I brought my kids here a few times for their in store events. The store is pretty spacious…read more Mastermind offers free birthday perks for kids which is awesome however sometimes they have very limited selections. My kids got this big colorful bouncy ball from them and they loved playing with it.

4 starts because their curbside pickup experience was awesome! I ordered online and was able to…read morepickup the item within 2 hrs. Probably the fastest and most efficient curbside pickup experience so far. Good job mastermind team!

We came here for a build and take event during a long weekend. We arrived half an hour before the…read moreevent started, and the lineup was packed. We went to the end and waited a little. We saw a Lego staff came to us and stamped on our hands. We waited for an hour, finally, it's our turn. There were 3 spots to let us in. They put the Lego set into the small box and then we could start. There was a staff staying with us to help, if we need. Once we completed, we could take it home. We took some pictures at the store with the completed Apple. This was a good event.

This is by far my favourite lego store in the GTA. The staff here are friendly, polite and are…read morealways looking to help you out. Also all their staff are very knowledgeable about lego and their products and are able to answer pretty much anything you have about their stock. Keep in mind this is a lego store, so there will be children literally screaming and crawling everywhere you walk. As crazy as it is inside (especially on a weekend) the shelves are often very clean and the place is actually well organized! I come here all the time to buy lego for the little ones and sometimes for myself as well. With the VIP card it definitely makes the trip worthwhile along with their monthly promotions. I'll keep coming back as long as lego keeps pumping out sweet products!

So Samko & Miko come to Ottawa once a year for their annual warehouse sale which lasts a few days…read more This is how I first learned about the company. I signed up for their newsletter and that's how I discovered that they have a retail location in Richmond Hill that was going to be open to the public the same time that I was going to be in the GTA, and the hotel that I was staying at was less than 10 minutes away. I believe that they have 2 retail locations (this one in Richmond Hill and one in Toronto proper). These locations open up to the public for a few months at a time, unlike their travelling sales where they are only in town for a few days. Anyway, it's a warehouse, so it looks and feels like a warehouse. Prices are ok. Some items are fairly cheap, like stickers ($0.50) and books ($2.50-$10). Others are slightly lower than retail, but not bargain basement prices. They had costumes which were the same price as Party City after Halloween. It's pretty big, and is fun to poke around if you have kids in your life. You'll almost certainly find something for them. It's in an industrial park so there's lots of free parking in their parking lot.

This place has been around for many many years. It is a kid or kids at hearts dream place. There…read morewere endless of toys and there were books too. I saved 50% and more for the items. I have never been to a toy warehouse before. I bought 3 big red bags fill of toys. It felt like it's Christmas. The staff were friendly and seem to love there job. A staff offered to help me bring my toys to the cashier. There was no shopping carts there for customers so bring a wagon if you have. Thank you staff for doing what you do. I definitely will be coming again.

This is an amazing place. My kid loves to come and get a puffy friends. We knew this brand because…read moremy friend in Chicago. We got our first friend there. And we found a store in Scarborough Town Center before. But they closed out at end of July. Then moved to Markville Mall in late August. We visited this location on my daughter's birthday. We recorded our voice in a recorder and put inside the bear's hand. Because we didn't planned to record ahead, so we took some time to think of it and recorded multiple times. The staff was nice and patient. We seemed to had a good experience. Then we came 2nd time for our friend's wedding gift. I had 2 different coupons for discounts. We got 2 sets of bears: groom and bride. I told them to put in the system with separate bills, in order to use both, but they said the system would use both my coupons automatically. When I double checked the bill, it was only deducted 1 coupon, and in their system, somehow, they closed my 2nd coupon. And they said the bill couldn't be re-generated. At the end, they gave us $10 gift card, same value as my closed coupon. It was not really good experience, but the cotton instead can be replaced and the recording button can be replaced or be changed batteries by paying extra bucks. It is still a good place for gifts and memories.

4.5, rounding up to 5…read more So my daughter asked for a Build A Bear for her name day this year and I wanted to get one so that we could have the shared experience and souvenir. She has previous ones and explained that it's a pretty simple process, no appointment required. They do offer birthday party packages and for that I expect booking to be required. They also have online sales so that you can order that way, although I'm not sure if that means you bring the components in for assembly, or receive it assembled, or get a choice. For us, it was definitely about the build experience and our visit did not disappoint. I knew to expect a lineup between it being a Saturday in December and general covid chaos. We waited about 20 minutes or so while 4 or 5 parties were ahead of us. The staff managed the line and store quite well, allowing some priority based on matching the number of exiting groups to the next group of the same number in line. The entrance has a "roped" barrier and once we were inside, we were able to peruse the stock character shells, which are in the first section of the store. It was also nice and helpful that the large, front window displays had all of them with various costumes and accessories, so it didn't take long to narrow down our choices and make a final decision on which stuffy we wanted. They had Pokemon, Animal Crossing, and other licensed toy shells, as well as generic bears, bunnies, and other critters. The licensed toys were up to $50 just for the basic toy, which I find a bit rich but they did have a promotion on where a few select toys could be purchased as BOGO half price. This didn't apply to the pair we picked but I didn't expect it to anyway. Once we picked our toys, we moved to the next section, where we could choose a sound box to add. The selection of sounds was very impressive and we had a good laugh contemplating the Darth Vader and Empire Theme to add. Notwithstanding the additional $8 or so it would cost, we decided to forgo that option. You can also add a heartbeat sound box for about $6. We then lined up for the actual stuffing process. The machine looks a bit like a cross between a cotton candy machine and one of those arcade games where you have the plexi glass box filled with prizes, where the stuffing gets churned and blown through a pipe and into your toy. The staff was very professional and friendly, taking the time she needed to do a good job. She explained 3 options for how densely you can stuff your toy, and asks if you want to perform the ceremony to bring your toy to life with the little plush hearts you add inside it before she finished the seam. You take the heart in your palm and she chants the ceremony song, and once that's complete, she makes sure it's a satisfactory density before tying up 100%. The last part is browsing the selection of clothing and accessories you can buy to dress your new fuzzy friend. It can easily cost more than the toy itself depending on the pieces you choose, especially if you opt for licensed gear like Harry Potter or Animal Crossing items. You should budget at least $50 dollars between a toy and some accessories. I paid almost $130 for the 2 of us. Having said that, it was a fantastic experience. We again lined up to cash out, which went smoothly. You can pay another $0.95 to get a cute box instead of a bag for your purchase and regardless, you can scan your toy's tag to print its certificate. It all definitely adds to the fun. I would recommend this as a special treat like a birthday. I wouldn't want to do it more than once but some children might really look forward to it as a special occasion. I really applaud all the staff who were organized, courteous and helpful. They really made the difference between a corporate grab bag, and a warm and fuzzy memory. Well done!

Today I called Treasure Island Toys to place an order for curbside pickup. The sales associate was…read moreso friendly and helpful. I read her every item my sister recommended I buy for my nephew and she was very patient and kind while helping me decide on the perfect combination of gifts to make his covid birthday special. The associate, helped me go through the virtual checkout so I could use my gift card and had the gifts wrapped and ready to go in a couple minutes. When I arrived at the store I called them and they brought out the gifts and placed them on the table for curbside pickups. The service was perfect, quick, friendly and helpful. I definitely recommend this toy store. Would I go back? Absolutely! This was actually my most pleasant curbside pickup experience in all of covid. Thank you for your exceptional customer service.

You know that moment when you are in a hurry and you start to walk past something so special, that…read moreyou just have to stop? Tonight we were late for a kid's birthday party next door to this place, but realized it would be closed when the party was over. So I agreed we could go in, very quickly, and in about three minutes I spent about $60. What an adorable, thoughtfully curated, independent toy store. Littered with Pusheen the cat, Aaron's thinking putty, butter rum life savers - yes we left with some of each. We don't live in the area, but this gem is worth coming back for.

The employee gave the impression that she didn't want to bother giving us excellent customer…read moreservice skills. Although she was upfront with us from the get go that it would be hard to win anything with just 5 tokens, she delivered this message in a rude manner because she told us to leave if we thought that we could even win something with that amount of 5 tokens. To be honest, we didn't expect to win anything. We only wanted to have a fun experience of trying out some claw machines. Also, we didn't realize that the minimum purchase had to be 5 tokens and when we asked to buy 4 tokens, this employee gave us a look as if we had difficulty reading the instructions. To be honest, when you're inside a store with many claw machines, your eyes won't be focusing on reading text. Your eyes will be starring at the many cute stuffed toys. Our last attempt was for a claw machine where we were not familiar with its usage and when we asked the employee how to play that claw machine, her response was that that particular claw machine was super hard and that many customers spent more than 100 tokens and still couldn't get the stuffed animal. While we appreciated this honesty, we were interested in knowing how the machine worked and we had to repeat 3 times in total for the employee to give us a "Why-should-I-even-bother-to-show-you?" look and reluctantly grabbed a token to show us how to play that game.

I've crawled out of the reviewing blockade to make a review for this place because they deserve it…read more Hard to locate, they are situated in the Langham Square plaza but not accessible inside where T and T is. You have to go through the building to outside on the street facing towards Kennedy (where Alice Cafe is), take a left when you exit the door and it's almost the last store, or alternatively you can find it down through the parking lot. I found the Kennedy entrance much easier to find the place, we took the parking lot way going back and got lost trying to get back to our car. They have lots of claw machines ready to go, filled with many CUTE toys; unlike other places that have trash low quality items. Almost every toy was bleeping cute. I want the Kermit with the supreme shirt next. Or the Pikachu dressed as a charmander. I went with rilakumma this time. On one side it is $1 per play, and the other side was cut the rope and $2 per play. Biggest bang for your buck is the $1 per play but the prizes on the other side are definitely cool too. Customer service was hilariously great. The girl set up the toys every time to help you win. Literally. The game is harder than you think and about $5 in with no toys she made it increasingly easier cause WE SUCK. We were super happy when we finally got the toy I wanted (rilakumma) and I super enjoyed the experience. It's a great place for children or dates (but you'll probably only spend about 10-15 min here max unless you want all the toys or spend your money). It's still a good cap-off if you're already in the plaza. All in all, spent $9 ($4 went to the $2 per play game which is much harder). The toy I got and the experience is definitely worth it. Check it out!

My favourite place for toys! Whether it's a birthday party,…read morea special occasion or the holidays, this place has great selections that you might not find elsewhere! Minus the endless space where you run around looking for things, this place is smaller, yet filled with toys guaranteed to never leave empty handed! They usually have good deals, customer service is the best, and you get a complimentary gift wrapping after all! You can't go wrong with this place!

I cannot tell you what it is like when you're there or anything about the ambiance as I did…read morecurbside pick-up. The experience was a positive one mostly with a major caveat. I had a surprise list of several gift items from which I could pick items. I went online and found that they promote curbside pick-ups. The website helpfully points out what is in stock online or at store and what is not. That is helpful... except it is not by store. It is a generic statement. The website allows one to pick a store, but there is no indication where any unavailable items may or may not be available. They do not have ETAs either. Yikes! So place an order for the items helpfully marked as in stock, be told that a couple of items are not in stock, delete those from your order and I very soon received a friendly e-mail that my chosen toy will be waiting for me for the next 48 hours. That was easy and I did not have to leave them a credit card number (which I would not have) or be charged or anything. I drove to the store, called them and a friendly girl brought the toy placed it in my trunk, took payment through a machine on a stick while I sat in the car and voila. I am told my Manhattan toys gift is well received, but hope to see inside their store someday!?

I'm shocked this great store has never been reviewed!…read more Mastermind has a great selection of toys from many brands that you're not going to find in the big box stores. The store is organized by category so things are easy to find. They have quite a large book selection, educational and board games, dolls, cars & trucks, building toys, and outdoor things like wagons. The store is brightly painted inside and out so you can't miss it on Yonge just north of lawrence. I didn't really have anything to get that day, but who doesn't like to pop into a toy store once in a while just to look around?

Staff here is great, friendly and helpful. There is a decent variety of toys, books, games and even…read morecostumes. Love that they wrap your purchases for you if needed which is super useful especially around Christmas. This particular location even has parking. Mastermind doesn't offer the same variety of items as bigger corporate stores but the options do offer something for kids of all ages.