Expect to find us buried in toys soon!

Whew!  It's been quite a busy few weeks writing up orders for the rest of year.  The L.A. Gift Show was a big success for us... lots, and I mean LOTS of reorders, a few new lines to offer you guys, and some new friends all came out of this latest show. 

We like to be a bit coy about the new lines (we all love a surprise, don't we?), but we can tell you this much... we have a new line of plush toys that has an online option for the purchaser to designate where they'd like the company to donate a portion of the sale to.  We also have a really cool baby line of gift sets and bibs and such with some really unique designs on them.  For the older crowd, we have a line of sunglasses unlike any we've yet seen, and some new desk toys to keep you entertained when you'd rather be napping.

As for reorders, there are just too many to list here!  One that we're really excited about is Maileg, which for us was an extra special order to place as we got to meet Hanne from Maileg, who told us all about the company and how they operate their own factory in China where their products are produced.  She's also just an all around awesome person!  We also found out from here that the correct pronunciation of this line is My-Ly (rhymes with Mai Tai), which broken down means "Play with Mai", Mai being the creator of the line and Leg being Danish for Play.  And yes, Lego is derived from this word as well.  But back to the products... their Christmas line is incredible.  We are so excited for this holiday season thanks in large part to this line.  We hope you'll love them, too!  We also reordered Apple Park, which has some of the most beautiful baby gifts out there (not to mention some of the safest and most eco-conscious).  We have reorders from Fred, Accoutrements (with some hilarious holiday items), Gama-Go, DCI, Douglas, Melissa & Doug, Thomas the Train, Schylling, Faber-Castell, Manhattan Toy (who has the coolest puppet ever coming out), TY plush, Pomegranate, Compendium, lots of board books for toddlers/babies, Corolle, Mattel, Hasbro, Shwings (so many cool new styles!), Green Toys... you know, you should probably just come in the next few months to see everything.  There's just too much to mention.  But we feel we owe to you to show you just why we've been absent from the internet for the past month.  You deserve an explanation, and we hope that once you see everything in person that you'll agree it was worth it :)

Re-order madness is happening RIGHT NOW!

And by madness, I mean that when we aren't checking in new items (Zombie Hexbugs!), we are furiously writing up new orders to get our shops full in time for the holidays.  Yes, we said holidays.  In October.  You guys are really on to shopping early this year!  Today is all about writing up reorders from some of our biggest lines, including Hasbro and Toysmith, so if you are dying for, say, Battleship, all I can say is it will be coming within the next few weeks, barring any delays from Hasbro (let's face it, it's had a bit of a resurgence this year!).  We're also going to be putting together a section of Landis' Labyrinth Employee selections with write-ups about the items.  There are so many great products in our shop that it's easy to overlook some real gems so we want you all to see why we love these products and why we think you may love them as well.

So before we jump back into the catalogs to bring you even more goodies, we just want to let you know that yes, we have Zombie Hexbugs, as well as a ton of other Hexbugs in at 140 N. Larchmont, and a new line called Little Giraffe at 144 N. Larchmont.  Little Giraffe is possibly our most difficult-to-put-down line, simply because everything in it is so very soft and cuddly.  As you can guess from the name, they do have giraffes that you need to hold in person to see why we wanted them in at Landis' Labyrinth, and absolutely beautiful, plush baby blankets that we wish came in adult sizes.  It's strange to term a blanket 'luxurious', but these ones are!  For a very special baby gift, this is something that we highly recommend considering.

Ready for the New Year?

We are!  We're sad to say good bye to 2011 (we had a most glorious year!), but we're excited to see what 2012 is going to bring.  And by this we don't mean the end of the world.  Based on how much our sales have increased year after year, we're going to be waaaaay too busy selling toys, wrapping toys, filling in toys, etc., to have the world end on us.  There's just no way we can fit that in during the holidays.  Which means we need to do some serious reordering so that we can continue to be a successful business.  So keeping this in mind, we're going to be doing the gift show circuit for the next two months or so, and we would love suggestions from you guys!  What did you love?  What did you not love (really, tell us... we can't test everything out, so we're relying on YOU to let us know what didn't meet your expectations)? And what awesome new toys/games would you recommend?  One of our customers last year recommended Rubbabu toys right before we went to the Los Angeles Gift Show.  We found it there, and it's been one of our biggest hits of the year.  And as fond as we are of telling the Rubbabu-suggestion story, it's almost a year old and needs to be replaced with a new suggestion story. 

As you can imagine, this means the next month we may be out of some of our regular items while we wait for reorders to come in, but we do still have a ton of stuff for all ages and interests.  As fate would have it, we got our Hexbug order in yesterday and NOT before Christmas like we had hoped, but that means we are well-stocked in Hexbugs now so come in and check them out.  We're also getting our Valentine's Day items in now.  Some items like our stuffed animals and jewelry are already out on the sales floor, but the rest like the Valentine's Day cards will be out the first week of January. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

See, we aren't kidding!  And what you most likely can't make out from this photo is the huge amount of Thomas the Tank Engine trains and sets we have in stock just waiting to be wrapped and enjoyed by a locomotive enthusiast.

Sooooo, in case you haven't noticed, not only does is look a lot like Christmas, in little over a week it will be Christmas.  We've been noticing that a lot of customers have been coming to us for those very basic, classic, everyone-should-have-one toys that the bigger shops are out of (I'm looking at you, Target).  I'm talking Slinkys, Magic 8 Balls, Mr. Potato Head, Play-Doh, Balsa-Wood Planes, Jump Ropes, etc, etc, all of which we currently have.  These toys make great stocking stuffers and are always a hit with both parents and kids.  For a bigger classic toy, we have Classic Fisher Price Toys, such as the Two-Tone TV, that just about everyone we've talked with had when they were a kid.  We also have an enormous selection of board games.  Just to give you an idea, we have Mouse Trap (another hard to find game), Connect 4, Monopoly, Guess Who?, Chinese Checkers, Cribbage and Dominoes, 4 Player Mancala (which I still need to buy for myself), Apples to Apples, Risk, and waaaaay more.  I can't name them all, but we have a nice variety of ThinkFun Games (Chocolate Fix, Pathwords, Cartoon It, Zingo) which are great for those of you who love solving puzzles and/or want a 1-player only game.  We also have Blue Orange Games, again, one of our favorite companies, which include Spot It, Tell Tale, Trigger (all perfect stocking stuffers), as well as some games for the below 5 set that are fun for the whole family (and are made from wood, so if you're avoiding plastics, consider these!).  And of course, Lego Games, which doubles both as a building toy and a game, so you've got the best of both worlds!

Speaking of Lego, with the exception of a few backorders that may or may not come in this month, that's it for our Lego Shipments til March.  Lego has very strict guidelines regarding when we place orders, hence why the long break in between shipments.  But don't worry, we still have tons in stock, including Alien Conquest (my personal favorite), Star Wars, Harry Potter, and more!  Be sure to grab them now before they are gone, since they do have a tendency to sell out this time of year.

Oh, and guess what else we have a ton of?  BEYBLADES!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We just received a shipment in, and we have (hopefully) enough to get us through the holidays.  These are the hot toy this year, so definitely check them out.  Another item that's been a big hit for us?  Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty, including the Thinking Creatures putty set.  Another awesome stocking stuffer and classroom Secret Santa gift.

"But my little girl doesn't like Beyblades", you say. "Have you nothing for her?!?"  We certainly do!  We have a full selection of baby dolls from Corolle (one of the best makers of baby dolls), as well as Littlest Pet Shop, Barbie, Squinkies, and of course, Calico Critters!  We are also expecting more Barbies and other Mattel items in any day now.  We also of course have art kits galore, and a spinner full of Scratch and Sketch Books for both girls and boys that are always a shop favorite.

We're still getting more shipments in, so come in and see what we have.  Besides what I've mentioned above, we're expecting more Kids' Watches back in (yay!), Hex Bugs (possibly even bigger yay!),  and more 3D Bookmarks from Bookmark Trenz.  There are so many more things that we have in our shop that I can't possibly list them all here, so please come in or give us a call and we'll let you know if we have the toy you're looking for!  And don't forget, we offer complimentary gift wrapping (gift bags with tissue and a bow) on gifts over $10, so keep that in mind when shopping for your gifts this holiday season!

It's going to be a big month for re-orders at Landis' Labyrinth

After checking through our order book, I think it's safe to say we're going to be well-stocked for the holidays.  Just to give you an idea of what's coming in this month (I have no idea where we're going to put it all), we have re-orders of the classic Fisher Price toys (yay Chatter Phone!), Hasbro (yay Beyblades/Strawberry Shortcake/Mousetrap/etc.!), ThinkFun Games (Chocolate Fix, anyone?), Alex (we can't have too many art kits this time of the year), Viewmaster (forget the iPad... this is where the real magic is), and Blue Orange Games, whose games we will be featuring in our post-Thanksgiving weekend spectacular!  Notice how we didn't say sale?  Now that we are entering our third holiday season, we're taking what we've learned over the past two years and hopefully coming up with something that will be way more exciting than a sale.  Our customers that come in on Black Friday come in because they want to avoid early-morning doorbusters and scrambling to get the hot ticket items.  So we're giving you what you want... a nice, relaxing day in the toy store with games to play (that's right, we'll be teaching you how to play some of our favorite board and card games), and art projects to do to get you in the right mood for the holidays.  We'll even have some warm beverages on hand to really make it festive!  None of this breaking down the door nonsense... just fun.  And if you do decide to start shopping, we'll of course be there to help you find the perfect gift, and we'll have both Christmas and Hanukkah gift bags so you won't even have to worry about wrapping.  So think about checking in over the next month and taking down notes on what your little ones are begging for, because believe me, we'll have more than enough toys for you to remember by December!

On Larchmont: A few goodies from Melissa & Doug

It's been a quiet week for new shipments (and boy did we need a breather from shipments!), but we did get two new Peel & Press Sticker by Number sets from Melissa & Doug:  Flower Garden Fairy and Mystical Unicorn.  We always love our fairy products, but the unicorn is extra special since they're just so hard to find, especially in an art project kit, so we're pretty psyched about this one! 

Like I said, we've been light on new items this week, but that's all going to change very soon.  Calico Critters should be on their way to us finally, and a huge shipment of Uglydolls shipped out to us today so we'll have those back in stock hopefully next week.  We also have an order of musical instruments from Grover-Trophy placed, and those should come in this month as well.  This is most likely our last shipment from them this year, as they tend to run out of stock by the end of November, so make sure to keep that in mind for the holidays. As always, if we're out of something, ask a sales associate to take your name and number and we can call you when/if we get it back in.   We're your friends, we want to help you as much as we can!