Tinkering with Toys

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by Celene Adams

 

 

"Do you mind if I blast you with a puff of air?" asks Matt Hannifin, owner/manager of Science Toy Magic LLC.

Hannifin is perched precariously on a unicycle, aiming an Airzooka at the group of customers gathered in front of his store in Santa Fe's Sanbusco Market Center. He looks more like a Dr. Seuss character than a former science and math teacher/laser light technician/boomerang craftsman.

Poof! Hannifin pulls on the Airzooka and lets loose a "doughnut" of air that pops in a customer's face, ruffling the wisps of gray hair around his temples.

Gray hair? Although he runs a toy shop, many of Hannifin's clients are Los Alamos National Laboratories scientists -- some of whom have designed toys too, such as the Levitron® Omegaâ„¢, a floating top invented by former Los Alamos scientist Dr. Bill Hones.

The scientists and their children, or grandchildren, can't resist Science Toy Magic's extraordinary offerings: its handmade and individually "sky-tested" boomerangs; its battleships that, when filled with baking soda, dive and re-emerge in the bathtub; its flashlight that never needs batteries; its floating gold cube, which is "the perfect way to mess with a physicist's head," Hannifin says.

There are 120 toy types in all and 11 toys (soon to be 16) that Hannifin says he was the first retailer in the country to sell -- including, among others, a "MiniZero Blaster," which shoots harmless fog rings, a clock that floats the time and messages in the air, and the i-Top Pro, a top that spins while projecting a lighted display that counts and records rotations, measures spinning speed and answers questions such as "Will it snow today?"

Hannifin, who speaks five languages, acquires his toys at toy fairs across the world. This year, he obtained five new toys at the International Toy Fair in New York -- a throwing ring that turns into a boomerang, a fighting magnetic top set, objects that float in the air, and a new type of glider.

He makes a point of demonstrating his toys for the 100 or so customers who are drawn by his antics into visiting his store each day.

"That's my niche," Hannifin says. "I can outsell any chain store or museum gift shop when it comes to products that don't 'sell themselves,' but need demonstrating.

"Every toy must, in some dramatic way, demonstrate principles of science in a matter of seconds, must be durable and the best made of its kind. We explain the scientific principle behind how each toy works and we demonstrate each toy for you," he adds.

Demonstrations also keep Hannifin outside of his actual store, which is necessary, since the store is a mere 58.2 square feet. There's no room even for a cash register. So every day, Hannifin rolls out a cart into the space directly in front of Science Toy Magic from which he displays and plies his wares. His wacky presence there makes it impossible to overlook the tiny space, which would otherwise be easy to do -- save for the laser light show he's run 24-hours-a-day in his front window since opening the space two-and-a-half-years ago.

But even 58.2 square feet is a step up from the Tesuque Pueblo Flea Market, where Hannifin was previously a fixture for a year and a half. And, when he finds he needs more space, the nimble 47-year-old simply climbs a rolling library ladder. He installed it to access his 13-foot tall walls whose crammed shelves labor under bull roarers, whirligigs, kaleidoscopes and Australian didgeridoos, among other playthings.

Hannifin's toys sell for 30 cents to $300. All sales tax is included in the sticker price, Hannifin explains.

"Twenty kids are lining up to buy a Silly Putty® at $2 a piece. And a millionaire is standing behind them -- a woman who wants to buy for every grandchild on the planet. She's tired, getting weaker by the moment. So I go 'two dollars, two dollars, two dollars,' to make things faster."

A favorite toy of his pint-size clientele is the Fun Fly, a $5 indoor boomerang, suitable for kids above three years of age, but also "a little break" for executives sitting at a desk. Hannifin says he sells hundreds of them a year.

"We don't carry anything that we can't sell out of three times per year," he says, adding he learned this lesson, among many others, from SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives, which he contacted for assistance in starting Science Toy Magic, along with the New Mexico Small Business Development Center (NMSBDC).

For, although Hannifin has been, among other aforementioned professions, a holographer, a unicycling janitor, a hotair balloon pilot, a carnivorous plant grower, and a scuba diver, he admits he knew little about retailing when he started.

"Tommy Faber, of SCORE, lined me up with legal advice for setting up an LLC. It didn't cost me a penny. I wouldn't have known what kind of an attorney to approach and it would have been expensive," Hannifin says.

The NMSBDC also helped with everything from creating a business plan, ordering, setting up a computerized bookkeeping system, creating publicity, stocking and pricing decisions and negotiating his lease, he says. "I'm an intelligent person, but I really needed this assistance, re what kind of stock to carry, how to price items, how to publicize my business, and how to display items at my store," Hannifin says.

The NMSBDC awarded Science Toy Magic LLC its Star Client award during a presentation before the New Mexico Legislature last February. "Hannifin was honored because he has more than quadrupled the revenues of his retail shop and [because] his performance has been excellent," says the organization's Steve Stephenson.

Although Hannifin won't reveal gross revenues, he says he now makes up to $300,000 annually -- four and a half times what he made when he started and a big change for a guy who says he for years lived below the poverty level. Still, despite his success, Hannifin is well aware that he's "just down the street" from another science toy shop.

Consequently, although he works up to 74 hours a week, Hannifin also participates in numerous community endeavors in order to create visibility and "give back." For instance, he provided $1,000 worth of toys to Intermountain Youth Centers, a rehabilitation facility, and $825 in toys to Big Brothers Big Sisters to provide a Chrismas gift to each child in the program. His store logo, a spinning boomerang with "Science Toy Magic" in rainbow lettering, was designed by Mo Sampadian, a local homeless woman, whose work Hannifin then promoted as part of a city-wide contest he sponsored.

Hannifin, a former participant in national and international boomerang turnaments who designed and patented a boomerang for the blind, holds free boomerang workshops in Santa Fe.

"The only thing I ask is, it's my day off. Don't ask me how much a boomerang is. If you want to buy a boomerang, come to the store," he says.

Just make sure he doesn't toss it at your head.