Make: The Magazine

Passing through the Los Angeles airport last week, looking through a magazine rack, an odd-sized magazine caught my eye. Actually, it was probably the water rocket and zip line on the cover that grabbed my attention, but I knew immediately that it was for me! The magazine, Make:, is a fascinating view into the world of "DIY" (Do It Yourself). But don't confuse Make: with a magazine like Popular Woodworking. While each issue contains several "how to" projects of things like building an electric wind turbine or weather station, it also celebrates the creativity and resourcefulness of the geeks, inventors, and do-it-yourselfers who are pushing the envelopes in their very own garage workshops. In fact, I was so inspired by the magazine that upon my return home, I immediately ordered their t-shirt which carries the following motto: "Void your warranty, violate a user agreement, fry a circuit, blow a fuse, poke an eye out.." While I'm in no way advocating that our customers poke their eyes out (in fact I highly discourage it), this aphorism is an affirmation for many of the things that we're trying to achieve at Fat Brain Toys. Think different. Push the envelope. Challenge conventional wisdom. Think outside the box. This is where genius and innovation live. As it relates to toys, resist the temptation to buy the cheap plastic toys that have no redeeming value. Put open-ended, creative toys in the hands of children today, and they'll become the innovators and problem-solvers of tomorrow. To find out more about Make:, visit their website at http://www.makezine.com

Where in the World...?

When we first began this business, we eagerly plotted each and every sale with stick pins on a big map of the USA. While this exercise was primarily aimed at giving our children an education on how far reaching our business could be, it also proved to be a powerful reminder for us adults as well. But of course as our order volumes grew, our map quickly degraded into a massive blur of colored stick pins and we eventually discarded our map into the dumpster.

When Google first introduced their mapping service, it immediately conjured up that image of our original sales map. So I put it on my to-do list to create a digital version of the sales map using the Google Maps API. It turned out better than I could have ever imagined! Not only can you get a visual of where our orders are being shipped to, but be clicking on any stick pin, you can actually see what was ordered too. Even though we've shipped toys to over 88 countries around the world, unfortunately at this time we're only able to plot U.S. orders on our map (we'll work on that though!).

One other thing I'd like to draw attention to is the location of Fat Brain Toys smack dab in the middle of the country. Of course we didn't plan it that way (as I was born and raised here), but our central location gives us the ability to provide ultra-fast shipping to the entire country from East to West!

I hope you enjoy this look into Fat Brain Toys! Click here to view our "Where in the World" interactive map...