Girls photographed with dress-up accessories at the Strong National Museum of Play. Popular toys, personalized items and nature and outdoor-themed gifts are good selling at the attraction’s shops.

hile toy museums bring out the kid in all of us, they play an important role in teaching visitors about the history of toys and their impact on our society and culture. Toy museum gift shops carry this message over with the merchandise they offer in the stores.

Sandi Russell has worked at the Toy & Miniature Museum of Kansas City for more than 25 years. The museum, which consists of a 38-room house, resides on the campus of University of Missouri-Kansas City and contains two main collections. The first collection focuses on antique toys such as dolls, marbles, trains and planes. The second collection consists of scaled-down working miniatures that attract collectors. As operations manager and museum store manager, Russell works to help the 25,000-30,000 visitors per year appreciate the history behind toys.

“Our store isn’t very big, it’s only 585 square feet, but we have a great deal of merchandise that brings out the kid in everyone,” Russell explained. “The most popular merchandise in the gift shop are marbles. The museum has a collection of over one million marble pieces, so anything marble related sells including games such as Chinese Checkers, Shoot-A-Loop and marble necklaces.” More...