Seattle landmark Archie McPhee to close!?!

Seattle landmark Archie McPhee may close due to a Washington state bill. This also includes their parent company Accoutrements, who in the past has made a few tiki mugs.

Check out the full story here http://seattlest.com/2008/03/25/archie_mcphees.php

Oh, and yes, I do work for Accoutrements, as an accountant, but I didn't know of this until today. Made for a crappy day, finding out that you may lose your job in seven months.

"previously posted to collecting tiki"

[ Edited by: thefuzz 2008-03-25 21:32 ]

dude, i asked for you the last time i was in Archies.. why don't parents tell their kids "dont put that in your mouth".. it worked for generations before now. damn pansies.

On 2008-03-25 21:04, dogbytes wrote:
dude, i asked for you the last time i was in Archies.. why don't parents tell their kids "dont put that in your mouth".. it worked for generations before now. damn pansies.

This sucks so bad. No shit. Why can't parents keep their kids on the straight and narrow. But fuck...who buys "the cubes" for their kids anyway?
BREAKDOWN

I hope this bill flops.

On 2008-03-25 21:04, dogbytes wrote:
dude, i asked for you the last time i was in Archies.. why don't parents tell their kids "dont put that in your mouth".. it worked for generations before now. damn pansies.

I work at Accoutrements, the parent location at Mukilteo, about 17 miles north of Seattle, or a three hour drive! Stupid I-5. Not really, more like an hour drive, unless you’re leaving Seattle around 4pm, then yeah, a three hour drive.

http://www.accoutrements.com

This SUCKS! Another bit of Ballard down the tubes. Yes, parents need to be more responsible with their children sticking crap in their mouths - but the US needs to stop shipping all their jobs off to countries that use lead in all their paints and plastics. I would like to know how many kids have gotten sick from shoving toys in their mouths.

Not good for silly toys lovers everywhere...which includes silly Tiki toys lovers. Their pencil eraser tops ARE featured in TIKI MODERN.
The safety regulation mania in this country is approaching German (aka Kafka-esque) proportions.

When I was 16 I ordered my first dash board hula dancer and shrunken head from them. It was actually a mail in order before the internet. I was so pumped to hang that shrunken head from below my bumper on my old chevy when it arrived in the mail!

Fuzz? Didn't you have your own action figure for a while? http://www.mcphee.com/fuzz/

This is such utter bullshit -- everybody knows these toys aren't for kids.

--cindy (proud owner of a Librarian Action Figure and other wonderful McPhee goodies)

On 2008-03-26 00:19, cynfulcynner wrote:
Fuzz? Didn't you have your own action figure for a while? http://www.mcphee.com/fuzz/

This is such utter bullshit -- everybody knows these toys aren't for kids.

--cindy (proud owner of a Librarian Action Figure and other wonderful McPhee goodies)

Sure do, although they all sold out last year.

[ Edited by: thefuzz 2008-03-26 09:41 ]

Gawwdammit. Well, I'm going shopping this weekend.
maybe it just needs to be a 21 and over shop and they could serve drinks too. Fer cryin out loud, one half of the store in in an old Liqour store! Anyhow, I hate it when I'm at Archies and the lil monsters are running around and grabbing stuff getting in the way of MY running around and grabbing stuff.
SERIOUS!
Pea

[ Edited by: sweetpea 2008-03-26 12:25 ]

I always wonder how I somehow managed to survive my childhood without getting lead poisoning. I grew up in the 1960s and '70s when there was little to no toy restrictions. And for some reason I never had the urge to eat paint chipping off the walls either. Strange.

The first thing I ever bought online where those hanging Moai party lights from there and I remember how they even threw in a few samples of that creepy candy everyone buys there but no one eats. Theirs no justice when this place goes under and 2 McDonald's are in walking distance of each other. I'm sorry to see it go.

This new toy testing not only affect Mcphee's, but all toys sold in Washington State...may even mean no more Happy Meal Toys!

I switched coasts about 10 years ago but still have family up in Skagit valley. Whenever I go to visit there are two places that I must go to everytime, Dick's and Archie McPhee's. I would be crushed if Archie's was to close. I even remember their older location. It ain't right, ain't right at all I tell ya.

Oh no no no! AMcP is the happiest place on earth. I got my beloved red plastic poodle there. This is so wrong.

[ Edited by: Termite 2008-03-26 16:49 ]

those of us that grew up...

Children of the 60's and 70's
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived because:

Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent 'clackers' on our wheels.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers and no Internet chat rooms. We had friends we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones but there were no lawsuits.

We had full on fistfights but no prosecution followed from other parents.

We played knock-down-ginger and were afraid of the owners catching us.

We walked to friend's homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner. (I'd like to add if they did drive a car it wasn't a huge off roader)

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all

AMEN!

double AMEN !

Politicians nowadays invent causes to rally support for, to justify their position and pay, and of course they pick the easy winners. Rally for more gun control? NO, even after a string of college massacres (for which some of the perpetrators got their guns from the same internet gun store) it is viewed as an "unpopular" and difficult undertaking, and too risky to fail. Sure fire success?: Do something that supports "child safety", that'll get everyone cheering, and get the politician a home run.

Why don't they just move to Oregon or Texas?

Im sitting here watching the local evening news. and they just had the toxic toy story on. The Governor has until April 6 to make a decision about passing the new law. Archies says that if the law passes they will close the Ballard store and not be able to sell online to Washington customers. But the rest of you will still have access to Accoutrement's products.

Nicely put SweetPea - oh, and I HATE nettles! Slipped on a muddy trail while taking a short cut through the woods to school one morning and landed with the back of my hand in a huge patch of those devil plants. By the time I got to school my hand looked like a basketball and itched soooooo bad! I can STILL feel it! LOL

You did forget to add the following:

Going to the playground and hanging off monkeybars with nothing but cement below; riding on see-saws (I saw a sign next to a park the other day that used the image of children on a see-saw as a way of warning drivers there could be children near-by - won't be long before people look at that sign and wonder what that contraption is); riding on the whirl-o-puke (you know, that round-about thingy that you would try to spin as fast as possible to dislodge the riders); putting your coat on the level bar, flinging your leg over the coat and clasping your ankle with your hands and then spinning around and around that bar - THAT was fun but sure hurt the back of the knee if that dang coat slipped!

I really miss childhood right now :(

PEA,

Amen to everything you said!! Plus a few more

-a bunch of kids riding in the back of a pickup with the wind in their face
-hide and seek that covered the whole neighborhood
-pop rocks and coke at the same time!
-spending all day at the city pool with your friends, then walking home
-my favorite memory- climbing in dumpsters at the city park to recycle
bottles and cans. good money for a 6 yr old, even if I did smell like
beer afterwards.
All these things and we lived to be adults (sort of):)

Thanks again Pea for the post and the memories!

i used to love the taste of lead based paints, when i was little it was the second most enjoyable food after sweets.

First this "toxic toy ban" and now its snowing! Seems like things are already looking like Stalingrad meets Seattle!

I should also post the two news articles that came out in the last two days about McPhee, toys, and the ban.

From 3/28/08 Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004311695_toys28m.html

From 3/27/08 Seattle PI
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/356636_toys27.html

Thanks again for all the support. Archie Thanks you too.

stupid Gov. Gregoire signed the nanny legislation ~ sigh it takes effect in the summer of 09. hopefully someone overturns this "save us from ourselves" law.

Great. Now I'll never get my remote controlled zombie (and now, when I know where to dispatch an army of them!!)

This stinks.

First they add a larger tax to the already over exuberant gas tax, then they will be starting tolls for most major "freeways", Then they pass a bill that may lead to my unemployment. I mean, It will be a great state once everyone has a government sanctioned job. Anyway this is not the place for politics, just Tiki, so this will be my last post on this topic. If anyone wants to start a thread of McPhee Tiki memories, I say go for it. But, it looks like all you McPhee fans have until the summer of 2009 to get your fill.