Figpickels settles into new digs at Plaza Shops

COEUR d'ALENE - What do you get with a toy store with more elbow room?

More toys and more activity.

That was the case during Saturday's grand re-opening of Figpickels Toy Emporium in The Coeur d'Alene Resort Plaza Shops.

Jonah Webster, 4, Coeur d'Alene, couldn't resist handling different cool toys. It's a touchy-feely kind of place, after all.

"My favorites are the colored rocks and the toys that shine," Jonah said while going from one toy to another.

Brett Sommer, who owns the store with wife Susan, said the 7-year-old business recently moved from 312 E. Sherman Ave. to 210 E. Sherman, No. 103, because more space was needed.

"We couldn't do any more (at the former location) because it was so crowded," Sommer said. "People would literally stop at the door because they could see it was too crowded."

In the new digs, the Garden of Readin' book section, Hats in the Belfry, a place to try on hats in front of a mirror that makes you look funky, and the Laser-rarium are being created.

"Before, the universe (to try out lasers in a dark place) was in the bathroom, and that just didn't work out well," Sommer said.

The event also helped launch the new Clump-o-Lumps toy, a cast of six characters in which their parts are interchangeable so that 2,303 combinations are possible.

"Create your own," Sommer told attendees. "You can have a head of a shark on a body of a frog with legs of a squid."

Nick "The Trickster Nickster" Anker, a 10-year-old from Hayden, mesmerized visitors with his card tricks.

"I'm having a lot of fun with it," Nick said between tricks. "I like seeing the smiles on people's faces."

The move of Figpickels brings the Sommers' three businesses under one roof. The couple also own Mrs. Honeypeeps Sweet Shop and Papillion Paper Emporium.

"We've been treated so well by the Hagadone Corporation," Sommer said. "The proximity to The Resort and the entrance on Sherman are important to us."