Great customer service employee was very nice and gave some great deals! Store had a huge variety…read moreof collectibles! The value of cards was spot on and had amazing bundles!

Absolutely love this place and will be telling everyone about the knowledgeable kind staff. The…read moreflower and mushroom chocolate bar selection are also top notch.

I've challenged myself as of late to shop at local toy stores instead of the big box options, and…read moreThe Learning Tree might be the best in the area. It's pretty big, has a massive selection, and even offers a child sized door that kiddos can walk into on their own making it extra fun for them to explore. This place has been around since I was a kiddo and it still delivers. Pro tip: they will even gift wrap for you!

Some things you never outgrow, and for me, toys stores are one of them. While it's not me begging…read morefor everything I see, I know my 10 month old had a great time looking at (and tasting?) everything until we found her a new toy at The Learning Tree. I'll call out the elephant in the room and say that sometimes, yes, unfortunately for nice small businesses like these, it's easiest to order something off of Amazon and have it arrive on your doorsteps. However, there's a lot of value in supporting these local shops to offset that. For starters, they're very friendly here and help you out whenever you need anything. Secondly, you can make sure your little ones will like their toys before you pull the trigger. All those combine to also support a cool local toy store that adds to a sense of community. We found some great things for our little ones, and a few things I found to be too pricey for what they were. I think it's a nice little toy store in a family-oriented neighborhood and one we'll keep in our back pocket for gifts for sure.

This is a five-star toy store all the way! It's great to have a destination worthy shop in the…read moreneighborhood, and especially vital after the big hole from the Dime Store closing a few years back. The kids will be lured in by the displays in the windows 10 out of 10 times, so parents, I suggest an alternate route unless you want to pick up another unicorn stuffy or a whoopee cushion. There is such a nice array of classic toys, new ones, board games, science-centric toys, books, and more. This is a go-to when we're heading to another kid's birthday party and you can always find something pretty fairly priced. They also (if I'm remembering correctly) will offer to wrap things too, so it's absolutely worth coming here vs ordering something online. Great spot, please stay open for decades to come!

Brookside Toy & Science is something of a KC icon and for good reason as it's one of very few…read morelocally owned toy stores, and they do a great job of capturing childhood magic within their compact space. If you have little kids you'll know that there just aren't as many dedicated toy stores as there were back in the 90s. I remember when I was growing up aside from places like Brookside Toy and Science, there was also Toys R Us, a few other local spots, and the really cool FAO Schwartz on the plaza. As a kid the most magical places to me were always the FAO Schwartz and the local spots like the learning tree and zoom. Nowadays I feel like we often end up either online shopping on Amazon or going to Target to find a birthday present for kid's parties. This spring I decided we were going to break that cycle and start supporting small, local businesses instead. Brookside Toy & Science was the first on my list. We visited here on my daughter's birthday and I told her she had a certain amount she could spend. In retrospect that may have been too much leeway for five year old, but she had a ball exploring, trying out some of the toys on display, and eventually landed on a robot lizard. What I like about this toy store in particular is that they really do blend toys and science. There are taxidermied animals, skulls, and other oddities on display and for sale closer to the back. This gives the store a bit of unique flair that makes it stand out. I also like that the shelves are mostly at kid height so they can explore independently, and I love that they have a huge space dedicated to kid friendly board games, which I took a mental note of for the holidays. My only disappointment was the lack of playmobil toys as my daughter has recently gotten into them and they were listed as an official retailer online. I did see a few, but it was just not very robust. I'm guessing that they aren't super popular and that's why - which I understand! Just sort of a bummer for me. Overall though this is for sure a five star spot and if you're on the hunt for a toy store this should check your boxes.

Great service by all the staff on all my questions. They offered a professional opinion and great…read moredirection

This place is awesome!!! This is downtown Kansas City! It's situated north of the Plaza, and in a…read morenice busy area of town. Currently, the City is extending the Streetcar line, so there is a lot of construction barriers and road plates to overcome. The cute store has a nice private parking lot with 2 entry points. The employees are super friendly and extremely knowledgeable about the products. I was inquiring about leather paints for shoes. The clerk was provided awesome service making sure I understood the paint and all the needs to clean it up. I didn't feel pressured to purchase anything. They offered individual paints or sets for this particular type of paint. They had a selection of "specialty" colors that are made in small batches and a little more exclusive than the regular. Their open stock pens are glorious!!! Whether you are looking for an inexpensive Flair pen or Sharpie, or a more spendy Copic, you can choose from many different brands, and price points. They have canvases, and lots of blank bags, pouches, tshirts and other items that you can alter to share your art! They have numerous types of clay, molding clay, pottery clay, fine art medium and even novice kits. Prices: I shop a lot at other hobby and craft stores, so I would know if the Dick Blick prices are out of range. They aren't, in fact the prices were great! Stop by Starbucks and get a drink, and wander across the street and browse! i think you will love their selection and the wonderful atmosphere that appeals to your creative side!

Rainy Day Books is kind of the best of both worlds - a book lover's paradise staffed by book…read moreworms. It's a cozy space, but it's jampacked with books from all subjects. If you can't find what you're looking for - which for some reason happens me a lot - the staff is happy to order a copy for you. They're book club friendly. They also host a ton of fun book-related and author events. If you're interested, please follow their social media accounts. They'll keep you up to date.

If you haven't been to Rainy Day Books, and you've passed by at any point, you're really missing…read moreout! Every time I go into the shop, even if I think I know exactly what I want, every staff member is so knowledgeable and helpful that I always leave with more ideas on my TBR! The little shop is located in the tiny shopping center off Brush Creek Parkway, which means it can be hard to find parking if the center is petty busy--but it's worth it! They have great sections for adult reads, but they also have great sections for kids and teens--you'll find what you're looking for even if you're not sure what that is. Over the holidays, I even asked for kids and teens recommendations from the staff which they were happy to give! As noted earlier, their shop isn't huge, but full of possibilities. And if at the end of your visit, you really still want that book they don't have in stock, they'll order it for you for pick up or shipping--it's a simple process and they're more than happy to help people find their perfect next read. They may not be a book superstore, but they create value in their suggestions, recommendations, and their tiny book reviews and recs on the shelves (even in the teens and kids sections, written by kids and teens!). So glad to have found this place early on in my time in KC, and so happy that they're still doing their thing in their amazing bookshop!

Omg !!!! LOVED this bookstore. I live in the Northland so I don't often make it down to the OP area…read morebut stopped in here on a day out and I totally will be back at some point! They had a great selection of books and easy to find your way around with the organization of the books. Walked out with a nice little haul :)

A beautiful store with a great book selection and so many wonderful plants. The staff is always so…read morefriendly and has awesome recommendations

I love this store the owners are great guys very helpful and happy to see them both doing well thru…read moreeverything. Really couldn't have better staff there everyone is helpful knowledgeable and friendly. Lucas is a really smart and quick guy knows what I'm after just about every time I come in. Only thing I can say bad about the plane is it's too easy to spend money haha. They give the term lhs a good name and I'm happy to come in browse their wares and spend money on cool things I don't need or the things I do :)

Short Version: Norm helped me over the phone and in store and he was amazing! I had a wonderful…read moreexperience and will definitely be back! Long Version: I had been looking at getting into RC cars for awhile and had settled on a brand and model on my own after extensive research. Traxxas Bandit for $189 seemed perfect for me. It was reasonably priced with good standard performance and features. I was looking online but everywhere I saw one, it said "could take up to 10 business days for delivery" and I really wanted it sooner so I started looking around in town. A different store had one and they were nice enough but I didn't know the $189 didn't come with battery/charger and wasn't quite ready to spend the cash. When I WAS ready, I decided to call a Hobby Town instead because the other store was a little dirty and while the employee answered my questions, they weren't very personable and when I thanked them for their time but said I wasn't aware of the full cost and I'd have to postpone my purchase, they just kind of stared off and didn't say anything. Like they were annoyed I didn't spend any money after I took up only approximately 5 minutes of their time. Not the worst customer service but still far from the best. Norm at Hobby Town however was wonderful from the beginning. I perused their site to make sure they had what I wanted and called to confirm. Norm answered with an enthusiastic and upbeat attitude, answered all my questions, reserved the unit behind the counter for me and said "see you later" in a way that seemed he was actually excited to see and help me when I got there. When entering the store it was the same way, happy greeting and warm smile. I explained who I was and again he seemed excited. This made me feel very good about my choice to purchase here instead. Again he answered all my questions, made recommendations when asked for them and was even nice and acknowledged my children when they asked or told him something. We left the store smiling and excited to get my Bandit home and couldn't have been more pleased with our experience. Thanks again Notm, I'm sure I'll be speaking to you again soon!