Attention Readers! We are once again holding our Winter Book Sale at Mastermind!

Our Mastermind Toys stores are up here in Toronto, Canada, home of the world's coolest tall building (you may have a tall tower, Dubai, but ours looks like a ROCKET SHIP) and also the NHL's saddest hockey team (siiiiiiiigh), and the winter months tend to drag on. People here know that this is the best time to grab a book, fake sick so you can stay home from school or work (I'm pretty sure our bosses won't read this... right?), and curl up by a fire. So what better time for a giant book sale??

The reason we have this sale, where you can buy a huge selection of books in any of our bricks and mortar stores at 40% off, is that we are constantly adding new and exciting titles to our lineup, so we often have to move out some of our older stock. These are all still great books for kids... junior novels, story books, and more... and it's a great opportunity to grow the library. The sale runs for only a couple of weeks, and it's only available in the stores.

So if you're in our area, drop into the stores to grab some great kids books, talk about the rocket-like quality of the CN Tower, and bemoan the Maple Leafs and their resolute stance on not winning (siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh).

-- Toy Buyin' Ryan
Also... is it just me, or does the image of the glasses on top of the pile of books make that look like a book monster with an angry mouth? "I eat grammar for BREAKFAST rrrrrr"

We have ANOTHER great promo on the go! This one is also part of Melissa & Doug month at Mastermind, since we have a great Melissa and Doug toys special ongoing for September as well. We just love Melissa & Doug:)

Here's the scoop: because you are special and know the wiley ways of the internet, you can have access to an EXTRA-special deal. The deal is for one of the more popular wooden toys in the Melissa & Doug lineup, the Decorate-Your-Own Wooden Princess Mirror! Normally this toy is $17.95... but you, the special friends of Mastermind Toys, can buy it for only... $6! That's $12 off! 67% off! Your socks... knocked off!

The kit is very cool: it's a fun princess-themed wooden mirror that comes with glitter, glue, sparkles, stickers and more to decorate it and make it your own. Click here to see some pics on our Facebook page! Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the most fair? Ryan? Oh well goodness, I am blushing.

If you live in the Toronto area close to one of our Mastermind Toys stores, click here for access to the printable coupon that you can bring in-store to take advantage!

If you would like to take advantage of this offer on MastermindToys.com, click here for access to this secret special online!

This promo is on for a limited time: in-store it is available Saturday only (Sept. 12, 2009), and online it is available through to the end of day Sunday... or until we run out (and we might, so act fast!)

Hope you enjoy this very cool special! Now, we have eUpdate exclusive specials like this going on ALL the time, so if you want access to more of these deals, sign up to receive our email eUpdates here!

-- Toy Buyin' Ryan

Well, the much anticipated Mastermind Toys Warehouse Sale of 2009 is finally here, and we couldn’t be happier! So far, the sale has been a huge success, especially when it comes to the feedback from our customers.

The challenge with any warehouse sale is to find the right space to hold the sale; our actual toy warehouse is always jammed with great toys, so we need a temporary space to hold the sale. Finding a suitable space is always a challenge, but this year we got VERY lucky… the 90,000 sq ft. warehouse that we’ve mentioned here a couple times has made the overall sale the best we’ve ever held.

First of all, we were able to pack every last toy that we had for the sale into the space, and even with a massively popular first day of the sale, we still have LOTS of great toys left (weekend shoppers will definitely notice this!). We have some amazing deals left too… we just sent out an eUpdate that highlighted a few of them. Check it out here! If you’re looking for a few backup birthday gifts to have stashed in the closet for emergencies, let’s just so you definitely won’t be disappointed :)

On top of that, the space makes for a better shopping experience then you would ever expect from such a hugely popular sale. Customers are bringing strollers, their kids, their whole family even, and still the space isn’t crowded. It’s very easy to get around and peruse the merchandise (because the aisles are so wide), and we have 16 different cash registers to accommodate checkout, making this process much quicker too. There’s even a big space that customers are using to look through their shopping cart at everything that they’ve picked up to make final decisions before checkout.

The convenience factor for the sale is great too; over the past few years we’ve had to bounce all over the city with the location for our sale (since we generally have to go to where the temporary space is available!). This year we lucked out: the location is right off of Highway 401 at Markham Rd (415 Milner Ave., click here for a map!). This spot is convenient for all points GTA; 20 minutes from North Toronto, easy to get to via highways from as far East as Whitby, as far North as Newmarket, and as far West as Oakville. And now that we’re pretty much through any rush hour traffic situations before the weekend (if you live in Toronto, this is just part of your daily reality…), the drive is even more convenient.

So for all of you savvy weekend shoppers we hope to see you at the sale this weekend! Swing by after work on Friday (we’re open until 8PM) or plan a family stop on the weekend (9AM to 6PM Saturday, and 12PM to 5PM Sunday; Our full hours are listed below:

Wednesday May 20th 9am - 8pm
Thursday May 21st 9am - 8pm
Friday May 22nd 9am - 8pm
Saturday May 23rd 9am - 6pm
Sunday May 24th 12pm - 5pm
Monday May 25th 10am - 5pm
Tuesday May 26th 10am - 5pm
Wednesday May 27th* 10am - 5pm
*Wednesday May 27th is Deal Day! - Additional discounts on remaining merchandise


It’s definitely worth the trip! Take a look at some images of our Warehouse Sale on opening day:







--Ryan the Toy Buyer

Our giant Mastermind Toys warehouse sale is almost here! The sale begins on Wednesday May 20th here in Toronto, Ontario, and it’s been one of the city’s most popular sales for years!

We have collected everything that you need to know, including some excellent sneak-peek videos which give you a behind-the-scenes look at this year’s sale, right here in this post!

As a reminder, here are the key things that you can expect from this year’s sale:

First and foremost:
really great toys! Our warehouse sale is as different from other sales as our stores are different from any other toy store. The sale is filled with items that have come from our stores, and so you can count on finding excellent quality toys!

Fantastic prices!
These great toys have been discounted up to 70% at our sale. We keep the inventory nice and fresh in our stores, and so our sale allows us to move some of last year’s favourites, and gives our customers fantastic opportunities at the same time.

A huge, open space for this year’s sale!
This year we were able to secure a huge, 90,000 square ft. warehouse that gives us more room than we have ever had for the sale; huge aisles, lots of parking, and lots of room to move!

Watch our videos to see what we mean!
Our 2 preview videos (below) were filmed during the setup and just as it completed; they show you the kinds of toys and deals that you can expect, and give you a first-hand look at the sale and the space!

Here are your links to all the warehouse sale resources that you will need:

Watch our first sneak-peek video preview, filmed during the setup of the sale

Watch our second sneak-peek video preview, filmed just as the setup was completed!

A quick update on our warehouse sale for 2009:

• remember, it starts on Wednesday May 20th and is located at 415 Milner in Scarborough. Click here for the deets!


• This year the space is HUGE… much wider aisles… much more space for the product… LOTS of room to move!


• And the selection of product is shaping up to be AWESOME!

We’re pretty excited because this weekend is our second ever “Webkinz Extravaganza Weekend” in our stores. Last year the event was a BIG success… lots of happy people with lots of great Webkinz freebies (as well as painted faces for the little ones!) at the end of the weekend.

What you might not realize is that a lot of fretting goes into this event- and into ALL of our events and promotions- before the fact. As much as we would like to wake up and say “You know what would be fun this weekend? A huge promotion! Minions! To work!” we can’t… mainly because we don’t have any minions (but we’re working on a team of toy robots to help us; I am hoping that the Wowwee people can make it happen).

Our Webkinz Extravaganza Weekend, for example, has a lot of planning behind it. We have to order the right number of freebies and goodies (too many and we have mountains left over; too few and we run out too soon!), decide on how everything will run in the stores, work with our different store teams to make sure that they schedule enough staff to have the event run smoothly (and work around any early summer vacations/midterm exams/family gatherings that staff may have!), get all the products to the stores in time, make our signs, eUpdates, digital animations (some of our stores have cool TV screen signs!) and everything else that we do to let customers know about the event… and all of this while running the day-to-day of a bustling toy chain.

Phew. This reminds me; I need to see how the minion project is coming along…

If you’re in Toronto this weekend, we hope you’ll stop by for our Webkinz Extravaganza Weekend on Friday and Saturday! For a full rundown of the promotion, click here.

Stay tuned… we’ll be announcing the details of our 2009 warehouse sale very soon!

Take a look at the great products people picked up at last years sale