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Family & Leisure
Best Toy Store
Dinosaur Hill
306 East 9th Street
212-473-5850
Pamela Pier loves secrets. She loves them so much that she hasn't got a sign
above her seventeen-year-old East Village toy shop. "I want people to come
upon us and be surprised," she says. Granted, if you're looking down, you
may notice the name dinosaur hill spelled out in marbles outside the store,
but as with all the wonderful, mostly handcrafted items inside, you need to
awaken another sense in order to take it all in. There is nothing Disney,
very little plastic, and only a tiny smattering of commercial knickknacks
within these walls. An old-fashioned curiosity chest sits by the door,
waiting for little hands to reach in and find little worlds. One drawer is
filled with what Pier calls "subway sitters," German miniatures that appear
to be riding the rails, $4.25 each. Another drawer is cowboy-centric. All
manner of marionettes hang from the ceiling. The music shelf has a calypso
steel drum, $100, and a harmonica, $9.50. Wind-up metal toys are here in
abundance, as are wooden block sets. One particularly fascinating
collection, Anchor Blocks, is made from sand, chalk, and linseed oil. These
aromatic pieces, which create entire cities, were the childhood playthings
for Walter Gropius ($78 to $82 for a set).
Don't forget to say hello to day-worker Razzy, the schnoodle (schnauzer
poodle), who is, as expected, East Village-friendly.
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