Author Archives: Jim Silver

This past weekend I ventured to BroNYCon at the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC. I had been to conferences like GenCon and Comic-Con before, but this was different. Leading up to the event, I really didn’t know what to expect and was a little apprehensive. It appeared a little odd to me; a convention for Bronies, mostly males 18+ who are huge fans of “My Little Pony Friendship is Magic,” a show whose target audience is 2 – 6 year old girls.

You’re searching for the hot toy and can’t find it. Is there a trick to finding them? Absolutely. Here’s a little trick: During the holiday season, retailers sell most of the toys on a weekend, with traffic starting on Friday evening. Stores want to be prepared for the rush, so they make sure the shelves are full for the weekend. Late afternoon on Friday is a great time to shop, as the toy aisles are full, and you’ll beat the weekend rush.

When you buy a toy that operates on batteries, often they are inexpensive batteries so the toy will work on the “Try Me” mode while on a retailers shelf. It’s important to have batteries to replace these batteries, as a toy won’t work properly on them, or those batteries will deplete shortly. If you’re not sure if they’re “Try Me” batteries, there’s usually a small notice on either the front or back of the package along with batteries required.

Timetoplaymag.com has launched a section featuring toys for kids that have special needs. We wanted our section to be different. Following our Real Parents/Real Reviews, instead of working with doctors we wanted advice from parents that have children with special needs and the experience is hands on. Working with Emily Vanek, our “Colorado Mom”, we’re thrilled to debut our section, which features ten different categories of toys. We’d love to hear any feedback or thoughts about this section.

If your child is 2 1/2, is it OK to buy a toy that is age graded 3+?

This is the question I am often asked: Do I do my shopping now or do wait until after Thanksgiving when the bigger sales start? Well, if you haven’t shopped for toys that much, you’ll learn this is entirely different than shopping for other presents

I write this column every year, and this year won’t be different. Halloween has always been one of my favorites holidays with respect to spending time with my kids. The choosing of the costume (always a long hard decision), trick or treating, and Halloween parties have made Halloween a huge event. (In recent years, the trend has continued to grow as more and more adults look to the holiday as one just for themselves and their families.)

We recently met with the LEGO team in their headquarters in which they filled us in on some exciting news. LEGO is launching a Master Building Academy (MBA) to teach children of all ages to become Master Builders. The first kit, Space Designer, is available June 1. What is a Master Builder? Stealing a line [...]

The holiday season just passed, which means your kids have all their new toys, you have time to relax and not worry about what’s new in the toy aisle, right?

Sure, you may think the political election is over, but what about the most important vote of the year. (At least to us at the moment.)