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Best Online Toy Store For Great Clearance Deals
I really like shopping at Fat Brain Toys, and I do poke around Amazon from time to time, but I just found this place today and I love them for this Toys Clearance Sale page. That page of onsale toys that is clearly broken out by not just brand but also individual show or movie is on AllAboardToys.com, a new website that I just found.
Now, don’t get me wrong, today is litterally the first day I have ever been to the site so I have not bought anything from them yet and I am not making any recommendation or comment on their products or service yet. However, this is THE BEST ONLINE TOY SHOPPING WEBPAGE EVER CREATED.
Why?
As any parent knows, just because your daughter loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, does NOT mean that she loves all things Disney. In fact, she might HATE certain things like the movie Cars because one time there was a box of cereal with a picture on the front of a little Mickey Mouse toy, but instead it had the tow truck from Cars inside instead. Kids don’t care about fine print or what is on the back, and they don’t forget either. Every time we pass a box of that cereal in the store she points and says, “That’s the kind with the wrong toys.”
Note to cereal manufacturers. You might want to rethink your marketing strategy when it comes to what you include inside your boxes. You might think that kids will keep asking their parents to buy your cereals over and over again until they get what they want, but actually, they’ll remember that you screwed them over and they won’t like it. (Again, they don’t care about whether anything was technically accurate or honest, the picture on the front is the truth for them.)
Where does All Aboard Toys fit in all of this?
From time to time I like to buy new things that have her favorite characters or whatever on them. Generally, I do not buy big elaborate toys but rather smaller ones that can bring joy for a long time AND provide the comfort of the familiar when we go to new places like restaraunts or hotels or whatever. Thus, a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse plate, or fork, or shirt, is a nice find. But, I hate the drudgery of going through 823 toys that aren’t right before finding the 3 that are.
All Aboard Toys fixes that problem by sorting not just by a big category like Disney, but by individual shows and movies. My daughter loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Finding Nemo, and Monsters Inc. but does not like Cars and really doesn’t know anything about any of the others. So, it is SO refreshing to see an online retailer that gets how their customers actually shop AND that does not change their sorting and categories when they put stuff on sale or in clearance.
On both the regular pages and the clearance pages, you can choose from Finding Nemo, Scooby Doo, Toy Story, Backyardigans, or whatever your child is into and the items pop right up with no extra junk and no shady “used” or “third-party” retailers like on Amazon.
My cart is already stuffed with great things that I didn’t even know were made because they were burried too deep in the rubbish on other toy websites for me to know that there are actually several Mickey Mouse Clubhouse playsets, not just the ubiquitous garage and “suprise” sets that I’m not really a fan of.
Once I trim down my order enough to submit it, I’ll let you know how it goes for the rest of the shopping experience.
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Cool Cash Register Toy
My daughter has this talking toy cash register
We got it for around this price, but had to pay like $13 for shipping, so this is a pretty good deal. I says not for children under 3, but that is only because it comes with its own “change” (plastic). If you watch your child when they play with it, or if they don’t put stuff in their mouth any more, it isn’t like the cash register itself is dangerous. If you are really paranoid, you can take all the change out and they can just use it with the dollars.
The best part about this toy cash register is that it has all of these built-in games and electronic learning tools, so as your toddler gets older, this will still be a cool toy.
Actually, I lied. The BEST part about this toy cash register is that it has a “scanner” next to the cash register keyboard area. It is really just a big red button that gets pressed and then it says a price, “one dollar and fifteen sense.” (Oh yeah, it talks.) Nothing is quite as fun to a child as scanning every single one of their stuffed animals, except scanning Mom’s hand and hearing “twelve cents”. My daughter didn’t start laughing until I did, which made it even funnier!
If you want one, here you go. (If the price has gone back up over $30 or $35, just wait. These go on sale all of the time.)
Cool Ball Pool
You’ve seen the ball pit at Chuck-e-Cheese and other kid places. Heck, maybe you’ve even been in a couple yourself. Maybe you’ve seen the toys that are similar and thought. That might be pretty cool for my little one. But, then again, if you’ve got a toddler, they might be too big, and they aren’t cheap either. Give up? Never! That would be defeated, and no one defeats your daddy.
Do It Yourself Ball Pool
It’s really simple to build a ball pool yourself. In fact, after reading that sentence, I’m sure you already have a pretty good idea of where this is going.
First, get a cheap inflatable kiddie pool. You want inflatable because your kids will jump and spin and fall around in the balls and you don’t want them hitting a hard plastic wall when they do. You want it to be small unless you are only going to set it up outside. Round objects take up way more space than you think they might, so keep it little or it will fill the whole room. Here is one: Bubble Spray Pool, 58" x 13"
Next, you need the balls. You don’t want to go too small or they’ll be hard to move around in and it will take too many to fill the pool. You don’t want them too big or it won’t have that “swimming” affect that makes it so fun. Something in the neighborhood of 3” is about right. They’ve got these on Amazon: 100 pcs Fun Ballz
If you want to get it even cheaper, start watching the big department stores. They are getting ready to start dumping their summer stuff so they can get out their fall stuff, and when they do, the discount. Pick up a dirt cheap pool and dirt cheap balls, and the new ball pit is all ready. As an added bonus, you can do other things with the pool and the balls. Just use your imagination; or sit back and watch to see what your kids end up doing with them. They might surprise you.
Fisher Price Puppy, Bad Dog!
My vote for the king of all terribly designed toys? This stupid dog. Oh sure, it’s cute, and it’s fun and it has a cute little voice and it helps your child learn about body parts, yeah, that’s all great. What it also has is the most annoying and poorly thought out feature ever to be put into a toy: the random turn-back on.
Yes, this stupid dog not only sneezes when you push his nose, he randomly says “Hug Me” AFTER your child stops playing with him. So, when your little girl or boy has moved on to something else, or even worse has decided to start settling down for nap time with a little quiet reading on Daddy’s lap, this inane dog will call out and re-start your child up all over again. No doubt this feature was included by the moron in marketing who longs to hear “my child plays with it for hours.” Maybe, but only because it won’t leave my daughter alone. Die, Stupid Dog, Die!
Oh, you think that pushing the nicely accessible On/Off switch on his foot will take care of it? No! That switch works the same way the “Push Button to Cross Street” button works at an intersection. In other words, it doesn’t. Try it. Go to the store, push the On/Off and listen to his cute widdle voice say “Bye-Bye.” Now, touch his Tummy. “Tummy!” That’s right, it’s off as long as you don’t touch it in any way. Hey, Mattel, you lead-paint using morons, Off means Off!
If you want it to be safely quiet you’ll have to pull open the Velcro on the back and move the little switch to off. Guess what baby wants to copy now?
It’s official. All toys with some sort of auto-restart or come-back-to-me type feature are Terrible Toys.
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