Corporate Backgrounder
Release: IMMEDIATE Contact: ANNAMARIE VON FIRLEY
LOS ANGELES TOY STORE HELPS PARENT’S
WITH THEIR CHILD’S DEVELOPMENT
Adventuretown Toy Emporium was founded in 2016 with a successful Indigogo campaign with a mission to cultivate children’s curiosity. Founder and CEO, Annamarie von Firley, has curated a selection of unique educational toys from 32 countries chosen for their innovation and educational value. “International toys are much more inventive than ones you find in big box stores that focus on promoting the latest movie franchise,” said von Firley. “Europe has a longer history of focusing on manufacturing eco-friendly toys that develop children’s skills and encourage them to discover their passion for building things, learning about the sciences, and finding new ways of creating art.”
Adventuretown’s online store boasts a selection of over 3000 toys from 32 countries that is sure to pique every child’s interest whether they are newly born or a child at heart. Their e-commerce site divides toys into 6 categories; Thinkers, Scientists, Designers, Directors, Makers, and Fledglings.
The “Thinkers” page is where you go to find toys and activities for both children and adults who love games, puzzles, and brainteasers. The “Scientists” section of the website showcases all manner of kits and activities that focus on the natural sciences, chemistry, biology, geology, astronomy, and even nanotech. “Designers” features all types of arts and craft kits, as well as art supplies. In addition, you will find all manner of imaginative play toys in the “Directors” section of Adventuretown’s website, such as plush animals from Japan, felt fairy houses from Nepal, kitchen-centered play sets from Thailand, and crocheted finger puppets from Peru.
“Children who are your ‘fort-builders’, ‘booby-trappers’, and ‘take-aparters’ will love to shop our selection of engineering and tinkering toys that teach the basics of physics. My favorite toy in the Makers section of our website is a French kit that allows you to build Rube Goldberg contraptions,” von Firley said.
She finds her well-curated selection of toys at Spielwarenmesse in Nuremberg, Germany where manufacturers from over 100 countries showcase their wares in a giant convention center larger than 14 football fields. The toys are divided into different categories such as outdoor toys, wooden toys, baby, mass market, and model trains. Annamarie von Firley was inspired to get her first degree in Wooden Toy Design and Construction after visiting Spielwarenmesse when she was 18 years old. “When I was in my first year at Hampshire College, I knew that I was interested in toys and play, but I wasn't sure how to turn that into a career. My father, who was very supportive, found out about Spielwarenmesse and created an import company that would allow him and me to get credentials to go to the trade show. He made me the Vice president of the company because children are not allowed into the show.” Von Firley continues, “I used to think that wooden toys were not very interesting before I went to the show, but when I walked into the wooden toys building I was fascinated by all of the inventive ways that manufacturers were using wood creatively that I never thought was possible. While I never became a toy designer, I returned to Spielwarenmesse as a buyer 30 years after my first visit and it felt like coming home.”
The sixth category of toys on Adventuretown’s website is called “Fledglings.” There you will find a vast selection of developmental toys for children 0-4 years old. These toys focus on early childhood development such as building fine motor skills, gross motor skills, social-emotional learning, cognitive and language development, as well as toys that help with sensory processing. These can be as simple as pacifiers and teethers to more complicated toys that focus on developing the pincer grasp, spacial relationships, eye-hand coordination, and problem-solving skills.
FLEDGLINGS’ FLIGHT
The pandemic created both challenges and opportunities for Adventuretown Toy Emporium. While they weren’t able to open their planned bricks and mortar store in Downtown LA, Covid allowed them to pivot in a different direction. “After the second wave of the pandemic hit in August of 2020, I knew that Covid wasn't going anywhere,” says Annamarie von Firley. “While all children were going to be affected by pandemic-related isolation, the youngest children were going to be affected the most.” Studies that were released in 2021 show that children as young as six months old in March 2020, the date that lockdowns began in the U.S., had “significant”1 development delays. 80% of the brain is developed in the first three years of life. The next 10% develop by age 5, and the last 10% by age 21. “Connections created in the brain in the first thousand days after birth are a use it or lose it situation,” says von Firley. “Connections that are not being used after the age of 3 are pruned and lost forever. That’s why we created Fledglings’ Flight.”
Fledglings’ Flight is an app and customized subscription box for parents of children 0-3 years old to help them optimize their child’s development. The web-based app boasts over 4000 play-based exercises that focus on fine and gross motor skills, sensory processing, as well as social-emotional, cognitive and language development. That breaks down to over 100 exercises for each month of life, and it is free to use. In addition, users have access to over 1200 articles and research papers on child development. Basic members are able to track their child’s 812 milestones that they should achieve by their 4th birthday. Premium members have the additional benefit of a monthly subscription box that is tailored to their children’s unique developmental needs whether they are delayed, on-track, advanced, or asynchronous. “We use parent-provided data such as what milestones were achieved and when, exercises completed, as well as feedback on the child’s experience with the developmental toys to create a developmental profile that looks for lags or acceleration,” says von Firley. “Every child develops differently. Fledglings’ Flight meets each child where they are developmentally and helps them make it to their next milestone. This is what separates us from our competition.” Caregivers can create their free account by going to www.fledglingsflight.com.
Adventuretown caters to domestic and international customers through their website www.adventuretowntoys.com where they offer free U.S. ground shipping and free delivery in Los Angeles. In addition, Adventuretown does multiple pop-up shops around Los Angeles throughout the year.