The Nacelle Company, the people who bought us “The Toys That Made Us” bring us a new show “A Toy Store Near You” to help local independent Toy Stores get through the COVID Crisis.
When COVID-19 hit, it became apparent that a lot of the world would have to shut down for a while. It was obvious that this would affect everyone in some way and hurt many people in many different ways. Besides the health of themselves and their loved ones, many people were worried about jobs and how they will continue to support their families.
We thought we could imagine, but we had no idea the hardship this would place on small businesses. Especially our beloved Toy Stores.
The Toy Store Guide had just launched a month before things started to get bad. As soon as the stores had to close we asked everyone to help their local toy stores in whatever way they could. Live Sales, Online Sales, Gift Cards…
At the same time, The Nacelle Company sprang into action! The Nacelle Company is the production company behind the awesome documentary series “The Toys That Made Us”.
They immediately contacted Toy Stores around the country and figured out the logistics on how to produce a new series… “A Toy Store Near You” with proceeds from the shows going to help the toy shops featured.
I say “figured out” considering that with stay-at-home orders in place and travel by production crews all but impossible, how could these shows be produced? The solution that producer Brian Volk-Weiss and his team, including toy show executive producer Rich Mayerik, came up with was to have the shop owners record the majority of their own footage and send it to the production team to put together.
“A Toy Store Near You” will premiere its first episode this week on May 29th. It will be available on Amazon Prime Video, Vimeo and The Nacelle Company’s YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications so you know when a new episode is live.
Life today often feels strange, sometimes it feels like I have been stuck at home forever and at the same time feels that only yesterday I was living a normal life. With that in mind it is incredible that The Nacelle Company was able to handle everything needed to produce a television show so quickly. Footage, editing, paperwork, lawyers, reshoots and submitting to streaming services all takes time.
In today’s society, we are used to two types of release schedules for TV shows. The modern style of an entire season being released at once for us to binge and the classic style of weekly episodes that we have come to loath. “A Toy Store Near You” will follow neither of these standards. In order to get the episodes released as quickly as possible they will release them as soon as they can. This “speed of release” style is meant to help gain exposure and bring in much needed revenue for the stores as fast as possible, which is the main goal of the show.
This means that we will get sporadic releases that might not seem to make sense to us. One episode is scheduled for May 29th and another the week after, but Brian Volk-Weiss has mentioned that we may only see a few episodes released in June and that 5 episodes where almost done as of May 15th.
Brian Volk-Weiss also mentioned during a live chat with Den of Geek that finding sponsors for the show was difficult in this climate but was happy that supporters like eBay, Super7, Death Wish Coffee, and the Tribeca Film Festival were quick to join. You can watch the replay of the chat on Den of Geek US’s facebook page. The chat included Den of Geek contributor Aaron Sagers and Billy Galaxy of Billy Galaxy’s Toys.
Speaking of Billy Galaxy, the first episode will highlight Billy Galaxy Vintage Toys & Collectibles in Portland. We are happy to say that Billy Galaxy was one of the first stores we featured on toystoreguide.com. Billy has been a good friend to our site we are happy to hear that his store will get through this.
Brian Volk-Weiss stated that the second episode would be about 1313 Mockingbird Lane Toys and Collectibles in Lawrence, Kansas. We can tell you that the owners of that store put on some of the best live sale shows on facebook and really help entertain audiences during this time stuck at home.
So far the Toy Store Guide has profiles for more than half the stores announced for the series, with more in the pipeline. We are reaching out to the others and hope to have them all profiled by the time their episode’s air (This way you can come back here to get more information on them after watching their show).
Here is a list of Toy Stores announced so far, with more to be announced soon…
Billy Galaxy Vintage Toys in Portland, Oregon
1313 Mocking Bird LN in Lawrence, KS
Black Cat Comics and Toys in Burbank, California
Bric-A-Brac Records and Collectibles in Chicago
Chicaca 2.0 in Taipei, Taiwan
Cherry Bomb Toys in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Dr. Tongue’s I Had That Shoppe in Portland, Oregon
Eternia Dreams in Taneytown, Maryland
The Fan Fortress in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Farpoint Toys and Collectibles in Mays Landing, New Jersey
House of Plastik in Cincinnati, Ohio
I&S Vintage in Los Angeles, California
Imperial Castle Toy Shop in Pawling, New York
Jayden’s Toys in Lewisville, Texas
Kelly’s Toy Stop in Huntington Beach, California
Kokomo Toys and Collectibles in Kokomo, Indiana
Leicester Vintage & Old Toy Shop in Leicester, United Kingdom
Paul’s Toy Room in Parlin, New Jersey
RetroTV Toys in St. Louis, Missouri
Robot Robot in Chiyoda City, Tokyo, Japan
Rogue Toys in Las Vegas, Nevada
Smash Toys in Chicago, Illinois
South Louisville Toy Mall in Louisville, Kentucky
Spiral Toys in Shibuya City, Tokyo, Japan
Super7 in San Francisco, California
Super Happy Incredible Toys in Houston, Texas
The Batcave Comics and Toys in Santa Rosa, California
The Gnarly Toy Box in Lakewood, Colorado
The Toy Box in Glendale, Arizona
Time Capsule Toys in Girard, Ohio
Toy and Comic Heaven in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania
The Toyboys in Haarlem, Netherlands
The Toy Drop in Indianapolis, Indiana
Toy de Jour in Chicago, Illinois
Toy Fusion in Sacramento, California
Toy Stable in Tacoma, Washington
Toys From The Past in Lincoln, Nebraska
We here at the Toy Store Guide send our thanks to everyone at the Nacelle Company for helping to bring attention to these Toy Stores and helping the Toy Community.
While waiting for new episodes of “A Toy Store Near You” to be released be sure to watch “The Toys That Made Us” on Netflix. If you already watched all 12 episodes, then re-watch them! They are great to keep on in the background while you dust your toy room and the more streams they get the more likely we see a fourth and fifth season.
Article by: @toydelorean on Instagram