In The Toy Stores.

Before Saturday, I get to take a fun little trip.  I'm taking the subway ( and yes, I look forward to subway trips ) into Porter Square to wander around two toy stores to buy a birthday present for one of Emma's boy-buds ( and it's not Crazy Ollie).  I love independent toy store.  I like looking into the dressed-with-care windows and walking around the interesting displays. Going into these places is fun for me because I get a chance to examine what I'm buying;  maybe even pick up a floor sample.  I can compare “Star Wars” Lego kits and see what each Playmobil set contains.  A trip to a good toy store takes time.  

Stocked with craft kits and building toys, these stores  are all revved up to foster creativity.   They've got truck, cars, and wooden trains, but those are good good for everybody ( right?).  In the name of  “pretend play” they have puppets, stuffed toys, costumes, play food, you name it.   All these things are great; not too girly or anything.

“Star Wars” has burst onto the scene for the Blue Group and the Kindergarten.  Emma hasn't seen the movie yet; but she might this weekend.   Still, she makes light sabers and draws droids.   I know the girls I know, and something tells me that they won't be asking for “Star Wars” Lego or Bionicals, no many how many cool guns and swords they have.

When they were five years old, Liam and his friends loved Playmobil, and that's good stuff. Knights in armor, pirates, vikings, there are lots of sets replete with all kinds of theme-related weapons.  Do you know how many woman these sets included?; not many.  Sets including princess and fairies are few and small.  The company has stated making school, hospital, farm and animal clinic sets;  girls like those, don't they?  Well, they do, and Emma does love her neat-o vet set.  It has lots of gear and animals.   I probably would have loved it because ( like many of my friends ) I did want to be a vet.

 Here's what I've noticed about independent toy stores, the older the  children get, the more “boy” the toys are.   There are plenty of toys with weapons and “good-guy/ bad-guy” themes, but there are few non-baby dolls.  When I was Emma's age, it was the same in my own house.  My brother had a small battalion of G.I. Joes (the tall ones with beards and buzzed-down hair), and they had a jeep, a helicopter, and a space-capsule. 

I had one very pretty fashion-type doll with a few accessories,  and I really loved her.  Honestly, I never was all that bothered. It was a young friend searching through the old toys twenty years later who pointed out a certain inequality.  I had no Barbies, and my brother had his own squad tricked out in top-notch gear.  Why were war-toys okay and busty blonds in high-heels not?  Mama confessed that she'd never thought of that, and the two of us had a good laugh.  When I tell this to my Mom friends who grew up in the 1970s, I have a laugh with them too.

I've cased Porter Square toy stores looking for dolls, and I've seen what they have and where they put them.  Funky-girl rag dolls, those are well displayed.   One of the stores in Cambridge has little fashion dolls with tiny snap-on clothes and adorable little cars.  At Christmas time, these dolls were almost hidden behind the counter and got pointed out if you  asked to see them. Now they have a better spot, ( on the back-facing side of a display table),  and there are always girls looking at them.  Those same girls might start taking their business to Target, a place with a  better selection.

What problem do these toy stores have with the idea that some girls like Barbie-type dolls? They do, you know, and they excel at Math and Science, go to college, and become anything they put their minds to.  Here's a challenge for toy companies; make a fashion doll that independent toy stores will want to sell and little girls will want to buy.  Make them with different skin tones and hair textures.  Get crazy, give them arms and legs that bend.  You can make the wardrobe plenty fabulous, but we can all do without the tiny waists and torpedo breasts.  Is this asking too much? 

Chain toy superstores have figured out something that seems to have escaped the buyers for the two stores in Porter Square.  They realized that some parents are spending in excess of $100 at a time on dolls meant to look like ( funny-looking )  latency-age girls.  That's another way small toy stores could lose a lot of business.    Some doll companies are making attractive girl-doll, and I'm sure that some parents in this area  would line up to buy one that costs   MUCH less than the expensive, “status” ones.   

Okay, now I'm back from my visit to Henry Bear's Park with finger-puppets and toy pandas.  That's what Emma wanted for her friend, and she wanted one of each for herself too.  Puppets, toy animals, love them both, and the store did have a good selection.  Emma may not want to do all her shopping there, but we will be returning.


Jamie and I have told Emma that she needs to get rid of some of the long-neglected baby-toys.  She has been pretty good about saying she didn't want to keep something when I asked  her about it.  Yesterday evening, she told me she thought it was time to give away the two bins of wooden trains and tracks.  It's a very cool collection, all inherited from Liam.  Emma and I agreed that some other kid would love them.  We made a “new toys for old” agreement, and I wonder what she'll consider a fair trade.