Main Event completes toy expansion for holidays

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

By Sam Petri

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-When Broadway Toys and Togs closed last spring – after the owners Jean and Andy Schwartz found the Town Square business to be “no longer viable” – it left a void.

Main Event, an independent book and video rental shop in the Powderhorn Mall, took note of the closure and leapt at the chance fill the gap by building its own toy collection over the past summer.

Main Event Manager Jacey Roche said the store has expanded its toy collection by 75 to 100 percent, making it Jackson’s largest independent toy store.
“We don’t have Mattell,” said Roche. “We have a lot more unique toys because we deal with smaller companies.”

Roche said one of the top selling brands of toys in Main Event is Melissa and Doug, a company that makes wholesome wooden toys for children. Main Event also has new takes on classics like Play-Doh, offering Play Foam and Moon Sand as new alternatives. And then there are Sea Monkeys and Mr. Potato Head, too.

Main Event also sells educational children’s toys by brands like Klutz, a company founded by three Stanford graduates who make how-to books designed for kids to create fun on their own. In the same section, microscopes and other science-related toys are found.

Other hot toys, according to Roche, are the Breyer collectable horses that girls obsess over, as well as Webkinz, which are essentially a Beanie Baby-style stuffed animal its young owner can register online and then take care of via the internet.

Of course, Main Event carries widely known commercial name brands too and tries to incorporate the brand throughout the store.  For example, it carries both Dora the Explorer books as well as Dora accessories and toys.

One of their most expensive items – and perhaps the least educational or wholesome – is also one of the coolest toys on the market today. For $135, you can buy two Air Hog Havoc Heli Laser Battle remote control helicopters complete with laser-tag guns. To play, you and a friend dog fight the helicopters, trying to shoot each other out of the sky with the lasers. When one Havoc Heli shoots and hits the other, the engine dies on the one that’s hit and it falls out of the sky. This toy has been predicted to be one of the most desired holiday items this year by several internet sites and has been commended as one of the best RC toys made to date.

In the coming week, Main Event will give customers a good excuse to stop in and check out the expanded toy selection as Nov. 7-11 it will offer everything in the store – including toys, books, even video rental punch cards – at 20 percent off. Contact Main Event at 733-7112.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for at Main Event, Hero’s Comics (26 W. Broadway, 733-8858) also has a selection of toys, and Mountunes (265 W. Broadway, 733-4514) just recently started carrying used video games for Playstation 2, 3, Xbox and Xbox 360. They should carry used Nintendo Wii games soon.

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Main Event completes toy expansion for holidays | Planet JH News Article: Business

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