Market! Market! Store Now Reopened

Our new and refurbished Market! Market! store in the just-opened Street Market section of the mall is now up and running. We're actually the first full store to open in the area.

Please support =)

Florida's Coolest Playground

A shopping mall in Florida called Aventura hired a well-respected art collective called Friends With You to make an inspiring, alternative eye candy playground that would appeal to both kids and adults. Photos are from Wired.

We should think about doing something like this is Manila.

Characters by Raye Lacerna

Our madly skilled artist friend Raye Lacerna just sent us a ton of interesting character sketches. The fun is in coming up with worthy products for them.

New Market! Market! Store

Man! We sure can cram when we need to. Three days ago we moved out of our old Market! Market! space. Now, we have a new store almost finished in the mall's brand new 108 area, which just opened up around the main activity center. At this rate, we should be open by Saturday this week (yikes! that's tomorrow).

Engineers have been calling it "the magic store" because it seems to have emerged out of thin air haha but readers of this blog know the secret: we simply transplanted parts from old stores, including the old Market! Market! outlet, and retouched/repainted it all.

Couple Items

We're usually not a fan of pair items that are meant for boyfriend/girlfriend or parent/child, but sometimes there are some that are executed just right to make your heart melt in a pile of sentimental goo.

Had to use the cell phone cam for this because we weren't really allowed to take pictures inside.

Middlehaven

Wow. Talk about a dream place coming true. This is our kind of world. It's our wish to take all of our family, friends and customers and live with them here.

More details about the master plan of architect Will Alsop on Cool Hunter.

Pathways Gift Bag

The sample for our brand new Pathways Gift Bag came in last week. The small size version has been in production and will be out this week. That means that even small items purchased from us will come with a free gift bag that looks great and supports a great cause.

Larger gift bags coming this May.

The Velveteen Rabbit

When we were at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, we stumbled across this exhibit by artist Gabrielle Nielsen who was inspired by the children's book, The Velveteen Rabbit (How Toys Become Real). Nielsen shows the toy rabbit that she "literally loved to death" in 15 different states from mixed media collage to actual piece behind glass. She says of her work:

"I have resurrected this icon and forced it to adapt to a new and unfamiliar environment. Some see the beauty, others cannot look past the scars. Ultimately, the choice is irrelevant. What matters is that a small one-eared bunny was given the chance to tell its story."

Being reminded of the classic story also gave us a new sense of purpose. There's no better mission than making toys that customers everywhere will love to death.

Cell Phone Txts

"i love your products! it's cool!!! =)"

"Hi! Do u make customize versions? A Shinchan stufd toy. Can u make one? I'l send a pic nlng of how i wntd it to look lyk thru ur email. =)"

"Hi gud pm, sOri 2 distrb u my frend bOught me a gift frOm ur stOre nd i find it cute nd huggable just wanna knOw f u had a neck suppOrt pillOw? Nd hOw much it is? Thanks"

Sydney Daydreams

We weren't kidding when we said that the city of Sydney really inspired us. We've got more photos of the sights that surrounded us on the Daydreams section of our photo gallery.

Video: "I Still Remember" by Bloc Party

This is probably the best song of the year so far and it's in a great looking train-travel video. Sweet sentimental rock to dance to.

Video: "1 2 3 4" by Feist

Feist has yet to make a song that we didn't like. That's why we're so excited that she's about to release more songs. Her new album, "The Reminder" is out next week.

For those unfamiliar, she's the one singing the catchy tune in that Lacoste commercial last year.

A fun new music video is out too. Feist looks great amidst all the dancing color.

It's Cool Heart Small Towns

We are so in love with small towns right now. They are just full of life and character. You can really see the passion that the residents have for each place pouring out. Authentic homemade creativity is all around.

Here are some photos we took when we visited Kangaroo Valley and Berry while we were in Australia. The super cute wit on the signs of the shops is enough temptation to make anyone an instant paying customer.

Thank You Sydney, Australia =)

We were in Sydney, Australia for the past two weeks taking a um...business inspiration expedition? haha Yeah, we just took a vacation.

It really did turn out to be breathtakingly inspirational and energizing though.

Check out more pictures of us doing random acts of fun and ridiculousness Down Under by clicking on the Luv section of our photo gallery.

Walk for Education

We're proud to announce that we'll be giving out some plush toys (Lucky Pigs) to the winners of the upcoming Walk for Education that is being held by Pathways this April 21st (Saturday).

All proceeds will support the worthy cause of providing higher education for bright young kids who lack the resources to pay for tuition. Click on Hope for Nerds at the top of this page for more details on Pathways.

Registration for participants will start at 6:30am at Marikina Riverbanks who will then walk towards the finish at Marikina Sports Complex. There will also be a "Celebrity Educathon" at 9am where generous famous people will race each other for charity.

Call (+632) 920-0153 and look for Ira for more information.

Customer Email

Message: good day! every time i drop by your outlet at sm mall of asia, i see your cute stuff toy pruoducts. i love those! i have 3 already. but, i don't see your other products like the notebooks, or bags, etc. i just want to ask if you are still selling the cute liquid-filled jelly notebooks, bags, pencil cases, and other novelty items because i really love those. :) thank you and god bless. :)

Reply: thanks for stopping by our stores and our website too. the rule of SM Malls is that for kiosks and carts (such as the one we have in mall of asia), we can only sell one category of product =(

however, it doesn't stop us from selling the other items in non-SM outlets such as our humble flagship store in Eastwood (3rd Flr., City Walk 2) and our store in Market! Market! which will be moving soon (from Gift Market 1B to the upcoming 108 area). alternatively, Gift Gate is one of our partners so you can find our full range in their stores as well =)

Bad Bear

We are gaga over the graphic of this hoodie by Threadless especially when we're in a competitive mood against other toy retailers =)

Theatre: Avenue Q

It's great to hear that we're gonna have a local production of Avenue Q, the Tony Award winning Broadway musical, right here in Manila. Avenue Q is a love story that's set in a more mature Sesame Street. This means human characters interacting with very mature (yet still cute) puppets who sing songs with such provocative titles as "If You Were Gay" (performed by Ernie and Bert lookalikes of course), "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" and "The Internet is for Porn."

Here's a video clip of the show's opening song, "Sucks to be Me," as it was performed at the Tony Awards:



We may even get a chance to participate in the local production. The Philippine Daily Inquirer posted the following in its Sunday edition:

Atlantis Productions invites organizations, schools and entrepreneurs to be part of the Broadway hit musical "Avenue Q" through block voting packages. Described as a cross between "Sesame Street" and "Rent," "Avenue Q" will be directed by Bobby Garcia and Chari Arespacochaga. It will be staged in Aug. 17 at the Meralco Theater. For details, call 892-7078 and 840-1187.

We're definitely calling.

Improvising at Market! Market!

Last week we were facing a fast-approaching deadline to finish a Market! Market! store and we didn't even have a working drawing at the time. It was high school cramming all over again.

And like all good students, we improvised. What to do when there's no plan? Remix previous plans of course. We took the wall design of our Glorietta store and combined it with the layout of our existing Market! Market! store (we have to do this because the new store is going to be double the size of the existing one). We're also gonna use some of the actual modules that are already there to save even more time (and money!) during construction.

We're now on pace to finish on schedule. Whew!