Sears Toy Shop, @TheToyGuy & $50 Giveaway

I was so excited to get an email from Kaylie to go to a blogger event at the Sears Toy Shop at the Mall of America! What a great opportunity!

So, I surprised Buddy the morning of the event and told him he was ditching school to go check out toys at the MOA. He was excited to say the least. What 11yo doesn’t want to miss a day at school?

I met 3 other great bloggers there, one of whom I already knew from the MNBlogConf we had in July:

Molly from The Snyder 5

Brei on Twitter as @GrOvEbUg

Jenny from Mama Nash

Chris, @TheToyGuy who is the content director of parent-friendly web source http://www.timetoplaymag.com/ and a frequent guest on Live! With Regis and Kelly, was there to exclusively show us the toys Sears Toy Shop is going to be carrying during the holidays. Buddy was great and wandered the toy aisles as we listened to @TheToyGuy.

What did we learn about toys with Christmas just around the corner? Here are a few tidbits Chris shared:

• There’s a new Silly Bands video game


• Loops from Matel will be a sell out!


• Monopoly Revolution is a hot item


• Jazzwear are good electronics for young children


• “I Can Do That" games are going to be popular


• Lego Games are huge and took 12% of the market last year

Can you believe that Chris will be heading to Japan in January to see next years toys? How crazy is it that he will now so far in advance what the next awesome games and toys will be.

I have to tell you, Chris knew his toy history. He would pull information out of the air and know the dates of toy popularity and when they made it onto the market. I was in awe!

Before I get to the giveaway, I wanted to throw down a challenge! If you are on Twitter (even if you aren’t) I challenge you to try out the #timetoplaylive Twitter parties. These are absolutely hysterical! You can learn the rules by clicking the hashtag above.

They’re every Wednesday at 1 p.m. EST / 10 a.m. PST using the #TimeToPlayLive hashtag. Hosts @JimSilver and @TheToyGuy will provide tips, clues and fun chatter throughout the show. All questions and winner declaration will be provided by @TimetoPlay. So, please make sure you’re following all three tweeps!

I knew we were going to be sent home with a toy, but didn’t realize we were going to be sent home with bags of toys! I wish my boys were younger because of all the toys we took home they will only play with the Denkosekka. The rest of the toys were for the younger crowd.

Buddy was attracted to Denkosekka after watching Chris demonstrate the game (as you can see from the photo above). My Doodle rarely takes the yo-yo off his finger and flings it around even when not playing the game!

Now mind you, I’m not complaining AT ALL!! I’m excited to be able to share those toys with needy families. We’ll pick names off the Christmas Tree from church. I’d give them away on my site but I can’t afford the shipping of the toys! LOL

So what do YOU get out of me hanging out at the Sears Toy Shop and coming home with these toys? How about a $50 Sears Gift Card? Yes, you may now scream!

Required: Visit Time To Play and tell me if there something on their Most Wanted List 2010 that you want for the holidays.

Giveaway open to US Residents 18 yrs or older. Please leave your email in the required entry or have it available in your profile. No email/contact = No entry. Giveaway ends 12/6 11:59 PST. Winner has 48 hours to respond.

Extra Entries:

Follow Marvelous Mom Reviews (1 entry)

Subscribe to MMR (2 entries, comment 2x)

Follow my Networked Blogs sidebar (1 entry)

Vote for the People’s Play Awards 2010 (2 entries, comment 2x)

Follow me on Twitter (1 entry)

Follow @TheToyGuy on Twitter (1 entry)

Follow Time To Play on Twitter (1 entry)

Tweet this giveaway (1 entry daily) “RT #WIN a $50 GC to Sears to spend in the Toy Shop thanks to @timetoplaymag and @TheToyGuy! @bigguysmama #giveaway http://bit.ly/bULhdV“

Like MMR on Facebook sidebar (1 entry)

Like Time To Play on Facebook (1 entry)

Enter any of my other current giveaways (1 entry each)

I’d like to thank Kaylie for reaching out to me from Litzky Public Relations and connecting me with the Sears Toy Shop and #TheToyGuy and Time To Play Mag. The opinions expressed are my own. They will be providing the gift certificate through Sears. I was given the above toys and a gift certificate for my participation in the event but was not required to post about it.