Exclusive: A Toy Store Near You Trailer Shows How to Play in the Age of COVID-19

The COVID-19 epidemic has put a “screeching halt to business,” we hear in the trailer for the Nacelle Company’s A Toy Store Near You. The docuseries takes viewers inside independent toy stores across the country and the world. Filmed and released during the COVID 19 Pandemic, A Toy Store Near You will debut one or two episodes each week. The docuseries will feature more than 40 independent toy stores. It debuts May 29th through Amazon Prime, YouTube, Vimeo, and other content providers.

A Toy Store Near You‘s release pattern favors speed over designated seasons and will release new episodes as they are ready.  The series comes from producer Brian Volk-Weiss and the team behind Netflix’s The Toys That Made Us and The Movies That Made Us.

Independent toy stores, not only in America but around the world, are changing business practices to cope with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis has forced many of them to close up shop because they have been deemed “non-essential.” Storefront retailers are taking it to the curb.

Per Nacelle, there are expected to be over 40 episodes, about 30-minutes each, that will tell the stores’ history, the toys they carry, and the people who love toys so much they dedicated their livelihood to them. The footage was shot by the store owners themselves. The trailer shows one vendor who was always a collector but learned that selling the toys is an entirely different thing. Billy from Billy Galaxy Vintage Toys displays a Star Wars sign with C3PO and R2D2 advising about immunizations. How are these specialty stores surviving? Are they surviving? How long will they have to go on cutting their children’s hair? It makes you want to grab something small and familiar for comfort. The trailer also shows the sellers playing with their favorite toys.

You can watch the trailer here:

The series is being promotionally sponsored by eBay, TriBeCa Film Festival, Death Wish Coffee, and Super 7, which produces a range of toys for adult collectors, like Thundercats, Masters of the Universe, and Princess of Power. Super7 operates brick and mortar stores in San Francisco and San Diego.  The company was founded by Brian Flynn.

TOY STORES FEATURED IN THE FIRST SEASON INCLUDE:

1313 Mocking Bird LN | Lawrence, KS

Andy’s Toys | St. Louis

Billy Galaxy Vintage Toys | Portland, Oregon

Black Cat Comics and Toys  | Burbank, California

Bric-A-Brac Records and Collectibles | Chicago

Chicaca 2.0 | Taipei, Taiwan

Cherry Bomb Toys | Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (Behind-the-Scenes)

Dr. Tongue’s I Had That Shoppe | Portland, Oregon

Empire Toys | Keller, Texas

Eternia Dreams | Taneytown, Maryland

The Fan Fortress | Tulsa, Oklahoma

Farpoint Toys and Collectibles | Mays Landing, New Jersey

House of Plastik | Cincinnati

I&S Vintage | Los Angeles

Imperial Castle Toy Shop | Pawling, New York

Jayden’s Toys | Lewisville, Texas

Kelly’s Toy Stop | Huntington Beach, California

Kokomo Toys and Collectibles | Kokomo, Indiana (Behind-the-Scenes)

Paul’s Toy Room | Parlin, New Jersey

RetroTV Toys | Las Vegas

Robot Robot | Chiyoda City, Tokyo, Japan

Rogue Toys | Las Vegas

Smash Toys | Chicago

South Louisville Toy Mall | Louisville, Kentucky

Spiral Toys | Shibuya City, Tokyo, Japan

Super7 | San Francisco (pictured top via Instagram)

Super Happy Incredible Toys | Houston

The Batcave Comics and Toys | Santa Rosa, California

The Gnarly Toy Box | Lakewood, Colorado

The Toy Box | Glendale, Arizona

Time Capsule Toys | Girard, Ohio

Toy and Comic Heaven | Willow Grove, Pennsylvania

The Toyboys | Haarlem, Netherlands

The Toy Drop | Indianapolis

Toy de Jour | Chicago

Toy Fusion | Sacramento, California

Toy Stable | Tacoma, Washington

Toys From The Past | Lincoln, Nebraska

We Can Be Heroes  | Chatsworth, California

The majority of the proceeds from the series will go to the featured stores, which are operating under modified pandemic circumstances.

A Toy Store Near You debuts through Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Vimeo on May 29.