so if you're thinking about picking one up, do it before someone else snatches it up! 

One of the best places to look for camp gifts is our classic toys area.  Yo-yo's, keychains, balsa wood gliders, jump ropes, Chinese jump ropes, jacks... all these and more make for great classic toys that your kids can play with at camp.  In general, try and find them something that either reminds them of home, or something that can be played with others. 

The great thing about all of these toys is that they all work well as travel toys, too.  We're getting a lot of families in looking for things to keep their kids occupied on flights and car trips, and small activities like this are perfect.  We recommend getting one small toy/activity for every hour that you'd be traveling, to make the time pass for the kids and give them something to look forward to.  Puppets are also a great toy to bring on a long flight.  I've sat in front of a family playing with a puppet and it was incredible to watch (and more importantly hear) how successful the puppet was at calming the child down and keeping them still and happy.  Remember, liquids are a no-no, things that make SOUND... big no-no, things with small pieces that will inevitably get lost on the floor... you guessed it, not a great idea.  Also, we have heard that sometimes modeling clay will get confiscated since it's similar to plasticine, so it's best to avoid that, though it seems that Play-Doh is okay.  Another also... it's nice to show up with a perfectly wrapped gift for your host's children when you arrive at your destination, however, the TSA does not like wrapped gifts, and will often unwrap them randomly.  If you would like your gift wrapped, just ask us for the bag and tissue flat, then you can put it together in less than 30 seconds when you arrive and have it looking lovely and fresh, not mashed from the flight or torn apart by the TSA.

So there you have it.  Have a safe summer, stop by and say hi, and as always, anytime you need help finding something, just ask!

Check us out on Melissa & Doug's Facebook page!

Both of our shops are participating in Melissa & Doug's Ultimate Summer Window Contest, and our photos are up on their Facebook for the whole world to view.  So please, check them out on there and leave us some love.  We won't know for a few weeks if we're finalists for this, but any support we get from you guys can only help us! Here are the links below, along with a few more close-ups of the Larchmont windows :)

Larchmont Village Shop Windows

Manhattan Beach Shop Window

And in case you're wondering, yes, these fine products from Melissa & Doug are available for purchase, and are sure to make your summer even more fun! 

Soooo, Battleship?

Now for another game review!  Sorry, this post is not of E3 caliber, but the game is.

So, we know the movie has not been the blockbuster of the year (we haven't seen it and therefore cannot pass any judgement here on it), but this GAME version of the original is awesome.  As in, we might like it even more than the original.  Hasbro, who makes the original and also this game, is great at taking their classic boardgames and making them into easy to learn card games (anyone who plays Monopoly Deal knows what I'm talking about).  You basically have two sets of cards in two colors.  You have your "ship or miss" cards, which you lay facedown on the table, and your action cards, which allow you to try and 'hit' your opponent's ship, play more than one card at a time, heal your hit ships, etc. Use a 'hit' peg card to expose your opponent's card that's still facedown to see if it's a ship.  If it says miss, sorry, but you missed.  If it IS a ship, it will say how many 'hit' peg cards you need to sink it.  Now here's the really cool twist.  When your ship is exposed, and is still in play (as in, not sunk), you gain some sort of advantage, which your ship card will say.  It can be a healing ability, where as long as that ship is un-sunk, you can opt to remove a 'hit' peg card from any of your ships that have been hit.  Or it can be a bonus card, where you get to hold 7 action cards instead of the 5 that you'd hold otherwise, giving you more options.  As you can guess, whoever sinks all of their opponent's ships first wins the game.  I love that you get advantages when your ship is being threatened, and it can really come in handy, especially the healing power, so it gives you the chance to really come up with a good strategy on keeping yourself in the game, rather than to leave it to chance.  My only slight criticism is that there have been times when I've been stuck with cards that I couldn't use and therefore, couldn't make any moves at all (there's one boat that can only be sunk with white 'hit' peg cards, which are usually used for exposing the ships rather than sinking, so if you only have red 'hit' cards and that one ship left to sink, you're stuck).  The game's rules don't make any concessions for this.  Our house rule for getting around this borrows from poker; the person who can't make a move can opt to discard as many cards as they wish for new ones, but that's all they can do for that round.  It's not a big issue, and with that house rule it's easy to keep the game going. 

We're running low on this game right now, but the good news is that we just wrote up a HUGE reorder of Hasbro, so we'll be getting this back in stock along with a ton of new products, and of course, old favorites.  There will be superheroes!

Ready to make some music?

We are so psyched to have a ridiculous amount of musical instruments in right now!

 We have NEVER had this much selection, all at one time, of instruments, but since they're one of our most popular categories, we threw caution to the wind and went crazy.  Now, we know you recognize most of these instruments, but what you may not know is how we came to select the ones we have, so here's a bit of info about that...

When it comes to instruments, generally-speaking, there's usually one company that is "THE" maker for each kind.  Schoenhut Piano is that for toy pianos.  Don't believe us?  Their website is toypiano.com;  they are that serious about their main product.  We have 3 (!) different models from them in right now. 

The one above is the 30 Key Classic Baby Grand Piano, shown here in white but also available in black.  It comes with a matching bench, some sheet music for early learners, and a color-coded letter-note bar to place behind the keys to reference.   The sound is perfect for a toy piano... very music box-like (if you love the movie Amelie you'll love the sound of this).  It also has 4 legs to help keep it from being knocked over by an over-excited youngster, compared to the usual 3.  Also shown is Schoenhut's Parrot Ukulele, which is designed for younger players with a hard plastic body and great parrot illustration.  And below under the piano, we have melodicas back in stock!  This baby sounds like an accordion, but is far easier to play.  You simply blow into the mouthpiece and play notes the way you would with a piano.  And it even comes with a padded case to keep it safe for years to come!

This piano here is their Piano Pals model, being offered in Red with a puppy on the side from us.  This piano is what first drew us to Schoenhut.  You can place it directly on the ground, flat, for toddlers who aren't totally comfortable with sitting/standing still.  Once they're ready for the big time, this piano comes with an addition to attach the piano to to make it taller.  This is truly a toy that grows with your child!  And the sound is perfect as well.  You can also see to the left of it a lovely thumb piano.  This thumb piano, which is based upon an African instrument called a mbira or kalimba, has a durable plastic body with metal 'keys' that can be tuned as you like.  If you've ever listened to African lullaby music, you've heard this instrument.  It's easy to play, and almost impossible to get a bad sound out of.  It also has two 'wa-wa' holes in the back to create a vibrato-effect when you move your fingers over them.

We also have this piano (the huge one on the bottom) still boxed up that is the ultimate in toy pianos... an upright spinet piano in Mahogany-color.  This is the perfect centerpiece for your toy room, and something that is sure to have a crowd of eager children clamoring to play it for years to come.

Moving on to percussion, we have something we've always wanted to carry but haven't until now... a complete drum kit!  It's got everything you need to bring out the inner Animal in you (like the Muppet reference?).  We don't have it out for people to play, since chances are, we wouldn't be able to hear our customers with that out in the open begging to be played.  But what we DO have are some top quality Remo drums from Trophy Music.  Which brings me to my next bit o' info;  Who or what is Trophy Music?  Also known as Grover-Trophy Music (we like nicknames), Trophy makes a incredible range of real music instruments, meaning, we would be comfortable recommending their wooden ukuleles to adults eager to give them a shot.  After testing out a variety of brands at all prices in a music shop, we found the sound of the Trophy ukulele to be just as good if not better than many of the ukuleles, including ones retailing for over $200.00 (the Trophy one is only $51.95).  They also distribute harmonicas from Hohner (one of the top brands of harmonicas in the world), as well as the previously mentioned Remo drums.  Remo makes some of the best drum heads in the world (as in the part you hit with a drum stick), and these drums are specially designed to withstand a 3 year old novice's approach to playing drums.  We have tom-tom drums (our best-seller), congas, bongos, and tambourines from Remo thanks to Trophy Music.  They also make the ever-popular Thunder Tubes that we carry, something that needs to be played in person to truly appreciate.

And there you have it!  We also have kazoos, clackers, egg shakers, maracas, and more in stock right now.  We get asked a lot why the instruments we carry are more expensive than ones you'd find at Target, and the answer is simple... you get what you pay for!  We order the best instruments we can find for children, ones that even professional musicians come in to buy on occasion.  So if you want an instrument that will last you for years and sound excellent, come on by Landis' Labyrinth!