So, recently I went on a school trip to Boston, Washington D.C., and the highlight of the trip, New York. We did lots of things while in the big apple including going to the base of the Statue of Liberty, walking through Time Square, seeing the view from the 87th floor of the Empire State building and even seeing The Phantom of the Opera on broadway. We also did a ton of shopping, and I mean a ton! During one of our shopping sprees I was able to go into one a store that has been in my dreams ever since Toy Box Philosopher did a post about it back in 2012.
FAO Schwarz!!!!!!
So the actual store itself is across the street from the Palace Hotel and right next to an Apple store
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| I only had my phone with me so all the pictures in this post will be pretty low quality. Sorry about that. |
Then if you kept going down the stairs I was standing on you get to the candy section. My friends spent most of their time there while I explored the rest of the store. (This gave me time to fangirl over various dolls without being judged too hard).
There were stairs in the back where the weird clock thing is that led down to the toddler section which I unfortunately did not get any pictures of.
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| There was sooooooooo much candy! |
In this section they also had the Muppet Whatnot Workshop!
There was no one there while I walked by so I didn't really get to see how it worked or what it really was but as a Muppets fan it was really cool to see.
So after that, I traveled to the second level. You get there by riding on an escalator with all these huge slightly realistic stuffed animals next to it. At the top there was an almost life sized panda which was priced at over 1,000 dollars!
So the first thing on the second floor is a section of Steiff bears which were all adorable but also very expensive. The rest of the second floor was a little like a maze of toys and other wonderful things. Here are some of the my favorite things from FAO Schwartz New York's second floor!
They had a surprisingly large comic/video game section including the elusive Avatar: The Last Airbender comics. I was almost going to get one but then I decided I really didn't want to carry those stinkin' huge books all the way back home.
Near the comic books, there was a man making fake snow out of this white powder. A while later my friends joined on the second floor and when we walked by him he excitedly asked us (a group of 5 14/15 year olds ) if we wanted to see a magic trick! Being the people we were we said yes. Then we all came over and he gave each of us a handful of white powder and then he poured water over it and it turned into snow in our hands! (wow! much cool! so magic!). Anyway, while the "magic" itself was not that impressive it was cool how he was willing to let even us join in, instead of leaving these things exclusively to the kiddos.
There was a really nice Beatles display and while some of the figures/toys where slightly terrifying it was still cool!
The store also had a pretty big Lego section. I personally don't really play with Legos it was pretty cool to see Emmet and Wildstyle from The Lego Movie (I loved that movie) made out of tiny plastic blocks! Also when I came to take a picture there was this little girl who when she saw Emmet her whole face just lit up and she ran to him and she was hugging him. It was very cute!
FAO Schwartz was so big they fit an entire Claire's store, complete with an ear piercing station, inside their store.
They had the biggest Ever High Doll stock I had ever seen!
A very big Monster High display.
The Barbie section which overlooked the streets below.
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| It's pirate hour at FAO Schwartz! |
And much to my delight a huge Playmobil section! I had already seen (or owned) most of the sets they had so I didn't spend much time here. I did take a picture with the giant Playmobil figure ( I mean how could you not).
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| She's an evil enchantress. She does evil dances. |
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| I was seriously considering bringing this home |
They also had a very nice My Little Pony section which I spent way too much time looking at, prompting one of my friends to ask "Honey, do you like My Little Pony?"
The answer is yes, yes I do.
They had a second Barbie section with some vintage Barbies.
And the famous Giant Piano!! A while ago Willow was in a production of Big where they had one of these so it was a cool throwback. (In Big the Musical, they dance on the giant piano!)
Okay now I am going to get into the actual doll section of the store. First off, we have A Girl for All Time. After hearing so much about these dolls it was cool to see them in real life.
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| 5,000$ for that Elsa, the panda is sounding like a pretty good deal right now! |
They had an excelent collection of Madame Alexander dolls. And while the staging of the decapitated doll heads was pretty creepy for some of my friends, I found it really cool and informative. (#thingsdollpeoplesay).
The steampunk wizard of oz Madame Alexander dolls were awesome!
Next to the Madame Alexander section was a section of baby dolls, here all the staff were dressed up like nurses. It was very cute.
Although it was small and almost completely out of stock, the Tonner section was probably my favorite part. All the dolls where so pretty! I just wanted to bring them all with me! Sadly the only dolls that were actually in stock were the Tonner patience ones. Naturally I took out the boxes for Tonner Patience Dorothy and Alice and got a better look at them.
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| She looks so scared. |
They were so pretty!! I especially liked Alice. As I was opening her box and balancing her on my leg and trying to take a picture without looking too suspicious, my friend just asked "Why don't you just take a picture of her in the display?" (And I was like You don't understand... It's PATIENCE)
So yes that is the end of my adventures at FAO Schwartz in New York. If you are for any reason in the area you should definitely stop by! It is worth it. Trust me.
See you next time!
