Dinosaurs 101... Old Spinosaurus

Spinosaurus: spine OH soar us

Perhaps this old guy comes off a little cranky at first because he's fishing but you could too if you had the title of 

"Biggest Meat Eating Dinosaur."

We thought T-Rex was huge but Old Spiny (our nickname for him) was actually bigger measuring over 41 feet in length to as long as 59 feet. Spinosaurus is also a Theropod and his name means "spine lizard".

The skull of Spinosaurus was long and narrow like that of a crocodile with teeth that were long and straight. He lived in the Crataceous period about 112 to 97 million years ago. The remains of Spinosaurus were discovered in Egypt in 1912 but were destroyed in World War II in Germany.

Rumor has it that Old Spiny could have weighed as much as 46,000 pounds living on a diet of fish and meat while living both on the land and in the water. We could imagine that the spines on his back added a great deal of weight as the spine was formed by vertebrae that grew to be about 5 feet long. These vertebrae were likely to have skin covering them making it appear the Old Spiny had a sail on his back. This sail could have been a sign when mating to females or it may have been an aid in helping to regulate body temperature.

 Old Spiny looks to have longer front limbs than our friend from last week too. This makes some experts think that he may have walked on all fours occasionally. Combined with his fish diet you could say he's a mirror image of grizzly bears.

They don't look anything alike but they do have similar traits.....

Really, what do we do here? 

That's it! We play and we share our toys with everybody who happens by when we're playing! 

Why? Because it's fun!
Why? Because we can!
Why? Because we would rather launch rockets to the moon than stay inside the store!
Why?  It isn't every day that you can launch a rocket in Historic Downtown Durango, Co. in the middle of the street!
Why? Because some grown ups have rules.
Why? Because they aren't Instigators.
Why?  Hmmm....  They forgot to ask or they just forget to do it!

Stop by and see me anytime and 'll give you your permission slip! Officially signed by a grown up and everything!
 

 Word of the day (the week actually)

Get Your Geek On!

geek  (gk) Slang n.

1.

a. nerd
b. one who is accomplished in a field such as science or computers but perhaps a little socially awkward.

 

 geeky adj.

Our Living Language Our word geek is now chiefly associated with contemporary student and computer slang, as in computer geek. In fact, geek is first attested in 1876 with the meaning "fool," and it later also came to mean "a performer engaging in bizarre acts like biting the head off a live chicken." Perhaps the use of geek to describe a circus sideshow has contributed to its current popularity. The circus was a much more significant source of entertainment in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries than it is now, and large numbers of traveling circuses left a cultural legacy in various unexpected ways. Superman and other comic book superheroes owe much of their look to circus acrobats, who were similarly costumed in capes and tights. We also owe the word ballyhoo to the circus; its ultimate origin is unknown, but in the late 1800s it referred to a flamboyant free musical performance conducted outside a circus with the goal of luring customers to buy tickets to the shows inside. Other words and expressions with circus origins include bandwagon (coined by P.T. Barnum in 1855) and Siamese twin.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Are our toys safe?

Are our toys safe?

We at Durango Toy Depot are very conscious of toy safety in all of the products we carry in our store. We require a Certificate of Conformity with all the toys we purchase for you. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has set guidelines for toy safety and the United States has laws in place to protect you and your children.
 This is why we don't purchase products on a consignment basis or purchase some products that are locally made. Although we wish to support our locals and their ingenuity, we have a strict policy in place which requires product testing so that we know the labeling on the package is age appropriate, there is no lead in the paint,warning labels are clearly visible, and  we know that the toy you're looking at is of the highest quality standard.
Rest assured, we do our homework before we buy, and hope that you have done the same. Just ask!

Did ya know? 

Play Doh was first used as a wallpaper cleaner before it became Play-Doh? It was first sold in a store in Washington DC?

Green Toys Build a Bouquet is made from recycled milk jugs in California?  

Start Simple: Recycled Plastic Milk Jugs
We use recycled milk containers as the main ingredient in creating our toys. Yes, the exact plastic milk jugs that you and your family drink from every day. When you finish your milk and toss the container in the recycling bin, these milk containers are collected at your curb by a local recycling company, who then sorts them from all the other types of plastic. Next, the milk containers are reprocessed into super clean fresh plastic. For you plastic geeks, the plastic material we use is called high-density polyethylene (or HDPE). This material is considered one of the safest, cleanest plastics around!

Boredom Buster II

 Boredom Busters II... 

looks like rain and snow this weekend! Not a bad thing!

 Perplexus...
Hours of challenging fun with 3 starting points to work the ball through the maze inside the ball. 100 challenging barriers to conquer by yourself or to have a contest with family and friends to see who can get the farthest or how far you can get in a minute or two. Great for dexterity and hand- eye coordination.
 



 You may recognize this fella! I believe it could be Neil Armstrong or the little alien guy in our front window! At any rate, why not shoot for the moon and be the commander of your own Lunar module or space shuttle? Space exploration works during daylight hours too! Perhaps there could could be some moon dust waiting to be discovered or a moon rock that has never been overturned? If you have a sock monkey, he could even be the co-commander of this big adventure! Launch some excitement and creativity with some dress up play using a cardboard box for a space ship or you could even sit on the floor with your legs on the seat of the sofa to mimic blasting off into space! Mission Control....

Ah yes, one of our favorites! From Peaceable Kingdom where everyone plays together, no one is left out and everyone has fun! Cooperative games offer everyone in the family an opportunity to to work together as a team against the game, not each other. Either the game wins or the players win, it's that simple! Cooperative games emphasize non-stressful play situations, social and emotional development, shared decision making, creative problem solving,positive self-esteem, and cooperation! In Count Your Chickens you help Mother Hen get all her baby chicks back in the coop before the fox gets there! Don't forget, these are 100% green games too!

How many hats?

Well 'ello there matey! 

At the end of the day, when the door gets locked this is the hat I wear to swab the decks! Why? Because it is far more fun for me to swab the deck than it is to mop the floor! I wear this one too on sloppy days to try to keep the floor a little drier and cleaner during the day.

How many hats did you wear today? I think I started today with my I-think-I'll-have-coffee-and-play-with-the dog (Rowdy) hat, followed by my I'll go meet the new Director of BID hat, followed by my errand hat, followed by my "let's open the store" hat, followed by my let's do paperwork (the most boring hat) hat, followed by my Guest services hat, my cleaning hat, my data entry hat, my PR hat, my shopping hat, my cashier hat, my gift wrapper hat, and finally the best hat of all.... my let's play hat!

I'm really excited about wearing my shopping hat today because that means new toys and games are gonna show up here in a week or so. I began the process by looking through some new product catalogs that have been delivered to us from some companies that we have never featured before.
Sure, you may be familiar with some of these things but we've searched long and hard to be able to offer these in Historic Downtown Durango. At reasonable prices too! Alas, I must keep some secrets and I am not very good at it!

I got to talk to some of my favorite people today too, people who know toys, love toys, and breathe toys. The people who help us select and purchase toys that work for some really cool toy companies. Sure, it's their job but they actually do the fact-finding for us and then present us with the latest and greatest.

All the new toy catalogs are arriving daily! It's a tough job but someone has to do it! What's more, Toy Fair is coming up real soon in New York and it's the biggest toy show of the year. We won't be attending but some of our companies will be unveiling their hottest coolest toys and games for the year. It is an exciting time to wear all the hats of a toy store owner.

When I get home I'll be able to wear my cook's hat! How about you?

Dinosaurs 101

It's tough for me to say who my favorite T Rex really is.

I mean, there are so many to stars choose from! This week we'll explore another theropod only this one has a bigger head!

ty·ran·no·saur·us (t-rn-sôrs, t-) n.

A very large carnivorous dinosaur of the Upper Cretaceous Period of North America, characterized by small forelimbs and a large head.

The species Tyrannosaurus rex (rex meaning "king" in Latin), also known as  T. rex,  lived throughout what is now western North America. Fossils are found in a variety of  rock formations dating back 67 - 65 million years ago. It was among the last non-feathered dinosaurs to roam the earth before they became extinct
Tyrannosaurus walked and ran on his two massive hind legs and was considered a carnivore although some experts still argue that T Rex was a scavenger. Tyrannosaurus arms were small, but extremely  powerful for their size, almost like fingers, they had two claws .It was the largest known tyrannosaurid and one of the largest known land predators.

^{Can you imagine a dinosaur that could have been as long as a semi truck and trailer, about 13 feet tall  and weighed over 12,000 pounds?} 

T. rex probably slept standing up like a horse or sitting on its big pubic boot, a bone in its pelvis since the arms were so short, it would be hard to imagine that T Rex got all comfy lying down under a shady tree. I also imagine that T Rex slept anywhere he wanted whenever he wanted. Perhaps there was even a snore or two.

But wait! Dolores, Boris, Buddy, and Annie just stopped by because they heard me talking about them and wanted me to see the difference in the size of a baby T. Rex and an adult. It looks as if the youngsters could sleep lying down because theirforelimbs seem much longer in proportion with their bodies. I also think it's dinner time so I ought to feed them... hmmm..... what will it be tonight?

Jigsaw Puzzle exchange

It all started on a day much like today,  except I think it was a Saturday!

We were looking to clean house ( a premature Spring cleaning if you will) and saw a stack of jigsaw puzzles sitting on a shelf all by their lonesome. They looked a little lonely and neglected as they had all been completed at one time or another. The discussion involved many ideas but it boiled down to bringing them to the Toy Store. Viola! The Durango Toy Depot puzzle exchange was born!

Since its inception, the original puzzles have gone to many different places and have met some pretty interesting people! It's easy, just bring in a jigsaw puzzle that's no longer a challenge for you and exchange for one here that's no longer a challenge for someone else! It's free and a great Boredom Buster!

Today's word of the day....

 INSTIGATOR

instigate  (ˈɪnstɪˌɡeɪt)
— vb
	to bring about, as by incitement or urging: to instigate fun
	to urge on to some drastic or inadvisable action (tee hee!)
[C16: from Latin instīgāre  to stimulate, incite; compare Greek stizein  to prick]
Perhaps you know someone who fits this definition? Perhaps you've been in a store in Historic Downtown Durango that fits this definition? Whatever the "perhaps" take a minute and instigate some fun today!
We relied on our friends at Dictionary. com for this definition.

                   Frequently Asked Questions....

Are we there yet?

Do you have any dark chocolate?

Where's a good place to eat?

I have a 5 year old Grandson, do you have any toys for him?

Who is Barry Manilow?

Why is there an airplane hanging from the ceiling?

Is that dog real? Did he really poop on the floor?

Do you have ugly teeth? 

How come?

Why?

Tee- hee! we didn't say we were gonna answer the questions!!! That's just funny. Aren't you surprised when you go to a FAQ page and there are answers?

Toys and WW II

These 2 toys all have something in common with WW II.... do ya know this part of history?

                         Slinky was a spring designed to help stabilize the gauges on Battleships.... then someone discovers how much fun they are to play with!

Whoopee Cushions became very scarce during WW II because the same latex used to make these ghastly toys was needed for war supplies!

 When I was a little Betty and when Moby Dick was a minnow, we would occasionally mope around the house and tell my Mom we couldn't find anything to do. She would raise an eyebrow, look over the top of her glasses, and suggest we twiddle our thumbs!That seemed boring only because I wanted to do something far more exciting! Like... oh, maybe, make something cool.... Now we offer these suggestions as "boredom busters".

 The Klutz book of Twisted Critters.... THE Pipe Cleaner book which gives you step by step instructions on how to make 20
(YES, 20) different creations using a variety of pipe cleaners that are included with the book. Everything from Crunchy Carrots to an Itty- Bitty Chick to a blazing dragon. The instructions have pictures and it looks like you may need a ruler (I like to "eyeball" measurements), a pair of fingernail clippers, a black marker, and a pencil. If nothing else, it will take a awhile to round these things up around the house. Call it a treasure hunt.....

 Speaking of a treasure hunt.... I may have to buy the fingernail clippers, marker, pencil, and ruler with my gold coins from Captain brother pirate Mikey! He was a swashbuckling kinda guy with Hot Wheels tracks from one end of the house to the other! Or maybe the old Captain would demand a pence or two to cross the bridge? Or maybe there was a map with an "X" that marked the spot where the treasure was buried? Or maybe we went to market for some fresh fixins while sailing the living room on our upside down coffee table? That's a couple hours right there!

EPIC! EXTREME! RADICAL! This isn't an ordinary dot-to-boring-dot book that you can finish in 27 seconds thereby finishing the entire book in 10 minutes! No Sirree Bob! Nuh-uh! Whew! This book of beastly creations takes some serious time, maybe an eraser, and lots of concentration! Watch the numbers as you draw a line from one number to the next, you have to count as high as 1400 so you can learn your numbers too! Then, When you connect the last dot you have to do a happy dance and sit back to admire our accomplishment before you color it!

Powered by imagination, not electronics! That's it!

Yup, that's me wearing the hat of the "receiving department" which happens quite often around here.
We love to see pallets of toys arrive in Historic Downtown Durango because we know that all the time and effort we've put into looking at pictures, asking opinions, and scratching our heads has come to fruition. It's exciting too because people never really know what we're up to! We like that part.

Lets debunk one of our mysteries! How do the toys get here? I get that question alot from my smaller friends (including the kindergarten class that was here yesterday). Sometimes it is really easy, sometimes it takes time for us to do our research and evaluate the products in the store. Our store is fairly well organized into departments, then we break down the departments into categories. From that we find ourselves looking at a "snapshot" rather than the big picture. It's less intimidating that way.

Toy information comes to us in all forms. We receive catalogs in the mail, we have companies that call us, we look at toys on the internet that people have suggested, and we use our imagination! After we pick the category to work on we also have to figure who we get the toys from (the vendor) and what all the vendor has to offer. Sometimes these companies offer special deals. We try to take advantage of as many deals as we can so we can try to keep our prices down.

It may be that all we need to order are toys that have been adopted that we always try to have in the store (core products) and that is pretty easy using our computer and a little common sense. Beyond that we may shop in the catalog for new toys or for toys to fill a particular gap. We can also ask our toy representatives (these people work very hard at knowing what their companies have to offer and have years of experience) for advice.

After we've done our homework, we submit our order to the company and wait. And wait. And wait. It seems like it takes a very long time for the toys to arrive when one is excited about new toys.  Then our pals from FEDEX and UPS show up with lots of boxes from the company. We unpack them one by one, make sure we got what we ordered, and put them on the shelves so they can be adopted. Our front door is not wide enough to fit a whole pallet through and neither is our back door, that's why you see pallets of toys on the sidewalk waiting to be adopted and loved after a long journey by truck!

This is sort of like going to the grocery store for groceries.... cart included.

Dinosaurs 101

 Dinosaurs 101
Or nith o mi mus
: a genus (the type of the family Ornithomimidae) of small slender theropod (having strong hind legs and grasping hands) dinosaurs of the Upper Cretaceous having toothless jaws and a birdlike skeleton.These guys are fast, fast, fast! 


Our friends here in the store have names, Ollie and Oren, they have been known to race around the store and ride the Dinosaur Train. We have to be a little careful because Ollie and Oren aren't too picky about what the eat (we could all learn from this) so we call them Omnivores or say that they are
om·niv·o·rous

[om-niv-er-uh s] 

adjective

1.eating both animal and plant foods.

2. eating all kinds of foods indiscriminately.

These dinosaurs were about 13-foot-long (4-meter),  had large hips, a long tail, and strong hind limbs, and closely resembled ostriches.They lived 144-165 million years ago which is the early to middle Cretaceous period, where the first flowering plants bloomed, it was also the heyday of dinosaurs which led to huge diversity in dinosaur species  , but this time period also led to the huge extinction of the dinosaurs.

Did an Ornithomimus sleep?  That's a really good queston! Yes, but how and for how long? Paleontologists place dinosaurs between crocodiles and birds. Crocodiles do sleep, not in the traditional mammalian sense, but in a way by which they tend to grab short sessions of sleep but without falling into a deep slumber. They sleep with one eye open, so to speak, and are able to be instantly awake at the slightest disturbance.

    

These short sleeping sessions usually occur after bouts of activity and especially after eating. The other thing to take into account with crocodiles is that, if they were to fall into a deep sleep, they would lose control of their body temperature which the animal regulates by moving in and out of the sun and water to adjust its body temperature. Deep sleep could be potentially fatal to any crocodile.

Birds employ a number of strategies when it comes to sleeping which are employed to lessen  the possibility of being attacked when at rest. Some birds sleep on the ground using a combination of camouflage and ground cover for protection some water birds will find refuge on predator free islands or sleep on the water itself. By far the most common strategy, which includes birds that spend the majority of their time on the ground, is to take cover in trees and shrubs. This prevents the vast majority of ground predators from reaching them and, even if they could climb, chances are that vibration and noise would warn the bird of impending danger.

So you decide. Do Ollie and Oren sleep? If they do, how? Where? I'll check Ollie and Oren in the morning!

sus·tain·a·ble  

/səˈstānəbəl/

Adjective Able to be maintained at a certain rate or level. (esp. of development, exploitation, or agriculture) Conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources

Play   /plā/Verb Engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose. Noun Activity engaged in for enjoyment and recreation, esp. by children. "A wise man once said that all human activity is a form of play. And the highest form of play is the search for Truth, Beauty and Love. What more is needed? Should there be a ‘meaning’ as well, that will be a bonus.” Arthur C. Clark Sustainable play is about making certain we have products of high quality with a positive impact on learning, play and the environment. That's why we have toys on our shelves that are made from bamboo, recycled milk jugs, and the sawdust left over from the creation of wooden toys. These toys require no batteries, are kid tough, grown up approved, and lead to hours of open ended play where imagination is the power of  the toy. How many Dinosaur Train Dinosaurs can ride in a recycling truck, the compartments are perfect for transporting the gang to their next destination! How many of your dolls and stuffed animal friends can you have a tea party with? Again, Green Toys provides the tools to spark any imagination! "Made in California, USA: Less Transportation, Less Energy All Green Toys products are 100% made in the USA. To be more specific, they are produced in California, a state known for strict toy safety and environmental laws. It's cool to buy USA, but also think about this: transportation is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gasses. We all know driving less is good for mother nature, but did you ever think about how many miles a toy logs before it ends up in your local store? "

Question of the Day

The burning question of the day today is.... How many helium balloons will it take to float our new alien friend? Sometimes it is just a matter of doing and experimenting rather than doing some complex math equations to find the answer. Since this IS a toy store, what better environment to play with this experiment?
I suppose now I shall return to the world in which I must do grown-up stuff  if only for awhile!
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