Fao Schwartz Gearing Up For Grand Opening In October -- Seattle Store First To Offer Toys Linked To N.Y. Museum

A bronze teddy bear outside and scores of stuffed ones inside will greet shoppers when FAO Schwartz opens its downtown Seattle toy store at the end of October.

The New York-based retailer, known for its interactive displays and exclusive line of expensive toys, is installing its signature 26-foot-tall fantasy clock this week in the four-story atrium of the store at Sixth Avenue and Pike Street.

The animated talking clock doesn't keep time; instead, its dozens of moving parts chug, spin and dance. There's a Kermit the Frog jack-in-the-box, a birthday cake and ruby slippers like Dorothy wore in the Wizard of Oz.

About a week before the store opens, a 12-foot-tall bronze statue of a teddy bear will be placed outside the entrance.

Dick Glass, vice president for store development, said some firsts for the company are planned for the 15,000-square-foot Seattle store in the City Centre building.

Visitors can play their own tune as they walk on giant keys of an illuminated piano, and the toy store's new line of merchandise created with the American Museum of Natural History in New York will go on sale.

The Seattle store also will have a Barbie shop, a talking tree, 14-foot stuffed giraffes and talking dinosaurs in a plush-animal rain forest, and a children's bookshop. Curious George, the rambunctious fictional monkey in the famed series of children's books, will make his way across the store's ceiling on a bicycle.

FAO Schwartz has never believed in selling toys from behind glass cases, Glass said. It wants parents and children to touch them and try them out.

"We spend between $50,000 and $100,000 a year on batteries for demonstrations," Glass said. "We try to bring theater and drama to the stores."

More than one-third of the store's merchandise is exclusive to FAO Schwartz. Although the company is known for its pricey toys, such as a $695 battery-operated kid-sized dune buggy, it says 70 percent of its merchandise sells for $50 or less, including a $19.99 Baywatch Barbie doll.

The company, founded in 1862, has major stores in New York, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago, and 28 other stores, including a 10,500-square-foot store in Bellevue Square.

Its president, John Eyler, is a Seattle native and graduate of the University of Washington.