I had lots of fun on the radio show this morning with Tim (here is a link to his homepage: http://www.610cktb.com/shows/510269)! We chatted for a few minutes about hot summer toys, and I got to toy # 4 on my list of 8,312 hot summer toys. Oh well…

For any of you who were listening this morning and heard me say that I tried to stick the zart to my head (zarts are a great active toy for the summer… check out the Zarts Fun Pack here), I want you to know that I wasn’t kidding. I get a little antsy before radio or TV appearances and so I was sitting at my desk waiting and tried to stick the zart to my head. It will stick to almost any flat surface, but not my head. Not flat enough. I was a little bummed.

Stay tuned to this blog… like I mentioned previously we have another big PR appearance this week that we’ll be announcing soon!

--Ryan the Toy Buyer

610 CKTB heard throughout Toronto and the Niagara Region here in Southern Ontario! I’ll be speaking with host Tim Denis at around 7:50AM to describe our hot toys of the summer! Radio interviews are great and also kind of funny; we’re used to be on TV and showing the toys in action. On the radio we have to paint the picture in the listener’s mind’s eye, and we tend towards hilarious descriptions. Picture this: the toy buyer is sitting at his desk early on Monday morning surrounded by great summer toys, speaking animatedly and frantically into his phone about what makes the toys the coolest on the PLANET, resorting to silly metaphors and descriptions. Awesome. We took a picture below to show you what we mean…



If you’re outside of the listening area for this show you can also hear it online: http://www.610cktb.com/

And stay tuned to our blog next week… we have some other BIG PR announcements for you!!

Thanks to everyone who watched Jon (one of the owners of Mastermind and the chief toy buyer) on Breakfast Television here in Toronto on Monday! (Watch a clip here) We had a lot of fun, including getting one of our flying toys stuck behind one of their set walls. True. We also knocked down a very important looking light. We didn’t exactly “get in trouble” but it sure made us feel like little kids who just broke the kitchen window or something :) At least we told them what we’d done, and didn’t just run away…

We actually do a lot of TV appearances in and around Toronto, and we always bring trunks and trunks full of the latest and greatest toys. Right now we’re showcasing our “hot toys for the summer,” and this is mainly outdoor toys, active toys, flying toys… and all-around FUN toys.

Our TV appearances generally go like this:

Interviewer: “So what’s new and fun in the world of toys?”
Masterminder: “OMGlookatallofthesegreattoysyouwontbelievethemtheywillblowyourmind!”
*toys fly everywhere, madness ensues*
-fin-

More or less. It’s pretty fun. Here’s a few behind the scenes snaps from the Breakfast Television studio in downtown Toronto. Enjoy!

-- Ryan the Toy Buyer

Video of our Appearance on Breakfast Television

Some pictures on the Set:

Our summer TV season has kicked off! One of the things we do here at Mastermind is come up with a list of our favourite summer toys each year, which we then release to the press. We generally get a lot of interest from different media outlets because we always bring a TON of fun toys wherever we go. We’ve just prepared our hot toy press release for 2009 (see it here) and we’ve already got some great TV appearances lined up!

One of the big ones is Breakfast Television (BT), a morning show here in our home city of Toronto. The show has a really wide audience and it’s a great format for us to show our toys! Our head buyer, Jon Levy (he’s also one of the owners of Mastermind Toys) goes on the show and plays with a bunch of different toys with the hosts. Very fun.

Even more fun is coming up with what we’re going to bring on the show! We go through our hot toy list, and all of the different summer-themed toys that we carry, to come up with a selection of toys that would be fun to play with on TV. Obviously, we try to pick toys that are a little “flashy” too; hey, they’ve got to look good on the big screen. And for us “flashy” means “flying;” oh yes, tune in to BT this Monday to see some very fun flying toys!

We have our selection all ready to go, and we’ll pile it all into a van and leave for the studio at about 5:30 this coming Monday morning (May 11 2009). BT is live on the air from 6AM-9AM… watch for Mastermind!

Here’s some snaps of us getting our toys ready. What a fun job.

---- Ryan the Toy Buyer

Todays Parent loved some of our toys! Have a look here; they featured the Fropper Ride-on Toy, the Aquaplay Water Canal Start Set, and one of our all-time favourites the Jumpsmart Electronic Trampoline.

Awesome toys for the Spring/Summer… if you want to see them in action check out our videos:


JumpSmart Trampoline



AquaPlay




Fropper