A play table at the end of every aisle
Plush animals, puzzles and board games each get a low table and a basket of open samples. Parents browse the shelves while the toddler runs an entire farm on the rug, and nobody gets hurried.
Wooden toys, kits and board games · Minneapolis, Minnesota
Toys that survive the fourth sibling.
Little Cog Toys is a corner shop in Linden Hills where every shelf has a play table beside it, so children can build, race and roll before anyone reaches for a wallet. We stock sturdy blocks, honest science kits and board games that families finish, and we say no to anything that breaks before the car ride home.
Free gift wrapping, ready in ten minutes.
A toy shop that lets kids touch everything
Our rule is simple: if it is in a box, there is a floor model next to it, and the floor model is meant to be played with.
Science kits tested by nine-year-olds
Before a kit joins the wall, a rotating panel of local third-graders builds it unsupervised. Anything that needs adult rescue in under twenty minutes is sent back to the maker.
Remote-control cars and a test track
A taped oval runs along the back wall for buggies and crawlers. Batteries are on us for the first charge, and our hobby specialist replaces worn tires at cost.
Plush that survives the wash cycle
Every stuffed animal we sell has a care tag we have actually tested in a home machine. The bears in the basket have been through forty cycles and still have both eyes.
Little Cog by the numbers
- Toys and games on the shelves
- 2,200
- Floor-model play tables
- 12
- Happiness guarantee on every toy
- 30 days
- Gift wrapping turnaround, no charge
- 10 min
Saturday morning in the shop
Overheard: 'Can we stay until it closes?'
This month's picks
Six toys the shop could not stop recommending. Everything is ready to take home today or ship free over fifty dollars.
Birchwood 100-piece block set
$54Tinker Tide circuit lab
$40Harbor Run family board game
$32Night Market 500-piece puzzle
$24Hollis 1:18 remote-control buggy
$65Marlowe washable bear, 14 inch
$28What the grown-ups say
“My seven-year-old tested the circuit kit at the shop for twenty minutes and then asked to be left alone with it. We bought it before he finished.”
“The bear has been through the wash more times than I can count and my daughter still carries it everywhere.”
“They helped me pick a birthday gift for a child I have never met, and the wrapping was better than anything I could do.”
Sample quotes from fictional customers.
Join the birthday club
Tell us your child's birthday month and we will send one email, two weeks ahead, with three gift ideas under thirty dollars and a coupon for free wrapping.
Safety, returns and party orders
How do you check toys for safety?
Every toy meets US consumer-safety testing, and we skip anything with small magnets, loose button batteries or paint we cannot trace to a maker.
What if my child outgrows a toy?
Bring it back within thirty days for store credit, or trade a toy in good condition at any time for credit toward a new-to-you secondhand one.
Do you host parties?
On Sunday mornings the back room hosts eight children for ninety minutes, with a building challenge, snacks and a gift for the guest of honor. It costs two hundred twenty-five dollars.
Can you ship a gift?
Yes, with a handwritten card, tissue wrap and no price slip. Shipping is flat at seven dollars, or free for orders over fifty.
Find the shop
4318 Upton Ave S, Minneapolis MN
- Mon–Sat 10:00–18:00
- Sun 11:00–16:00
- Story time Saturday 10:30
+1 612 555 0138