The doorbell music at Casper’s independently owned Toy Town store was going nearly nonstop on Monday morning as shoppers crowded aisles getting those last-minute gifts and stocking stuffers for the Christmas holiday.
One shopper was squeezing a “whoopee” cushion.
Owners Dalene and Mike Lockhart were busy helping people find that special item as other employees manned the register or watched over the store answering shopper questions.
Dalene Lockhart said she started the store in 1985 when she was shopping for her now oldest son and couldn’t find the toy item she wanted locally.
“So, we started very small with $10,000 inventory,” she said. “We now have a lot more than that.”
After several years on Center Street in Casper, Toy Town has been at 130 S. Wolcott St. for the past nine years.
The shop walls and narrow aisles are lined with all kinds of toys and gifts for all ages that include LEGOs, puzzles, dolls, games, farm toys, stuffed animals, and classics such as Lincoln Logs.
Lockhart said she keeps track of what the hot toys and games are for the season, some gleaned from salespeople calling on the shop and others from toy shows she attends. And not everything “hot” will find its way to their store.
“Sometimes something is hot that we don’t want to represent in our store,” she said. “ I try to have an image that is wholesome and good … and sometimes it takes a while for things to catch on in Wyoming.”
A collectible of Josh Allen, a former University of Wyoming star and now Buffalo Bills quarterback is popular with adults this year. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Susan Lyman was looking for educational gifts for her great-grandchildren. She found Wyoming Opoly. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Aaron and Cael Yeigh were looking to hit a lot of stores in a short amount of time as they closed out their Christmas shopping. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
Collectible Quarterback
Items that have caught on are the Funko pop culture collectibles. Some are bobbleheads, some not. The store has a wall of them that spills over to another shelf. A big seller for kids are the Spiderman versions; for the adults it is a Buffalo Bills Josh Allen figurine that is flying off the shelf.
“I don’t know why you would think that,” she said, smiling.
Lockhart also keeps shelves full of a variety of stuffed animals, including unusual ones such as the binturong that is known as the “bearcat” and smells like popcorn according to its label.
Her doll section includes varieties of “nice looking play dolls that other stores don’t carry” and there are also wooden train sets for younger children that are also popular during the holidays.
Casper’s Nicole Oyloe was doing some last-minute shopping in the doll section for five second cousins all between 1 and 3 years old. In her hand was a Bath Time BabyTots doll.
“I think I am going to get two of them,” she said. Oyloe was also looking for stocking stuffers and said Toy Town was a favorite place for her holiday shopping.
“I like to shop local,” she said. “I’ve known the (Lockhart) family a long time.”
Ryan Spalding of Bayard, Nebraska, said he was in town to meet his sister from Billings, Montana, for the weekend. He and his wife were doing some last-minute shopping for two neighbor boys. The oldest, 12, was getting a soldering kit and the youngest, a Ninja outfit. He said they were trying to match gifts to the boys’ personalities and his only shopping strategy was to follow his wife and sister.
“My wife said I should come down to this toy shop, I have no strategy,” he said. The couple were headed back to Nebraska for the holiday.
Steve Bon, of Lansing, Michigan, and formerly of Casper, was in town to spend the holidays with family. He and his wife were trying to find the right gifts for five of his eight grandkids. He enjoys the store.
“I have a list. So, for the kids, we are here at Toy Town because they have great selections and we usually stop here every time we visit,” he said. “We didn’t want to bring a whole lot of stuff on the plane, and we might as well help Casper’s economy.”
Aaron Yeigh, a teacher in Casper, was with son Cael. Yeigh said for him it was hard to find time to shop prior to Monday. And while his wife does most of the shopping, they were looking for meaningful gifts and stocking stuffers.
“We’re just trying to hit as many stores as possible in the shortest amount of time,” he said.
Nicole Oyloe said she was shopping for little cousins on Monday. She enjoyed shopping at Toy Town because she likes to support local businesses. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Crocodile Dentist remains a popular game for younger children. The object is to find the bad tooth without getting your hand bitten. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Toy Town owner Dalene Lockhart said one of the hot sellers this year is a heavy spinning cube that she holds in her hand. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
A popular holiday gift for those too young for a regular train set is a wooden railroad, Toy Town owner Dalene Lockhart said. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
Game On
In the store’s game section, Lockhart said she stocks 500 games and those remain popular gifts for the holidays. This year’s hottest games are “Trio,” a card game that has players looking for three of a kind and “Cover Your Assets” a card game where players pair sets of cards such as piggy banks, cash under a mattress, and jewels while trying to challenge and steal from a competitor’s stack.
Casper’s Susan Lyman, who moved to Wyoming six years ago from South Dakota, was in the game section with “Wyoming Opoly” in her hand. She was also looking for a Casper version of the Monopoly game.
“I have some great-grandchildren that range from 11 to 3 and I was trying to find a game that is educational and something about Wyoming,” she said. “I like educational things. When I was growing up, we always played games. My grandparents taught me how to play canasta and things like that.”
Also in the game section is a crocodile dentist game that is “always popular,” Lockhart said. The game for young players involves trying to reach in and push down on the crocodile’s teeth to find the one that is bothering him. Whichever player finds the sensitive tooth triggers a crocodile bite. Players need to remove their hand before being snatched. The bad tooth changes from game-to-game.
Sitting at the checkout counter, Lockhart said another hot seller is a heavy spin cube. The user puts the revolving cube between thumb and forefinger and gives it a twirl.
“It feels really good when you spin it,” she said.
The holidays represent about 25% of Toy Town’s income for the year, Lockhart said. She said for other toy stores it may be nearly half, but her store still does good business in the summer when grandparents are visiting grandkids.
Lockhart is optimistic about sales. This year represents a different holiday shopping season because Thanksgiving was Nov. 28th — the end of the month.
“It’s different this year because the season is shorter. So, if you compare it to a season like that, we are doing really good,” she said. “There are a lot more people here than there was two days before Christmas last year.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
