The Adventures of Toggin, Tuck and Trixie: Part 2

When we left off our story, our little gnome friends

Took tiny mischief on an even smaller trend

Now let us see how their crazy caper ends.

They couldn't stay tiny forever it's obvious to say
But they could see interesting things along the way.

So they set off walking with a strong resolve

Their tininess was a problem that they could certainly solve.

Off they went walking, then they walked on some more

They were having a hard time crossing the newly large floor.

"Transportation," yelled Trixie. "That's what we need!

Walking is slow, we need something with speed."

It just so happened that not too far away

Was a towering wooden car display.

They jumped into a cool and comfy white convertible,

That they found some hot wheels was incontrovertible.

"Hey, what on earth are you doing in there?"

Stopped and startled, the gnomes just stared.

"You can't just go off and climb in a car.

Especially if they don't even know who you are!"

The gnomes jumped out of the car in haste.

Friends, not enemies are what they were trying to make.

"Sorry mister car, we had no clue at all

Turns out we've never been quite this small."

The car took a minute to give them a stare

Then he said, "Ahh, I'm just joshin'. Are you going somewhere?"

"Nowhere particular but it would sure be nice

If we could find a person to give us some advice.

You see we made a ship to take us to space

But instead it shrank us and left us in the same place.

And that's not all, I'll tell you what's weird.

Our spaceship said WHOP and just disappeared!"

The car gave a listen and considered their plight

Knowing that he had to do what was right.

"Hop in my friends we'll take a drive around

I'm sure a solution to this can be found."

They drove and they drove, turning left and turning right.
They drove for what felt like all morning and night.

They found all the drums that they had to just play
And a wise old elephant with many things to say.

They met a pearly unicorn that sparkled and shined
But a person to help them they just couldn't find.

Finally they met dragon who knew of a friend
Who lived in a keep at the toy store's end.

"A wizard with a wand," the dragon thus spoke.
"That loves mischief makers and loves a good joke."

So they hopped in the car who drove them again
Until they found the dragon's wizardly friend.

They talked of their caper and the mystery they found
And they had the wizard laughing and rolling on the ground.

"Your story is terribly terribly funny,
And I think I can help you my gnomish little buddies."

The wizard waved his wand and spun with a flair
And the air seemed to sparkle and shimmer everywhere.

Toggin just blinked and the three of them had grown
Everything around them was size they've always known.

They gave a great cheer and thanked the magician
Then turned back home like they were on a mission.

The Wizard smiled and could hardly refrain
From thinking he would probably see them again.

The End.

So many toys, so little time

Toys are a huge business! I realized this as I wandered up and down isle after isle at the Toy Fair in New York last week. It took us four days to see most of the couple thousand vendors selling everything our little ones might desire. It ranged from the one-person show to the multimillion dollar businesses.
The dad and son team who invented the Post man game: Which post man/woman can deliver ten pieces of mail the quickest. On their routes they might encounter vicious dogs or needing to go to the rest room which causes delays and other complications.
Then the sales guy straight from the state fair selling cutlery….he was there last year doing a great job on some ‘you cannot live without’ product which we did order but never received. Well, he was there again with the same spiel.
How about this pitch: ‘Are you concerned about the safety of your children?’ She was trying to sell a game teaching children how to be safe from all the horrible things that could happen to them in their young life. Fear based marketing! Does that still work?
But I digress!
Then there are the big players: their booths are completely enclosed with an entrance guarded by people with clipboards. “Do you have an appointment?” I didn’t. I wonder what was hidden behind those walls?
But within this maze we found more wonderful, top quality products that will fit perfectly into our store. This new merchandise will trickle in the near future. Some has already arrived! So make sure you ask for ‘what is new’ the next time you are in.

And….don’t forget the Train Fest this Saturday!

Adventures of Toggin Tuck and Trixie

In this garden of toys, once the sun goes down
And the store is closed and no people are 'round,
Three makers of mischief will often be found.

The leader of the gang with his sharp little noggin
Has a pair of red boots and he goes by Toggin

When he walks through the forest he can hardly be seen
For his jacket and trousers are just the right shade of green.

The two other friends: a pair like no other
Are from a gnomish family and are sister and brother

Tuck is the oldest of this sibling crew
With a greenish knob on his hat made of blue

And Trixie his sister can hardly be led
She will steal the show with her suit orange-red.

Together these three make a wondrous team
Going on adventures that one can hardly dream

One such adventure happened just last night
It was utterly outrageous, even out of sight.

It all started on a clear cloudless night
And through the windows all the sky was in sight

Tuck's imagination was held by the stars
So he spoke to Toggin about traveling to Mars

Toggin's great-grandfather had been to outer space
So naturally he assumed he knew all about that place.

He said, "What we need first to go on our trip,
Is our very own, very reliable speedy space ship."

So together they schemed and together they planned
Of things that could fly and hopefully land.

After many long minutes they finally decided
On a plan of attack so they went off and tried it.

They crossed the store, to the scientific kits
and ripped them open in a creative little fit.

They mixed and they matched and poked and prodded
Whenever they felt satisfied their little heads nodded

The Lego-like pieces of the physics workshop
Made the frame of their ship from bottom to top.

Since they had no rivets or a scrap of steel
they held the ship together with a magnetic field

And to ensure it had fuel it seemed a safe bet
To make something up with the chemistry set.

They were finally ready after much experimentation
And they jittered and twittered with grand anticipation.

They got in the ship starting it up with a whir
And the world around them turned into a blur.

Then as if a thousand people suddenly said WHOP
The blurriness cleared and the whirriness stopped.

The space ship was gone, it simply disappeared
though it is far less simple than the event would appear.

The three tricksters were left alone on the floor
and everything seemed much bigger than before.

Tuck asked the question, "Why is everything so tall?"
And Trixie corrected him, "I think we got small!"

The magical WHOP shrunk them to a smaller size
They could barely believe it, it was such a surprise.

"We are oh so tiny, whatever shall we do?"
They sat and thought and didn't have a clue.

But Toggin jumped with a start and quickly took charge,
"We must explore this world so large!"

But alas it is late and time to go to bed
You may hear the rest of the story after you have rested your weary head.

To Be Continued.

The Final Frontier

In 1977, two space crafts were launched into the vacuum of space with two missions. Their primary mission was one of exploration. They each circled Jupiter and took some pictures then, taking the sling shot approach using the planets gravity, went hurling off to greet Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. After sending the images and astronomical data about the planets back to earth their mission was all but done. The only thing left for them to do at present is to record as much data about the edge of the solar system with what instruments they have until their power supply runs out.

By roughly 2025 the power supplies on either space craft will no longer be able to power a single system on the probes and they will simply be hunks of metal hurling through space at approximately 17 kilometers per second. By that point they will be permanently dedicated to their second and lesser known mission: First contact.

Beginning is 1975 Carl Sagan began collecting images and audio samples to be converted into an analogue recording and pressed on a golden record which was to be put on each of these space craft. The 115 images and greetings in 55 languages and 38 sound samples were selected to provide the best accurate representation of Earths cultures possible at that time. A copy of this golden record was put on each of the voyager space craft with hope that at some point some one will find it and listen to it and want to try and say hello.

The Ocean Deep

Amongst the continuous adventures that I go on inside the store, I have most recently been traveling to the deep oceans of Imaginationland. Our stuffed animal collection alone encompasses 7 species of shark, 2 species of turtle, 3 species of octopus, 5 species of ocean mammal, and the Giant Squid. Constantly looking at these creatures of the deep leaves my mind to wander to the marvels of the natural world that live in the least accessible portions of our planet.

Take for instance the Blue Whale. Here is an animal of such large proportions, that it is entirely possible to drive '68 Volkswagen beetle through its aorta. It's not like this is something you are likely to do, but if you happened to have an old beetle and a spare blue whale aorta lying around, it's an option for you. Its heart beats at approximately one beat per minute (assuming there is no car in it's aorta) and it's tale fin is about as wide as the wingspan of a small cesna airplane. That is amazing! And the beauty of it all is: it survives on eating krill, one the ocean's smallest creatures.

More strange friends of the deep are the Giant squid and its slightly larger cousin the Colossal squid. Here is an amazing creature. The largest known specimen of a colossal squid caught to date weighed almost 1,100 pounds and was approximately 33 feet long. Colossal squid have claws on their extended tentacles as opposed to suckers and have the largest eye of any known creature on the planet. The eye is approximately 16in. across. Imagine having that guy wink at you! And estimates based on evidence gathered from the stomachs of sperm whales suggest that they get much bigger than that.

The deepest parts of the ocean have remained untouched by humanity since the dawning of the earth and have remained, on the whole, undisturbed by the happenings of the surface due to the extreme nature of the environment. Each voyage down to the ocean floor (of which only a small fraction has been explored) reveals a new species. There are even a number of species that have been seen once and never seen again. The ocean is a wonderland of scientific discovery and in this wonderland, works of the imagination seem to take form.

I could prattle on and on about the mysteries and oddities of the deep, but at the risk of boring you the reader, I will leave you with the two of the biggest mysteries (pun intended). We live in a remarkable world and the ocean is perfect evidence of that.