Thinker Toys

I’m thrilled that this unique toy store moved downtown from its old location in Creekside Station. Now, you can actually see the store, and it’s even centrally located! With a completely different feel from Incredible Flying Objects, two toy stores is definitely not too many for the downtown area: while Incredible Flying Objects focuses on… well, flying objects (and prank and novelty items), Thinker Toys has a wide array of board and card games, Melissa & Doug stuff, and «thinker» toys. There’s very little overlap between the two (what little I did see was yoyos and thinking putty, etc). The owner was friendly and knowledgeable — and young — and has the incredibly lucky backstory to have grown up with parents that owned a toy store for his entire life (That’s every kid’s dream life, right?). A lifetime «in» toys translates to an expert handle on which toys have staying power, and which toys are just junk — and he doesn’t stock junk. We’ll definitely be back!