Sunday, December 18, 2011

Hot for Christmas!

What's hot this Christmas? You might be surprised! Some of our hot sellers are no brainers, some you'll understand when we explain it, and others are just weird. Check out our list and if you're last minute shopping - this is where it's at!























Music toys! Every parent dreads them, yet somehow they are the hottest sellers every Christmas! Plan Toys xylophone is one of the best music toys combining beauty, eco-friendliness AND a reasonable price tag!























The Sevi Instrument Set combines all the noise makers into one perfect little gift! This is eco-friendly, Italian design at it's finest! This little bad boy has been on wait list for Canada for over a year but it's back and selling fast!
























Trunki ride-on suitcases are hot for Christmas, birthdays and summer travel. It's a ride-on toy, a suitcase AND a pull along toy! (Available in red, orange, blue, pink, purple and green!)
























We are not big fans of taking a clean design and cluttering it up with unnecessary extras. In the case of Trunki, Melissa & Doug added an optional accessory that makes Trunki more customizable in a way that kid's love! Trunki face stickers or travel stickers are the perfect way to pimp out your Trunki.























Hug + Hide developmental toys by Skip Hop! It all started with an Owl that was a hot seller last Christmas so Skip Hop added 4 more animals to the hug + hide zoo along some smaller stroller toy versions too!

























DwellStudio has been a leader in modern bedding and decor for years so they decided to try their hand at modern toys. They have created a beautifully designed collection of wooden toys, blocks, push toys, stamp sets, puzzles, the works! Each one is a hot seller and almost sold out for the year.
























Wean Green's glass baby cubes and their new glass storage containers are popular anytime of the year but for Christmas? Really?
























Yup, really. And here's why. This Christmas, Wean Green released a gift guide complete with creative gift ideas using their glass containers. Fill them with coffee beans, tea, truffles, spices, olives, bath salts, even a diamond ring! It's a great way to present a gift with no waste, in a container they will use again and again!
























Tegu's magnetic blocks let your child create structures and scenes they can't possibly do with regular blocks. These blocks defy gravity, the colours are modern and they are made from sustainable woods using sustainable practices. We've got small sets, medium sets and large sets in several colours!

























Tegu has smaller pocket pouches and travel totes for the larger block sets.
























Vers ipod stereos are the perfect ipod stereo for the modern nursery! Ideal for soothing lullabies for baby and beautifully styled to fit any decor. For Christmas, it's not just not just baby but Daddy who's getting this amazing gadget under the tree!!


























Mod Mom's gorgeous hand-crafted toy boxes are hot this Christmas, especially the striking 'Bertie' box. We love these toy boxes because they can fit in with the decor of any room in your house - not just the play room!

























Potties for Christmas? Huh? We don't understand it either but Hoppop's Donut Potty is all the rage right now. Nothing says love like a potty under the tree...right?























Not surprising, gift cards are a great 'go to' gift! Our gift cards are electronic and they get e-mailed the day you buy them (no shipping, no waiting!) This is December 24th shopping at it's finest!

There's still a few days to shop and we can ship it fast (and free in Canada!) Get one of our best sellers for the baby, toddler or child on your list!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Blik + Babybot: Part 3!























Our collaboration with Blik to create Babybot decals is almost complete! We've chosen 4 decal concepts and after some trial and error, we've nailed down scale and colour palette for each one. If all goes well (meaning if Babybot doesn't have a ton of high maintenance changes & picky comments for Blik) decals will be available in October!


DANGLY CARROT























Blik sent us these drawings (with bicycles, furniture items or human figures) so we could get a sense of the scale for each decal. The challenge was to get them big enough on the wall while trying to keep each decal to only 1 or 2 sheets of stickers per concept. More sheets = more expensive. More expensive = bad.
























Dangly Carrot will be available in 3 colour options, white bunnies, tan bunnies and pink bunnies. (Not all colours in one decal). Check it: this decal fits on one page! One page = less expensive!


















This is one example of what you can do with your brand new, never been seen before 'Dangly Carrot' decal in white.


















This is one example of what you can do with your very own 'Dangly Carrot' decal in pink.


BUILD-A-BOT
























This decal went through a few scale changes (this thing could take up 3-4 sticker sheets if we let it!) but we finally got it to a great size using only 1 1/2 sheets. It can be made into anything you want - you can use all the parts or just a few - you're the boss.
























This decal is available in only one very colourful option. The 1/2 sheet of trees is included so you can have more flexibility to create scenes. The 'trees' sheet is shared with the 'Babybot Land' decal in order to keep costs reasonable!























The best thing about this decal is it lets YOU be the creator. You can create anything with this decal including this totem pole which was the brain child of Scott (Blik) and Felix (Babybot).


















This re-stik decal is hours of fun for you or your child. No seriously. I just created this fish decal with only about half the stickers! You can change it up any time you want to create something new.


BABYBOT LAND























Like 'Build-A-Bot' this decal went through a few scale changes. We ended up at a great size while still keeping all the design components and flexibility in tact!























This multi-colour decal is only available in one colour option. With the 1/2 sheet of trees shared with the 'Build-A-Bot' decal, the price will stay reasonable! Use this decal in one room or multiple rooms. There are so many scenes you can create with just a few characters, you can fill up several walls with just one decal!


DOODLE























Doodle is one of the fan faves and probably one of the coolest concepts in the collection. This decal is a great scale and it works in a kid's room, a nursery or a living space!
























Doodle will be available in 3 colour options (black, tan, aruba) and it comes with an optional Beaverbot but you don't have to use him if you don't want to. (He'll be offended at first, but he'll soon get over it.)

























Here's what the aruba 'Doodle' option looks like on a wall. It can work anywhere - even if you want a formal, modern space to look more inviting.

















Here's a wall test with the Dangly Carrot decal in tan. Scale is nice - you could do a lot with it and the bunnies can be moved anywhere to create the scene of your dreams. There are enough bunnies in one decal to use some on another wall or in another room.

























Here's a wall test with part of Build-a-Bot. Again, thumbs up on the scale of the pieces - not too big, not too small. With this decal, you can use a part of the decal to spice up a small space or play area. It's re-stik too so create a fish scene one day and change it up to make a mutant monster scene the next day.


Like what you see? Wanna win the Babybot decal of your choice? Tell us what you think! Post a comment on our blog (you can post a comment on ANY of the 3 Blik + Babybot posts to qualify) and one random commenter will win the Blik + Babybot decal of their dreams! Winner announced Friday, September 9th on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/shopbabybot

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Blik + Babybot: Part 2





It's round 2 of our Blik + Babybot decal collaboration and Blik has chosen the concepts they think will work best for the first set of Babybot branded decals!

BABYBOT LAND





Babybot Land was an early favourite of Blik's and not really even one of our concepts. Felix had done this sketch for the Babybot design team to use when designing our website and brand materials. We showed this sketch to Blik so they could understand our brand better and see the potential of what we could do together. Blik loved it and said they wanted to make that sketch into a decal. Ok. Done!





Have you met 'Skidz'? Skidz is not new but he has evolved. Skidz used to be just random poo that shows up here and there, usually whenever Sheepbot is around. We've decided to give him a face and a personality which makes him a little more loveable. Skidz' first official appearance will be in our Babybot Land decal! (And really, who wouldn't want Skidz on their wall?)

DANGLY CARROT




Dangly Carrot was an early favourite of both Babybot and Blik. The concept is fun and charming featuring a mischievous Babybot fishing for bunnies using a dangling carrot. As a decal - it's got a huge appeal as a decor item for baby & kids rooms and we suspect it might be the biggest hit of the collection. We will offer it in several colour combos too!




Blik loved the flexibility of this concept for a decal. People like to play and create their own compositions when decorating their walls. By adding more bunnies popping out of the holes and bunnies facing different ways - it gives people the opportunity to get creative with this decal and make it fit with their style.




We wanted to add another layer to the story about why the bunnies want the carrot so bad. We tried adding glasses to the bunnies to indicate that they need to eat the carrot to see better. We all loved the nerdy bunnies but we didn't want ALL the bunnies to have glasses. Instead we will add a few styles of glasses to the decal sheet and people can nerd out some of their bunnies or not!

DOODLE





Doodle is a concept that we weren't sure would work. It was a challenge to get the scribble thick enough, would people know how to string it together, would it be too hard to do? This concept has been the fan favourite and it generated the most interest out of any of the sketches we've shown around or made public. Blik really likes it too and we've found a way to make it simple to apply and easy to produce. (Woot!)























Here's a version with the blue scribble in a home situation. Most people won't do it in their living room (although, it looks pretty awesome!) but in a play room, den, kid's room - it will be magical! Blik loves the fact that people can extend the scribble onto a floor surface or dresser or across multiple walls. This decal will be offered in 2 - 3 colour options too!

BUILD-A-BOT





The Build-a-Bot restik decal concept is just getting cooler and cooler. Felix has been having fun making Mr. Potato Bot pieces that both adults and kids can create and have fun with. Just looking at the parts - you can imagine the cool bots you can make!









Scott from Blik had the idea of making the Build-a-Bot pieces really flexible to create pretty sophisticated scenes. He threw out a totem pole idea which Felix ran with. It is a huge success and shows how flexible this decal really is!!

Those are the chosen 4 decal concepts that we are rolling out with. We are in the process of refining them and figuring out scale right now which we will share here in the next few weeks!

Blik is blogging about our creative process too and they have a very different view point and approach to this collaboration. Make sure to check out their posts here: http://bit.ly/mzPrZD

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Blik + Babybot!



Oh yes, it's true. Blik and Babybot are teaming up to create wall decals featuring the lovable Babybot brand characters! We've been brewing this for awhile now and it's high time we let you guys have a sneak peak inside the Babybot lab to see what we are working on!



Blik is the biggest name in wall decals - there is just no other brand that comes close. They've got decals that feature incredible designs by Threadless, Charles & Ray Eames, A Modern Eden, Hybrid-home, Nintendo, Wee Gallery and now, Babybot. We are stoked to be included in Blik's roster of awesome!

Here are some sketches that Felix Wong (creator of Babybot's brand characters) has been working on with the Babybot & Blik design teams!



'Dangly Carrot' tells a fun story and could be a flexible decal in multiple colours that parents can really get creative with!



'Scared Inkless' features the cyclops twins sharing 3d glasses which allows them to see 3D and with 2 eyes. We thought about a horror film concept with this one and really, what's more horrifying for a little squid than a squid-eating whale?



We tried a version where the whale is cropped off, as if it's popping out of a movie screen at the cyclops twins. Poor cyclops squid is so scared, he inks himself!



If a whale doesn't work, what about dino-bot? He could be done in a cool 3d effect and really, who doesn't love dinosaurs?



So much potential. Such an epic fail. We presented this idea to Blik early on but because they actually know what they are doing, they informed us that Oggie's tongue stringing everything together and being so long would not actually work when trying to construct a decal. Cool design though - we'll save it for something else!



Doodle could be cool. If we can do the doodles very beautifully and have it be flexible enough for parents to create the doodle across multiple walls, a bit of floor, one wall, whatever...we might have a win here!



Something every parent can identify with...this is what happens when you leave a toddler unattended for 30 seconds and armed with a marker.




Another great idea, another horrific decal failure. This concept showcases a typical baby/toddler in a bath - everything gets drenched! As a decal - no go! Our hearts hurt when Blik reminded us that a decal can't be all in one piece as this one would have to be. Again, great concept - we'll use it for something else!





Limbo!!! This was an alternate concept to Tug O' War where Oggie's tongue becomes the limbo bar and all the bots are lining up to limbo.



Poor Dino-bot, he's playing against creatures that are invertebrates, are ultra short, or are creatures that can slither, fly, or ooze under that treacherous limbo bar!



This one could be rad. It's a decal version of Mr. Potato Head (Mr. Potato Bot to be more accurate!). You can mix and match bot bodies, faces and accessories to create your own scene.



DIY Bots! You can change it up and create new bots whenever you want because it could be done as a re-stik decal.

We will be posting the chosen decal concepts, the colour versions, the entire process from start to finish and... there might be a cool contest in there somewhere too. Stay tuned on our blog and facebook to get all the deets!