Monday, May 31, 2010

Happy Memorial Day!


Get out from attic or basement and stop playing with the trains for one minute! Honor our the Great Women and Men of the United States Armed Forces!

Marc

Monday, May 24, 2010

Spring Windup

You have to check this out. This is some kind of festival in Denver, CO that celebrates wind up trains and toys. Go in about 2 minutes and 45 seconds. This is one of the best Youtubes I have seen in years...




Marc

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Trains at Hamleys

So I am hanging out in London today and my cab flips by Hamleys. Hamleys is easily one of best toy stores anywhere in the world. It's well into the class of FAO Schwarz and a few others (I've mentioned them periodically on the blog).

Suffice to say, they have 7 floors of amazing toy goodness. And to cap it off, they have a really nice British Toy Train area. I didn't take too many pics, I felt kind of wierd as I was taking pictures in a toy store. I just had to capture a few for the blog.


Above - they had quite a few wonderful Hornby OO sets. Very reasonably priced as well. I was tempted... But I didn't. Tons of Scaletrix race cars as well.

Lots of wonderful trains in the display cabinet. They had a tremendous number of buildings and options to choose from as well.

This is where it got interesting. Some seriously nice Basset Lowke in the displays. I've always seen Basset Lowke pop up and I never got why people like it so much. I'd never seen it in person. Got it now!

More seriously nice Basset Lowke above.

A really cool remote control car display. The cars where whizzing around in front of the display controlled by hoards of kids. I liked this store because they really do run almost everything in the store. They have wonderful displays plus incredibly helpful staff demonstrating product and giving advice. Checking out took all of 1 minute (not kidding). Probably the best toy buying experience of my life. The store isn't inexpensive or cheap to be sure, however the access to the selection and quality is worth it. This is an old line toy store that everyone should try and visit if you are in the UK. These kinds of places carry a special magic that just doesn't exist anymore. I guarantee whether you are 8 months old or 80 years old, you'll like this place (plus they do have a running train layout with slot cars).


Marc