Playthings Etc. celebrates 20th anniversary with community
CLAY TWP — While children may refer to Playthings Etc., located north of Butler along Route 8, as “the spaceship store,” it actually has the exact footprint of a B-2 stealth bomber.
Nonetheless, the branding has worked tremendously.
“People come in wondering what this place is. It’s close enough to Interstates 80 and 79 that, now with internet, people who are traveling and looking for interesting things to see, they see a toy store that looks like a spaceship,” Nadine Shingleton said. “And they come in here, and it’s a wonderful experience.”
Nadine Shingleton and her son-in-law, Allen DeFrischia, run the toy store that has become a landmark for drivers passing by and a joyful adventure for those who visit. The store celebrated its 20th anniversary on Sept. 27 with a birthday party that included cake, bouncy houses, and the community that’s enjoyed shopping there all these years.
Shingleton and her husband, Todd, designed, built and opened the store, with Shingleton and DeFrischia running it since. Aside from the futuristic appearance of the building’s exterior, the family wanted to build a family-friendly destination with a “unique” selection of toys. For the past 20 years, it’s worked tremendously.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere, like this shouldn’t work,” DeFrischia said. “And it has, and we’re very blessed, and we’ve been very busy since day one, even when we did not know what we were doing. We look back and chuckle the pictures of the store from back then, it’s come a long way.”
Playthings Etc. is the result of its owners wanting to give the best product to their customers.
Walking around the store, with its odd layout due to its B-2 shape, all sorts of toys, something for everyone can be found. There’s an entire section dedicated to disc golf. You can purchase unique, oddly shaped fidgets an office worker may have on their desk. Children can get toy cars, moon balls, or “pindaloos” that shoot a ball into the air after catching it in a tube, among what feels like an infinite amount of selections, all while space music plays throughout the store.
The store’s products range from what a child’s grandparents or great-grandparents would have had when they were young, to the newest items on the market.
“The idea was my husband’s. He wanted to have toys that you couldn’t find anywhere else,” Shingleton said. “These big-box stores have tended to carry the same lines, same type of items, year after year, and there’s so much variety out there. We’re able to buy from a lot of small vendors and carry all sorts of stuff.”
To keep up with demand and continue to grow supply, the store owners said they go to some “mainstream” buying shows ever year. This includes the International Toy Fair, which includes buyers from Walmart and other big retailers, as well as smaller stores and gift stores, too. Shingleton and DeFrischia said they have also gone to buyer events for independent toy stores around the country.
Sometimes though, it’s their customers that leave them inspired.
“Those are good for the bulk of our purchasing, but some of our favorites items have come from word of mouth from customers or we’ve stumbled across ourselves, or remember from our childhood. Someone comes to us and says ‘hey, you have to come see this thing, it’s so much fun.’ And you find out where to get it, it’s listening to customers, it’s searching,” DeFrischia said.
Beyond the products itself, the store owners understand the importance of the in-store experience. They said demonstrations have been a big part of showing off their products over the years. A simple windup rubber band airplane may not look as interesting in a package, DeFrischia said. But when you take it out of the box and show a child how it works, they’re amazed.
The range of toys, and eras they come from, is a key reason why they think Playthings Etc. has been successful all these years. Younger children, older children, even adults and collectors get lost wandering through the store’s aisles of toys old-fashioned and futuristic.
Shingleton and DeFrischia also take pride in the fact they carry a large selection of American-made toys, buying from companies in Pennsylvania and nearby states.
DeFrischia credits the store’s success over the past 20 years to a labor of love. Playthings Etc. has come a long way since its beginnings, he said, when it had sporadic store hours and very few employees. He believes the ups and downs, the growing pains and overall commitment to serving customers has helped them streamline as the store grew, and maintain systems of operation for running the store.
DeFrischia and Shingleton said they’ve been blessed with fantastic employees over the years, including hardworking students who had visited the store when they were children.
“We’re really pleased to have reached our 20th birthday, to be an independent and locally owned, small business. Because a lot of people say ‘you’re not going to survive,’ people buy online nowadays, and we’re really happy our customers have chosen to come here,” Shingleton said. “Once they come, they realize they’re not going to see this variety anywhere else, and we have competitive pricing. We watch that every day.”
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Playthings Etc. offers a wide variety of toys for customers to choose from, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Playthings Etc. offers a wide variety of toys for customers to choose from, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Playthings Etc. north of Butler, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. The toy store has been in operation for 20 years. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Playthings Etc. offers a wide variety of toys for customers to choose from, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Playthings Etc. offers a wide variety of toys for customers to choose from, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Playthings Etc. offers a wide variety of toys for customers to choose from, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Playthings Etc. offers a wide variety of toys for customers to choose from, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Playthings Etc. offers a wide variety of toys for customers to choose from, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Costumers shop at Playthings Etc., Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Allen DeFrischia rides a toy at Playthings Etc., Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Playthings Etc. offers a wide variety of toys for customers to choose from, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
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Nadine Shingleton talks about Playthings Etc., Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Matthew Brown/Butler Eagle
