Glimpse into this little wonderland for kids, and older kids at heart. My favorite feature (after the train, of couse) is the hilltop windmill.
For my generation of American boys, the Lionel electric train was about as cool and high-tech tech as toys for ten-year-olds got. Nothing beats the smell of ozone in the morning! For the uninitiated, ozone is a by-product of the trains sucking up their electric power from the tracks, and is indelibly etched on my olfactory memory, just like the sound of the steel wheels clicking along the metal tracks is a permanent auditory memory. So I was thrilled, but not surprised, to find a picturesque, snow-covered village being circled by none other than the Polar Express when I passed by Sierra Toy Soldier Company in Los Gatos. I asked co-owner Myszka to switch out the hard-to-photograph black locomotive with the more camera-friendly red one, and presto, more visible and more seasonal.
I wasn’t surprised to find the train in the Sierra Toy Soldier window beacause they always have an elaborate diorama of some sort on display. That’s in addition to all sorts of flying machines hanging from the ceiling and toy soldiers and weaponry from all periods of history lining the walls. This store, from the front window to the rear wall, is guaranteeed to bring out the kid in all of us.
