A few of us from Amazing Station will be leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for New York City to attend the 107th American International Toy Fair. It’s a huge industry only event take takes up both levels of the Javitz Center in Manhattan. This will be our second year going and hopefully it will be much more productive than last year. We met a lot of great companies last year but it was all new to us and was all a bit overwhelming.
It’s a huge event that pulls in more than 1200 exhibitors and 30,000 attendees, most of whom are looking to buy product. Every year, Toy Fair is the launching pad of new brands and new product lines that have never been seen before. Some will never last the year, others will use Toy Fair as a spring board for launching their business.
We are very picky about the companies we are willing to work with and the toys that we will buy for AmazingChildhood.com. The toys must be fun, safe, eco-friendly, manufactured responsibly and preferably, made in the USA. Toy Fair gives us the chance to meet with new and current vendors face to face and make sure the products they produce are something we can be proud of.
We are pretty excited to announce that we are now working with RLT industries and will be carrying their full line of catapults and model kits. We received our first shipment from this week with our first three products from this company and we were very impressed. I put one together with my nephew today and we had a blast.
RLT Industries is based in San Antonio Texas. They are a family owned and operated business and all their products are Made in the USA out of natural products. All of the kits are made up of wood, twine and leather, no plastic or metal.
They make a variety of wooden model kits that allow you to make your own catapults, trebuchets, ballista, bridges, engineering marvels and even recreations of some of Da Vinci’s inventions.
The pieces for the kits are cut by a computer controlled machine to ensure precision and accuracy. The more precise you are when putting your kit together, the better your catapult will perform.
This is one of the first lines we have carried that is more appropriate for school age children rather than infants and toddlers but there will be plenty more to follow for that age range. You can check out what we have in-stock at this time on our Wooden Catapult Kits category page
I just watched The Rescuers for the first time with my two boys and they liked it but it’s tough to tell if they loved it or not. I usually get a rather subdued reaction the first time around, the truth will be told over the next couple of days if they ask to watch it again. It’s a shame because I often think the quality of the new style animation that they are exposed to makes it harder for them to understand and enjoy the beauty of hand-drawn animation. They loved Cars and Bolt and ask to watch it all the time but it’s rare that they ask to watch one of the Disney Classics we introduce them to.
I love watching the old movies I grew up with but they always make me a little sad knowing that hand drawn animation like that is becoming a lost and dying art. I love the new stuff too, I love technology and the new stuff looks great but I wish it wasn’t one or the other It’s a huge market, you would think there was enough room in that market for both styles.
What do you think? Do you ever think there will be a time for hand drawn animation to make the big time again?
Just in time for the upcoming holiday rush, we have added two new product lines to our toy store, AmazingChildhood.com We think they make an excellent addition to our growing selection and are proud to have more products available that are Made in the USA, safe for your child and built with quality in mind rather than mass quantity.
Mountain Boy Sledworks
With the winter months upon us, we have added a new supplier that specializes in high quality wooden sleds. The company is Mountain Boy Sledworks and they are based out of Silverton Colorado. They make a nice variety of sleds and toboggans and all of their products are hand-crafted.
Unfortunately, they no longer make the bulk of their sleds in Silverton. They are at odds with the town over zoning laws. The town shut down their operation until the zoning issue can be straightened out. In the meantime, the sleds are being made over in China. Now, we are not the biggest fans of products made in China but this is a different relationship. This isn’t some mass manufacturing operation where products are spit out under unhealthy conditions. The owner of Mountain Boy Sledworks has partnered with a team of highly skilled wood workers that meet the same quality standards that Mountain Boy is used to. The products are made from wood that is harvested in a sustainable manner and the quality and care is evident in everything they produce. The coatings and finishes that they put on their sleds are durable and safe for your children. They are heirloom pieces, they might cost more than the lower quality stuff you can get at the big box stores but they will last many generations. You can see our selection by going to our Wooden Sleds and Toboggans page.
Maple Landmark Woodcraft
We met this company earlier this year at Toy Fair and we were really impressed with the company and the product that they produce. Maple Landmark Woodcraft is based in Vermont. It was started many years ago when the owner was still a teenager. He started using scrap wood that was left from his fathers projects and started making toys and games for fun. Soon, people started paying him to make toys and the rest is history. Well, I am sure there is a LOT more to the story but that’s enough for now. We will do a longer write up in the near future. What we want to focus on is the wide range of quality products that they make.
Everything that Maple Landmark sells is made right in their Vermont location. They handcraft all of their toys, games and collectible products right here in the USA using Vermont hardwoods that are harvested sustainably. They use as much of the wood as they can and whatever left is turned into sawdust and given to local farms for cow bedding. You can see the full line that we carry on our Maple Landmark Woodcraft page.
