Toyful

Prescott’s Cortez Street is a whirlwind of sound and color as the Toyful toy shop disgorges a gaggle of schoolkids, swirling around co-owner Brad James and yo-yo instructor Caleb Furneri, onto the sidewalk. Tall and lean, Furneri listens with interest to each child in turn, then leans down to one boy to say, “You haven’t been here since the first session, so we’ve got some catching up to do.”

“I’m not very good,” the boy says. “I can only do up, down, up, down.”

“So, after it goes up, down, up, down, then we do a sleeper,” Furner says, letting his yo-yo spin on the end of its string. “And that’s when you can do ‘walk the dog’ and tricks like that.”

“Can I try?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Furneri says, smiling brightly.

With a jovial, round face, James looks like an old-fashioned toymaker in his trademark cap and apron. A trained illustrator, he developed websites for 20 years before opening Toyful. Sitting in front of a computer all day, he noticed his children spent a lot of time on devices, too. It seemed to him that they were experiencing a different childhood than he had and didn’t engage in as much creative play. “I wanted to build something to have alternatives to technology,” he recalls. “And toys were it.”

A visit to a toy store with his sons years ago helped plant the seed that became Toyful. Mr. B’s Toys occupied a tiny room on Main Street in Jerome, but it made a big impression. “We walked in the door and [owner Guy Barbera] immediately interacted with us,” James recalls. “He launched an air cannon at us. … He tried to get me to write my signature with a shock pen. … It was an experience we remembered and talked about for years.”

Many years, and many visits to toy stores around the country, passed before James opened Toyful in 2023. He’d been trying to figure out how to combine “toy” and “joyful” for the name when he happened upon the dictionary definition for “toyful,” meaning “full of trifling play.” It was perfect. And it’s not an accident that the exaggerated curve in the logo’s top-hatted “T” can be read as a backward “J,” and James smiles when people mistakenly refer to the store as “Joyful.”

He filled the store to the rafters with classic games and toys, magic tricks, juggle balls and scooters, as well as toys from around the world: wooden toys from France, ocarinas from Peru and djembe drums from Africa, to name a few. But he also stocked the creations of local makers, including crocheted stuffed animals and 3D-printed puzzles.

James’ wife, Alice Ross, was working as a kindergarten aide when Toyful opened, but she soon quit her job to join James at the store full time. His expertise is in tricks, games and skill toys (he once belonged to a local juggling club), while her specialties include younger kids’ toys and dress-up play. She also creates the seasonal window displays.

And it was Ross’ idea to build, at the center of the store, a massive tree she decorates with twinkling fairy houses at Christmastime. Walking through a space they were considering, James noticed a giant column in the middle of the room. “I said, ‘There’s our tree,’ ” he recalls. They used stacks of boxes and 100 cans of spray foam for the trunk, while a pair of former Hollywood set designers offered tips for building the branches. The couple outfitted the rest of the store with repurposed shelving and painted thrift store finds to complete the homey, whimsical feel.

Although Toyful has its own entrance on Cortez, it’s part of the Art Hive, an artist collective that took over a sprawling, 15,000-square-foot space that formerly housed an antiques mall. The store stays open late every fourth Friday of the month for Prescott’s Art Walk. The store’s tree is, after all, a giant art project. And James enjoys being part of a community devoted to creativity. “It’s a nice fit, because toys can inspire just that,” he says.

Accompanying her boys to yo-yo club, longtime customer Laurel Dickinson says Toyful embodies the sweetness and magic of childhood. “They have all the things out there for you to try, and they’re fantastic about letting the kids engage,” she says. “It becomes a destination.” Dickinson says her kids especially love the birthday book, a massive, leather-bound volume where kids can write their birthdays. For two weeks around their special day, they get 20 percent off their purchases.

It’s exactly the kind of reaction James hoped Toyful might inspire. “I don’t think objects can bring joy,” he says. “But I do believe toys inspire creativity [and] they inspire interaction, and that can bring joy to people’s lives.”