Etch-A-Sketch and Plasticine

Just a quick post today, to let you know about the new arrival of a couple of Bus Stop's own childhood favourites. OK, so we're going back a few years, but Etch-A-Sketch and Plasticine are two brands which have stood the test of time and we're extremelly proud to have brought them into our line up. They're still every bit as much fun as they've always been. (And we should know, we've been doing some, erm, "product testing" in the shop here.)

You can check out all our Arts and Crafts products by starting here.

New Yu-Gi-Oh! Releases

Just a quick update for all our Yu-Gi-Oh! regulars out there. Today sees the launch of two new Yu-Gi-Oh! products.

First up, there's the new Yu-Gi-Oh! Structure Deck, Spellcaster's Command - With half a dozen new cards and reprints of old rare Spellcaster cards, it's a must have for any player.

Second up, we have the 2009 Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Tin. Yu-Gi-Oh! tins are always good value for money and this year's Easter Tin is no exception. 3 Yusei Duelist Packs, 1 Duelist Genesis Booster, a 3 card preview of Raging Battle. You want even more? OK, how about Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode as the exclusive card. An essential purchase.

To view our full Yu-Gi-Oh! range, go here.

Gorgeous New Snuggle Pods

It's that time of year, with everyone's new ranges coming out, that there is a queue of things to mention in this blog. However Snuggle Pods just had to be near the top of the queue.

Snuggle Pods are one of our favourite baby products that we sell - in fact at home, Daughter The Eldest adores the two original Snuggle Pods - we were therefore naturaly excited to discover two additions to the range. We can now unveil for you Snuggle Bug (pictured) and Hunny Bunny. The whole range are on our Manhattan Baby and Toddler page. Enjoy!

Latest Sylvanian Families - Applewood Department Store

Just a quick update on the latest additions to our Sylvanian Families range - now in stock is the gorgeous Applewood Department Store - where all the smart families in Sylvania do their shopping. Packed with over 200 pieces this is another incredible addition to the Sylvanian Families range and a must have for any collector.

We've also added the Golden Labrador and Pig families, so be sure to check those out too.

View our full Sylvanian range here.

Pokemon Platinum Easter Tins Arrive

Now in stock (and I know we always say it, but please buy them quickly if you want them!) are the brand-new Pokemon Easter Tins.

There are three tins to collect this Easter, featuring Level X versions of three of the hottest Pokemon in the game: Shaymin, Giratina and Dialga. As usual, as well as the very special Level X card, they contain 4 booster packs - this time out, they're all from the recent Platinum release - making them excellent value for money.

Jump on over to the website for more information and to buy the new Pokemon Tins.

Puzzibits - All Back In Stock

Just a quick note to let you know that our delivery of one of our favourite toys of the moment, Puzzibits, has arrived. If you're an experienced Puzzibitter, then you'll be interested in the three new designs we've brought in - Summer's Day, Bugs Galore and the giant Super Safari (pictured). If you've yet to try Puzzibits, then what are you waiting for? It's a fantastic 3-D jigsaw/puzzle/thingy that provides hours of fun.

Check out our full Puzzibits range here.

New Groovy Girls Arrive at Bus Stop

It's always exciting for us when the new range of one of our favourite toys arrive. We're pleased to tell you that the latest Groovy Girls are all in stock. Groovy Girls are always popular at Bus Stop Toy Shop and we think we've got a better line up this spring than ever before. All the popular dolls like Seraphina and Sylvie Starr are back in stock. They're joined this year by the gorgeous Princess Ariana and the sensational special edition Mackenna Mermaid (pictured). We've also brought in some of the new RSVP Groovy Girls for the first time and added to oru range of Groovy Girl fashion.

Check out all the new Groovy Girls on our website.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Crimson Crisis Now In Stock

It seems like we've been waiting forever for this booster, but finally with at least European legal wranglings out the way for the moment, the Yu-Gi-Oh! Crimson Crisis Booster has hit the shelves. Because of the delays, it has been one of the most anticipated booster releases ever, so grab yours quickly.

Visit our Crimson Crisis page here.

Also on a trading card note, we've managed to get the new Pokemon Platinum decks back in, although we anticipate they'll go quickly again - again, grab yours now while you can. Platinum boosters are also in short supply - you have been warned!


Visit our Pokemon Platinum page here.

We Just Can't Help Ourselves - More Sylvanian Again

Regular readers and visitors to our website and retail store may remember that in the middle of last year, a few Sylvanian Families' Babies arrived at Bus Stop Toy Shop in cute carry cases. Since then, we've added product after product after product, for the simple reason that you, our customers, love Sylvanian Families as much as we do.

This time around, we've mostly focused on shops - the Sylvanian Toy Shop (pictured) could just about be our new favourite item. We've also tidied up the Sylvanian section of our website and made it a little more user friendly - OK, it could still do with a little work, but it's easier to find things you're looking for now - jump over and check out all the new stuff.

View our full Sylvanian Families range.

John Adams Restock

If the name John Adams doesn't mean much to you, don't worry, all will be explained. Last year, we put a great deal of effort into finding a manufacturer of high quality, good value toy gifts. We'd tried various suppliers over the years and had never been particularly happy with them - either the contents weren't much good or the price was too high. John Adams changed all that for us - they make superb toys that are ideal for presents, that are good quality and great value for money.

It wasn't just us that thought that - our customers agreed. As a result virtually everything we sell made by John Adams has been out of stock since Xmas. Fear not though - it's all back now. Our favourites? The Make-A-Bear kit is superb. We love Merlin's Magic - it's a great value box of fun magic tricks. Electro-mag is cool and the chemistry set is good fun. Finally, is the famous Golden Coin Maker only for Christmas? We don't think so.

There's loads more though. For your next present for a child, look no further than our fabulous range of John Adams toys.

Meccano Now Available On Our Website

Further to our earlier post, first thing this morning, we've been working hard all day to make Meccano available for our website customers. We've done better than we expected, and you are now able to check out and purchase our full Meccano range online at our website.

To give you a run through: At Age 2+, there is the Kids Play range, featuring fabulous early construction toys. As the child grows, at 4+, there is a new range for them to get their teeth into - Meccano Build and Play - more parts and a higher level of complexity. At 8+, the range gets far wider, with Design, Multi Models and Tuning Kits. As usual, if we can give you any further guidance, please let us know.

You can check out our full Meccano range here.

Meccano Is In The Building

Just a very quick post - we've been promising the arrival of Meccano for ages now, in our newsletters, coming soon pages and in our retail store. We're pleased to say that it's arrived. We're hugely proud to associate ourselves with this classic brand and there's loads of stunning kits to pick from with both classic and contemporary designs. Retail customers can already view the range in store. For our online customers - sorry you'll have to wait a little longer - we'll post here when it's available to purchase online - hopefully in the next day or two.

Crazy Bones Explorers Now In Stock

Attention all Crazy Bones fans! Finally - the wait seems to have lasted forever. We're pleased to announce that we now have Explorer Crazy Bones in stock. The third series of Crazy Bones has been hugely anticipated and contains another 80 characters to collect.

As with the previous Crazy Bones releases, stock is limited at the moment, so buy quickly to make sure you don't miss out. We also have extremelly limited quantities of the new album.

Get your hands on Explorer Crazy Bones here.

Sylvanian Families Caravans

The latest arrival in our ever growing range of Sylvanian Families at Bus Stop Toy Shop is the brand new caravan. Designed to be towed by the family car, this product is already going down a storm with all you Sylvanian fans. Containing over 30 accessories, it's a gorgeous addition to the range.

Check out our full range of Sylvanian Families here.

Thumb Wrestling Federation Rings Now In Stock

At last we have them. Hoorah! The much sought after Thumb Wrestling Federation wrestling rings have arrived at Bus Stop Toy Shop. Each ring comes complete with the very cool 'Ouch' thumb wrestler. Stock is limited, so act fast.

Jump over to our Thumb Wrestling Federation page, to check out the rings.

New Sylvanian Families In Stock

Just a quick note to update everyone on new Sylvanian Families stock. We've taken delivery of three fancy new families for your collection - it's one of our favourite things in the shop at the moment, so keep an eye on the blog for even more Sylvanian products arriving.

In the meantime, check out the Sylvanian Bramble Hedgehogs, Honeybears and Chocolate Rabbits (pictured).

Pokemon Platinum Arrives

The dawn of a new Pokemon Era is upon us. Pokemon Platinum launches for the Pokemon Trading Card Game today, ahead of the new Console Game next month and the new TV series later in the year.

It's terribly exciting - we were salivating when we saw the two new theme decks, featuring Shaymin and Giratina. Wow! The boosters also look like there's a pile of cool stuff to get too.

Check out the new Pokemon Platinum products here.

Hama Restocks

With apologies to our Hama Bead regulars, we've been out of stock on a couple of essentials (Ironing Paper, Mixed Solid Beads) for a couple of weeks. We're sorry! We've also been a little thin on the ground on our Maxi Hama range.

Anyway, we've rectified the problem now. Just about everything is back in stock. We've also added three colours to our already huge range of 1000 bead bags: Brown, Burgundy and Orange.

You can check our entire Hama range here.

Toy Fair 2009

I thought I'd just let all our regular readers know about this year's toy fair at Excel in London.

Bus Stop paid a visit on the opening day, when all the media types were around. We did some celeb spotting for you, of course. We were barely in 5 minutes when we encountered a couple of muscle bound Gladiators - Battle Axe and the pretty-boy one with the long hair. Next we were somewhat surprised, whilst browsing the Playmobil 2009 line up, to discover Samanda of Big Brother fame perusing beside us.

However the jewel in the crown came whilst Bus Stop was enjoying a sandwich in the main concourse of Excel. A vision of blue came jogging past, and on glancing up, it turned out to be none other than Sportacus (wife and eldest daughter very jealous when they heard). The geek in Bus Stop Toy Shop was hugely dissappointed to manage to miss the Tech Deck world champion in action and we're lead to belive that Brian Blessed was around too, but we didn't spot him.

Anyway - enough chat about celebs. On the toy front, it was great to see the industry in such bouyant mood, despite the current economic climate. We saw more superb new products than you can shake a stick at.

Amongst our current favourites, we saw some great new Magno-z and got a sneek preview of the new series of Crazy Bones. The toys coming out for the launch of the new Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds TV series also look fantastic. As we suspected, Thumb Wrestling Federation looks like it will be huge.

There's also a whole raft of new, exciting brands coming to Bus Stop Toy Shop over the coming year, but we won't spoil any surprises - you'll just have to keep checking back.

Thumb Wrestling Federation Arrives at Bus Stop

Get ready to do battle as the Mighty Dexteras take on the Sinistras for control of the Thumb Wrestling Federation.

Each of the foil packs contain one of the 58 thumb wrestling characters available to collect. Who will win the tussle for control of the Thumb Wrestling Federation? You can help decide with your very own team of TWF thumb wrestlers.

Check out the Thumb Wrestling Federation collection here.

Huge Increase in our Thomas & Friends Range

Since we started stocking the Take Along Thomas & Friends die-cast railway system early last year, we've been quietly acquiring a legion of Thomas The Tank Engine Fans. As always at Bus Stop Toy Shop, we seek to bring you more of what you love. So today, we can reveal a massive increase in our range of trains. Duck, Murdoch, Sir Handel, Rheneas, Toby, Fearless Freddie and, of course, all the usual suspects plus a great many more besides. Enjoy!

Jump on over to the website and check out our Take Along Thomas range.

Barack Obama's Daughter Loves Uglydoll

Check out the recent picture of Barack Obama's daughter sporting the Lil' Ugly, Babo's Bird on her backpack over on the official Uglydoll Blog. It seems that wherever you look, people know just how cool Uglydolls are.

If you live in the UK, you can pick from our huge range of ultra-cool Uglydolls here.

Crazy Bones Back In Stock

With apologies to our regulars, we've been out of Crazy Bones for a few days. You see, Santa just wanted so many packets to put in stockings that we had none left over.

Anyway, we're pleased to tell all you Gogo's Crazy Bones fans that they're now back in stock. That's both the original series and the new Evolution packs.

What are you waiting for - grab your Crazy Bones.

Gormiti Series Two Lands

We've been looking forward to this forever - the eagerly anticipated Series 2 Gormiti figures have arrived in stock, and they look great!

We're particularly excited by the new 12cm Magnetic Gormiti figures (pictured) - they're really cool - you can interchange the parts and create characters of your very own.

Check out the new Gormitis now.

Bean Expanding The Range

Further to our post a couple of weeks back, just a quick blog today to let you know that the restock of Beanworld products is nearly complete. Most of the gaps in the Bean Parade have now been filled, all the cards are back in and there's some more keyrings to pick from too.

Oh, and it's still the simplest way we've come across to sort those hard-to-buy-for Christmas presents. Check out Bean World.