Attention Early Risers! Our very own Ryan the Toy Buyer (uhm... that's me) is going to be on CH Morning Live this coming Tuesday August 4! Ryan is going to be on all morning long with Lori De Angelis, live from our Oakville Mastermind Toys location.
And we're going to be talking about... BABY TOYS! Hooray! Baby toys are FUN too... and I'm going to be filling my tickle trunk with the very best baby toys!
To check out some of what we'll be talking about on MastermindToys.com, click here!
Be sure to check us out if you're in the Toronto area, and wake up at early, early... EARLY times.
-- Ryan the Toy Buyer
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Have you seen the August Issue for Today’s Parent? On page 26 Mastermind Toys has some featured items that are great for long road trips and vacations!
MindTrap puzzles are a great way to keep entertained whether you're in or out of the car. Geometrical Puzzles helps with pattern recognition and gives your brain a real workout (even though your body might to be able to). Geometrical Puzzles by MindTrap is a great way to keep kids entertained on long trips, listen to the silence while they’re having fun with puzzles!There's 3 different categories for MindTrap puzzles starting with Novice, then Master, and finally... Genius. These Geometrical Puzzles will pick your brain for hours!
Have you ever played Blokus Duo? Blokus Duo is an awesome strategy game. The goal is to cover as much of the board with your pieces as possible. Be tactical! Block your opponents while expanding your own territory! Every piece is a different shape, every move counts, and every game is unique. The Blokus Duo is a new version for 2 players of the famous Blokus game, and with its thoughtful design and convenient storage trays is great for the car!
eeBoo Travel Matching Games are another excellent way to have fun on the road, but shhh don’t tell them that they’re learning too! eeBoo Travel Games are beautifully illustrated and are small enough to all fit neatly into a small box, very convenient. Choose from 4 different kinds of matching games: eeBoo Colour Dominoes Travel Matching Game, eeBoo I Never Forget a Face Travel Matching Game, eeBoo Life on Earth Travel Matching Game, and eeBoo Once Upon a Time Travel Matching Game.
Travel toys are an excellent way to for everyone to enjoy the drive! Check out more Travel toys at www.MastermindToys.com.
~DanTheToyMan
The results are in! Mastermind's top Rubik's 360 specialist is Sarah from our Oakville location. She managed to complete the new Rubik's puzzle in an astonishing 15 minutes!!
Here at Mastermind we're so impressed we'd like to issue a friendly challenge to other Rubik's 360 fans to see if they can beat that time. If you can do it in under 15 minutes let us know! Good Luck!
~DanTheToyMan
Many of you probably know who Thomas the Tank Engine is; either your kids love Thomas and his train friends, or maybe you're just a really big Beatles fan... (Ringo Starr originally voiced the show. Honestly, though, if you became a Thomas the Train fan because of Ringo and the Beatles your Beatles obsession has gone too far).
Either way, Thomas the Tank Engine wooden railway collections exist all over the world. Now, Thomas and friends are great on their own... but recently there was a new addition made to the world of Thomas the Tank: the Talking Railway System!
It is very, very cool: the Thomas the Tank Engine Talking Railway System adds a whole new dimension to this wooden railway toy. Basically, the system is made up of special new Thomas trains, and special new "destinations" (if you're a Thomas pro you already know what a destination is; if not, it's any Thomas piece that the trains might visit along the tracks, like a train station piece, the roundhouse, a tunnel, bridge, haunted mine, barrel company... you get the picture). The special talking trains pass over the special destinations, and they trigger a saying or sound effect that's connected to the show! For example, pass the special Percy Train over the Stop & Greet Station and the voice of Sir Topham Hatt himself greets Percy at the station!
This is very cool because it ties in so well with the Thomas the Tank Engine universe, with Sir Topham Hatt's voice and other key tie-ins to the Thomas stories. It's also neat because you can start a new collection with a Talking Railway starter set like the Great Discovery Set and have talking features from the get-go.
However, if you're a Thomas the Train fan you probably ALREADY have a huge collection. But it's still easy to add the Talking Railway System to this collection! Just grab a destination piece and a talking train, and you're off; they all work with your regular Thomas pieces. So if maybe the little ones are getting a little tired of their Thomas the Tank collection, you can revitalize with the Talking Railway System!
Check out our Thomas the Tank Engine Talking Railway System Toys here if you're interested to know more!
-- Ryan the Conductor. Engineer. Toy Buyer.
Cool news for those of you in the East end of Toronto; this weekend, at our Beach store location, we have some folks from over at GoGo's Crazy Bones coming by for a cool demo!
They'll be at the store on:
Friday July 24 from 4PM-8PM
Saturday July 25 from 12PM-6PM
Sunday July 26 from 12PM-5PM
Come on out for a cool demo, FREE GoGo's Crazy Bones... and of course LOTS of regular GoGo's Crazy Bones stock available as well (it's pretty hard to find these days since Crazy Bones have been so popular!)
If you AREN'T familiar with the GoGo's Crazy Bones Craze yet, you can start with our previous post about it, as well as our video on the subject here:
-- Ryan the Toy Buyer
Mastermind Toys is in the news again! This time our Ontario Science Centre Gift Store location was written up in an article about great family staycations in Toronto, and specifically what kind of great stuff is available in the gift shops of some major family attractions.
There are 2 versions of the story; the first has a picture of your truly (I'm blushing).
And the second even has a link to one of our Mastermind Toys videos online!
--Ryan the Toy Buyer
Well there may not be an all encompassing ‘force’ connecting everything in the universe giving special telekinetic powers to Jedi Knights, but a new Star Wars toy by Uncle Milton Industries will give you a taste of what it might feel like!
The toy is called the Star Wars Force Trainer. Using a special headset, the Force Trainer lets you literally use your brainwaves to control a sphere within a plastic tube. By using intense focus, the user is able to raise the training sphere within the tower! How does the Force Trainer work? Is it really the "force" from Star Wars in action?
Well... kind of! The Force Trainer actually measures specific brainwaves in your head that are generated by intense focus (among other things). The more you focus, the more waves you generate. The Force Trainer then measures these waves, and depending on how strong they are, they power a small fan at the bottom of the tube. The more you concentrate, the harder the fan works, and the higher the ball climbs!
The effect is really cool; Ryan the Toy Buyer tried it at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in Germany and he tells me that it really does feel like you are lifting the ball with your mind. Very Jedi.
The Star Wars Force Trainer is from Uncle Milton Industries, and it is part of a wider line of Star Wars Science Toys that will be released later this summer. The Force Trainer and the rest of the Star Wars toys will be hitting Mastermind Toys’ shelves soon so be sure to watch out for more updates on this exciting new product!
You can even read about the Star Wars Force Trainer in USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2009-01-06-force-trainer-toy_N.htm
~DanTheToyMan
I can honestly say that I have never heard such a complete company history delivered through hiphop before... now we've got to work on the Mastermind version. K'nex has really thrown down the gauntlet!
By the way, we have brand new K'nex that is about to arrive at Mastermind... check back soon!
-- Ryan the Toy Buyer
Crazy is definitely the operative word for this exciting toy! GoGo’s Crazy Bones are all the rage this summer and are available in all of our Mastermind stores in Toronto, Canada as well as online at www.MastermindToys.com . If you’re just starting to hear about Crazy Bones not to worry, here’s a little rundown to bring you up to speed. Crazy Bones are small collectable figurines that are used to play games, of which there are many different variations; a few of the different GoGo’s Crazy Bones games are explained below. (This information comes direct from Crazy Bones’ website, a great source for more Crazy Bone information!)
The Traditional Game: Each player takes turns throwing Crazy Bones in the air at the same time. Your score depends on how they land.
On The Line: First, draw a straight line on the ground. Each player then throws a Crazy Bone (no rolling aloud in this one) and the player who’s Crazy Bone ends up closest to the line is the winnder.
Battle: Two players line up separate rows of six or seven Crazy Bones in rows about six feet away from each other. Next, each player takes turns flicking their Crazy Bones with their fingers to try to knock down the other person’s line of Crazy Bones. The winner is the first person to knock down all their opponents Crazy Bones while they still have at least one standing!
Bowling: Every player puts the same number of Crazy Bones on the ground approximately 6 inches from the wall. Each player then takes turns trying to knock down as many as possible!
Sounds exciting doesn’t it? There’s all different kinds of Crazy Bones available so be sure not to miss out!
~DanTheToyMan
On Tuesday, Ryan the Toy Buyer was the toy specialist providing information about the Rubiks 360 for an article in the Toronto Star! Click on the link to find out the details, and for more product information check out the post below.
http://www.thestar.com/article/665474
To paraphrase a quote from Thomas Edison, I didn’t fail to solve the Rubik’s Cube I merely succeeded in proving thousands of ways not to make it work! And it’s back to confound and delight us all over again, but with a new twist. No longer a square shaped mathematical puzzle; Rubik’s 360 is a spherical puzzle that requires dexterity, understanding of rotation and gravity, and you guessed it, tons of patience!
This puzzle is basically a sphere within a sphere within yet another sphere and the differently coloured balls all start off in the middle. The goal is to eventually move each of the coloured balls to their corresponding colours in the largest sphere. You can only do this by lining up the holes in the spheres so that the balls can move from one to the next, until they are finally in the outer ring. Not to worry though, once their in their proper colour slot you can lock them in! However, getting them there is easier said than done. The smallest sphere is weighted so that the balls are always at the bottom and the hole is always at the top, and once you’ve gotten past that little dilemma be careful not to let them drop back in because the middle sphere is all too happy to line up with the little one. And the fun begins!
I’ve gotten four of the colours in so far! (and it’s only taken 2 days!) This could be the first Rubik’s puzzle I ever finish! Good luck, and happy tinkering!
~DanTheToyMan
Check our our new YouTube video too!
If you receive Mastermind Toys' eUpdates you'll know what this one is all about! The Finger Blaster is a perennial favourite of children everywhere. It's easy to use and provides hours of entertainment (for us here at the office too).
It works much like flinging a rubber band but instead of a small and dangerous projectile (that stings if it hits you), it's made of a soft foam material that you can actually see coming, although to be safe you probably should not be aiming it at a someone. Here at the office we have distance competitions to see who can fling it the farthest! Ryan the Toy Buyer holds the record with 15m but he's convinced he can go farther if we go outside. This is a great indoor/ outdoor toy that'll provide hours of fun!
Be sure to sign up or make sure you've received our latest eUpdate to see what fantastic deal has been set up with this product. I'll give you a hint, it's happening this Saturday!!
~ DanTheToyMan
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