Dads Toys…..(call it educational)

Coming soon to ToyToyjac, Eitech and Teifoc construction toys and kits 🙂 These German-made products are high quality educational enhancing experiences for children (and parents alike!), both Eitech and Teifoc kits promote motor skills, creativity, and learning, and as such are highly regarded by both children and parents – teachers. We certainly cannot wait to receive our initial delivery of these kits, we’re sure they’re going to be a huge hit in the shop 🙂

 

We would be King…..

Our favourite game this Christmas? It has got to be ‘King of Tokyo’, although we have only played around a dozen times so far (it is still only the 27th!!) it has shot straight to the top of our favourite game chart!! It is enormous fun for all ages (8+, but we reckon even slightly younger ones will get the gist ok)… It is a great game for ‘non gamers’, in fact they seem even more keen to keep playing than the regular gamers!! It is extremely easy to pick up and learn (the aim of the game is to be ‘King of Toyko’ (surprise, surprise!) either by being the last monster standing or through accumulating victory points, it is primarily a dice game of sorts,  but with some great fun ‘special effect’ cards thrown in, which can be bought with energy cubes. The ‘Power Up’ expansion adds not only a great Pandakai toon to the game, but also ‘Evolution’ cards to all existing monsters….

The only downside for us, and we have read this elsewhere too, is the quality of some the printing on the cards, and the pieces can be slightly off, but in our copy it is only a couple of cards and doesn’t detract from our overall enjoyment. 🙂

So, if you’re looking for something a bit different next year, you can do a lot worse than the multi award winning King Of Toyko…

Watch Your Backs…. Santa’s on his way :)

Wow – it’s nearly here!!! Less than 2 weeks to Christmas, we can’t believe it…. It’s been a funny year in a lot of ways, and we’re pretty sure there aren’t many people who haven’t been affected in some way by the unique happenings around the World!!

One of the biggest surprises this year for us in the shop has been the massive affect of Cardfight Vanguard, we put off stocking it for so long, then tried it, and never looked back!!! With the UK high street looking pretty green around the gills, and no sign of immediate remedy, we’ve concentrated on trying to source and supply something a bit different than other local shops, and go that extra mile with service….  We’ve won a few, and i guess lost a few battles!!! That’s life :)….

On the run up to Christmas, we hope some the magic rubs off onto you, it’s still there, but with the constant bad news, and uncertainty, it has seemed somewhat elusive…. Sometimes you can look at life as half empty and despair, or it can be half full and you can make your own luck, and choose your own path :)….. Watch your Vanguard, Santa’s on his way….

It’s Zombie Time :)….

With Christmas racing up to kiss us unaware !! It’s the time of year some people bring out a board game so they can fall out with family and friends 🙂 Some people play them all year, and fall out constantly with everyone :p

Zombies seem to be just as popular as ever in the gaming scene, with the Zombies!!! / Humans!!! games from Twilight Creations ever growing in number and popularity, and ‘Last Night On Earth’, ‘Munchkin Zombies’, ‘Zombie Dice’, ‘Mmmm Brains’, ‘The Walking Dead’ (Comic version from Zman or TV version from Cryptozoic), and others – it’s looking like this year is going to be extra blood thirsty, but then it is 2012…. 🙂

If all the blood n guts doesn’t really cut it for you this year though, there’s always ‘Pass The Pigs’…..

Get Lost This Winter….!!!

With the nights starting to draw in, with the temperatures starting to struggle, why not ‘get lost’ this Autumn / Winter!! Get lost in a good board game that is 🙂 It has been out for a while, but we’ve just got the Discworld Ankh Morpork Board Game in –

“Lord Vetinari is dead, either that or he’s on holiday. While the cat is away the mice come out to play – you being one of the mice. You will be given a secret personality which will tell you what you need to do to win the game. If you are one of the three lords then you must control a certain number of areas (the number depending on how many players are in the game). If you are Vetinari (having secretly returned to the city) then you must have minions placed in nine different areas. If you are Chrysophrase the troll then you must accumulate $50 in wealth, which includes the value of buildings on the board. If you are Dragon King of Arms then you want to cause enough trouble to lead the city to welcome back the rightful king. Finally, if you are Sam Vimes then you want to stop any other player winning by the time the deck of cards run out.”

It’s a must for Pratchett fans, and fantasy, board game fans too!! If that’s not your ‘cup of tea’, then why not try the Munchkin games, or Zooloretto, or Ticket To Ride, Settlers Of Catan, Carcassonne or Cthulhu?…… There’s a board game for everyone, and board games are so much more than a stroll along the ‘Old Kent Road’, dive in and put the family into your Christmas this year 🙂

Back to it…. It’s Vanguard

So, back to school!! Wow, it’s been a pretty quick 6 weeks – Hope you’ve had a great time, it’s been a special summer, what with the Jubilee and Olympics…… Cards have been featuring pretty heavily in the shop over the summer, with Yugioh, Pokemon, and Magic all going well, and we finally relented and started stocking Cardfight Vanguard, and WOW, we really had no idea how popular it was going to be 🙂 – i guess it helps because i think we’re the only local shop stocking it at the moment, with the nearest shop being 40-50 miles away. We even love playing Vanguard ourselves!! It does seem a breath of fresh air to the TCG market, and if you check out Cardfight Vanguard on Youtube you can watch all the anime episodes on their official channel – it’s pretty cool (they are currently upto around 45 episodes with English dubs)….

Anyway, have a great new school year, and remember to watch your Vanguard ^^ 🙂

Feeling like Summer…… :)

Kids just broken up, London 2012 just days away, and Summer finally decides to say hello!! 🙂  In the next couple of weeks we’ll be upgrading our online shop’s software to a shiny new version (yes with bells ‘n’ whistles, and secure things, and lots of other improvements we have no idea about!!!) – shouldn’t have much effect to availability of the site etc….

Loads of new stuff in and loads of goodies planned in the next few weeks, we generally get 3-4 deliveries per week (depending on time of year) – some stuff we save purely for the shop (shop), and other items are just available online – it’s amazing how certain things sell amazingly well in the shop but not so much online, and visa versa – We love this job 🙂

Next week, we’re getting visited by some old friends –

 

Just one of the 17 items we know about (if something comes up – sometimes we just gotta buy!!!) hitting the JAC next week 🙂 Happy Holidays England – Be good……..

Happy Holidays :)….

Well, Scotland is into the swing of their Summer Holidays (and it’s good to see some familiar friendly faces from North of the Border too!), with England a couple of weeks still to go before they break up, the weather still has time to sort itself out, and hopefully the sun will make more than just a fleeting appearance (we live in hope).

Struggling to keep Pokemon TCG stocks up in the shop, the last couple of weeks has seen sales jump skywards, and it’s all ages too – from the younger ones who just collect, to the college kids getting back into it and playing. The new Scarborough Pokemon League (organised by the amazing Mr Lee Davis) seems to be helping too…. It’s a great game, and one card game we do actually play ourselves (the other TCG’s can be a bit too complicated for younger ones, whereas Pokemon TCG can be played and enjoyed by all ages and skills).

We’re looking forward to the new Magic The Gathering 2013 Core Set (in next week), as well as the new YuGiOh! Hidden Arsenal 6 Boosters (week after that)…. There always seems to a new release for the main TCG’s around the corner, and it’s good to see so many people, of all ages enjoying collecting, trading, and playing 🙂

Gotta Catch Em All!!!

My Kingdom, My Kingdom For a Pound!!

We’ve run out of Pound Coins – Everyone has 20’s!!! Typical Bank Holiday Weekend….. We’ve struggled to keep up the stocks of Pokemon and YuGiOh! TCG in the shop recently, it’s amazing how (after all this time) these card games are so popular!! – The New YuGiOh! Gold Series should be in at the end of the week, with hopefully some more ‘Battle Packs’, and more Pokemon ‘Dark Explorers’… It’s Half Term here in England (Scotland are going back tomorrow – We’ve got some really amazing, great customers from Scotland, see you soon 🙂 ), recent additions to our repertoire include – Jungle Speed (Raving Rabbid Edition), Ages Of Empires 3 Board Games, Pokemon TCG Mewtwo Collectors Box Sets, Coronation Street Playing Cards, Star Wars Mighty Muggs, and Crap Trumps (Crap Cars Series 1) among other restocks and goodies 🙂 . In other news we’ve joined the 21st Century and signed up to Facebook!!! (we still don’t really understand it tbh), but you can check us out here – www.facebook.com/toytoyjac , and even ‘like’ us!!! Lol…. How do these people keep their Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, et al updated constantly (it must be a full-time job, they can’t have time for anything else!!)…… Anyway we’re off now to check under the sofa, to see if we can increase our ‘pound coins’ tally!!! Have a great week 🙂

May The Force Be With You

They look cute, just watch your fingers !!!

We do like new deliveries, we’re like kids on Christmas Eve, ripping the boxes open with wild abandon!!

The new arrivals at ToyToyjac towers, includes Zooloretto, a board game based around creating your very own zoo!! (how cool?) – ‘Each player uses small, large, wild and exotic animals and their young to try and attract as many visitors as possible to their zoo. But be careful – the zoo must be carefully planned’. For 2-5 players aged 8+ it’s a great family game, and a Winner of 2007 Spiel des Jahre (the board-game world’s top award) to boot!!

Watch Your Fingers!!!!

Other new goodies include restocks of other Board Games, as well as some new expansions (‘Zombies!!! 3 Mall Walkers’ anyone?!), Sonic and Marvel Tomy Gacha danglers, and some card games, including the hilarious Crap Trumps!!

With new releases for Magic Gathering, Pokemon, and YuGiOh! in the next week or so, we’ve got plenty of over excited sleepless nights ahead!!! Sweet dreams 🙂