out of the gates

I wandered down to the local art festival yesterday and found this really super cool booth. A neighborhood family started this company just a couple months ago and have done a pretty awesome job with it. The short of it is they collect tin wind-up toys and have started importing them and selling them on the web for very reasonable prices. You should definitely check out their very well done website: <a href="http://www.tintoyarcade.com">www.tintoyarcade.com</a> &quot;About&quot; from their website: <i>Aaron Brown found some old tin toys in his grandfather's basement. He and his dad started taking pictures of the toys. They framed these images for gifts for family and friends. After 3 years of running his successful lemonade stand, Aaron, now 8 years old, decided to start a new business with his mom's help. Aaron's idea was to find the tin toys that are still being made and show them with his dad's art prints. Aaron discovered that some of the toys are still being made in Japan and China. Some are even made by the original manufacturers. These toys are rarely found in stores today. Since Aaron is in school, he wanted to share his toys on the internet so friends can see the toys and art any time. From the site, maintained by his aunt, anyone can buy Tin Toys or Aaron's Art and she will send it to you. You can buy &quot;Tin Toy Take-Out&quot; with a favorite toy in a Chinese take-out box. Aaron invented &quot;Aaron's Giggle Meter&quot; to rate how funny each toy looks and moves. Aaron and his Mom wrote a children's book called &quot;The Lost Key: A Tin-Toy Adventure,&quot; which is also available at the web site. All of the proceeds from TinToyArcade.com will go to Aaron's College Savings. Aaron, Dad, and Mom hope you enjoy Tin Toys like we do. </i>