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The concept of toys developed through a basic need to develop the skills children needed for life, much the same as kittens play fight to prepare themselves so did we. Therefore the early toys of the Dark Ages and Medieval period reflect what affected there lives such as war and hard labour. Mimicking adults and role play are not just fun but are developing the vital skills needed which back then was often life or death. This meant that children would mostly play with toy swords , weapons and tools. As life progressed so did the toys and by 1632 toys were being sold at market. By the 1700's toy shops were opened selling toys made by local craftsmen. People had money to spend and if they were lucky enough could afford a toy made from wood or fabric. Those who didn't have the money had homemade toys. Suddenly with all the emerging new industries a child's education and happiness became important. Common toys were dolls and musical instruments such as toy drums . In the 1760...

The slinky, (or Springy as it's also known) has been a classic toy that truly has stood the test of time. Have you ever wondered about the history of the slinky and how it became one of the nations favourite toys? The Slinky was created in 1943 by a naval engineer named Richard James, from Philadelphia. He was developing a meter designed to monitor horsepower on naval battleships, when a tension spring fell on the floor. He was fascinated by the way the spring kept moving after falling to the ground, and the metal slinky was born! The next two years was spent developing the classic toy, and it proved an immediate hit, when 400 units were sold at a 90 minute demonstration at Gimbels department store, Pennsylvania in Christmas 1945. The James Spring & Wire Company was formed soon after, with a working capital af just $500. Each metal springy is made with an astounding 80 feet of wire, and they are now made in Hollidayburg, Pennsylvania, still using the original machinery design...

When we started our business back in 2003, selling toys part-time on eBay, we used to accept paypal as our main method of payment. It is ideal for eBay addicts, and it is so much better than spending "real money" , especially if you sell on eBay too. Unfortunately, processing paypal payments was causing technical issues with our afilliate programs, and we sadly had to remove it. We recently changed our merchant provider from Nochex to Protx (who I would thouroughly recommend to anyone serious about setting up an online shop) and they have the facility to take payments via Paypal, in addition to the regular credit and debit cards. This is also arranged neatly on the same payment screen, and so it is a seamless flow through the checkout process. So, I am extremely pleased to announce that we can now accept Paypal as a payment method on the Toyday traditional and classic toys website. (Now all I need to worry about is the accounts but that's a whole other story...)

Phew - All of our Christmas orders have left the building, all of them on time, and they are well on the way to helping make many peoples day on Christmas in 2 days time. It has been a manic and very testing time on our systems, and yet again, have a lot of changes to make in order to be even more efficient for next Christmas, and this year, we picked and packed around 8,000 orders, with over 5,000 of those in the first two weeks of December! At least we had no stocking filler flyers left over, in fact we used all of our generic flyers too, and ran out just on the last day of packing. Overall, it has been our best Christmas yet; our Totnes toy shop is now rooted firmly to the ground having been here for just over 1 year and online business was up by over 30%. I just hope the demand for traditional toys continues to grow and more children are pulled away from their solitary games consoles next year and encoured to re-discover the true play value and family time that traditional to...

Christmas is definately with us here at Toyday, with a massive increase in orders from last Monday. We advertised for 2 extra picker / packers and another customer service advisor on Thursday afternoon, and Friday Morning the phone was ringing off the hook for 2 hours, until I had to call and suspend the ad! At least we can clear the backlog of Christmas orders on Monday and it looks like we'll be running full steam ahead getting everyones stocking fillers and last minute christmas toys out right through until last post. Last monday we filled the Royal Mail van right up, and this Monday I think we're going to need at least two collections. Luckily Emily and I managed to take a few days off last week, so we're feeling refreshed and ready to go! We just need to find a Santa for our Grotto which we are planning on having in the Totnes shop on the late night Christmas shopping days.

A few weeks ago, a man named Vic Morgan came into our Totnes shop and thought it was brilliant. He asked if it would be possible to do a feature on our traditional toy shop, and I said yes, sure, why not - nothing wrong with a bit of free publicity. Before I knew it, he whipped a microphone from his bag, and started to interview me, really putting me on the spot and asking questions about the toys, our suppliers and enthusing and getting quite excited about all the toys in the shop. The interview wasn't live, it was recorded, so I didn't panic too much, as I thought at least they can edit out anything too bad! The interview was played at around 11'o clock that night, and news travels fast; a few days later, I recieved an email from my mum in Spain, who was so proud of her son, that she was inspired to write a poem about the event, which follows: - ADAM IS A RADIO STAR. My son Adam is a radio star. I always thought he could go far. His voice was heard on Radio Devon, Friday...

Our Christmas last posting dates we're added tthe website today: