PRODUCT PROFILE: Ice Invaders Ice Tray

Yes, my first video game system was an Atari that I inherited from my older brothers. Those big black clumsy joysticks with that one comical big red button seem sorta absurd now... but before we were blessed with the NES and Super Mario, Space Invaders was the coolest video game out there. 

Space Invaders just celebrated the 30th anniversary of the release of that iconic game (man I’m getting old) and now you can have the little buggers right in your drink. Our favorite American company, Fred, makes these nifty Ice Invaders silicone ice trays. Seriously, you miss that game, don’t you? 

You can also wear them on your head since we got a few of the Taito Space Invaders 30th Anniversary headphones imported from Japan.

COMPANY PROFILE: Snooze City Designs

Snooze City Designs is a relatively new company that is filling a gap in the textiles market: fun pillowcases with big, bold graphics. Until we saw their pillowcases at a trade show, I never really thought about the fact that the pillows on my bed were (visually, at least) really just big boring blobs.
Snooze City flipped that idea right on it’s head- their pillowcases scream out at you, usually covered in huge, bright graphics. They design and pack all pillowcases in pairs so there are usually 2 different designs, one on each pillowcase. One of our best-selling products ever is their Guitar & Amp pillowcase set (pictured above). Apparently they sent some out to Gwen Stefani and she loved the design. That fact was covered in a magazine or 2 which probably exposed a lot of people to Snooze City for the first time. In addition to several music-themed styles, Snooze City makes gothic designs, funny designs and also now has branched out into licensed products. We have several of their licensed David & Goliath designs in stock. 

But the most exciting recent development has been the recent release of the Snooze City Tokidoki pillowcases, which were highly anticipated by the tokidokiheads. We took many, many preorders for the 6 different tokidoki pillowcases and we anticipate these 6 designs to be consistent sellers for the foreseeable future. (For the uninitiated, tokidoki is a designer named Simone Legno whose cartoon artwork has a distinct Japanese style.)

PRODUCT PROFILE: Robot Egg Cup

You have no idea how hard it was for us to track down OXO Design to reorder these. We found them at a trade show but then OXO went through a name change and a location change as we ran out of our first shipment of Egg Cups, so when we finally got another order in, we made sure to get a bunch.
People love these cute, fun egg cups- I think it’s a combination of parents getting them for their kids, and then there’s the robot-obsessed Gen-X geeks like me who get all excited when we see some sort of plastic robot, no matter what the intended function of that robot. Of course, there’s nothing robotic about these plastic egg cups, per se, but they look cool so that’s what really matters. Plus they come with a cool see-thru spoon that the robot guy can hold in his hand.
It's one of those cool items that looks like a designer toy on a shelf but can also help you eat a healthy breakfast.
What more could you want?

COMPANY PROFILE: Koziol

Koziol is a German plastics manufacturer that has been in business way longer than I’ve been alive (est. 1927!) When we started Fun Housewares 4 years ago, Koziol products comprised the majority of our lineup. Each Koziol product is brightly colored and functional, yet many take on the shape of an animal or a little character that also makes the product fun to look at. This is the essence of our website: each product MUST be both functional and fun. Koziol nailed it on the head for us which is why we were and still are so taken with their design sensibilities. Some of our best sellers were Koziol’s Audrey tea strainers and Tim and Tweetie, both dish brushes. (All of those products are now sold out!)

Our most popular product ever was a little liquid soap dispenser shaped like an abstracted bird that Koziol called Salto. That particular product was installed in the kitchen of TV’s Alton Brown, which drove sales of the product through the roof. Regretfully 2 years ago, Koziol’s US distributor closed it’s doors and we lost the ability to easily order and reorder the Koziol products. We successfully ordered all of the remaining Saltos as our distributor was clearing out their CT warehouse, but those few hundred Saltos sold out pretty quickly. Now Salto has joined the growing ranks of discontinued Koziol products. Each Koziol product is phased out after a while so they remain collector’s items, unlike other household products which are usually just thrown out and forgotten about. Likewise for the differently colored plastics: Koziol seems to phase in differently colored plastics with the changing seasons, often releasing limited runs of their current products in more rare colors.

We still have dozens of different Koziol products in stock but our inventory is beginning to run low now, so if you have an interest in this fun line of housewares, please do take a peek at our website soon!

15% OFF: Coupon code TAX2EARTH15

SPRING CLEANING WEEK!
Spring is a lovely time of year... the only aggravating thing about April, for us Americans anyway, is getting our taxes together.
Well, we here at Fun Housewares would like to take the sting out of that painful process. We are offering all customers 15% off any and all purchases made through Earth Day, April 22nd.
Just enter in the following coupon code during checkout:
TAX2EARTH15

PRODUCT PROFILE: You Are Here Doormat

I didn’t really realize how popular the You Are Here Doormats were until we ran out of them a couple months ago and we started getting emails from all over the world asking us when were going to get more! These 2-foot-wide doormats are made from recycled truck tires, so just having one on our doorstep reduces landfill waste. Each doormat weighs around 6 pounds, so they really are heavy and durable products.. Not easy to ship, but definitely durable! Part of Fred’s Feet First line of doormats, the You Are Here mats magically tell you exactly where you are every time you step on one: Here!

COMPANY PROFILE: Fred & Friends

Fred (aka Fred and Friends) is a manufacturer of a range of cute and fun household and desktop items. They are based in Rhode Island, USA, and they are capable of producing products in silicone rubber, plastics, glass, paper and other materials. Their offerings cover a wide range of products for every room of the house. Now that we cannot easily order Koziol products anymore, Fred has become our bread-and-butter manufacturer. At least half of the products we sell on our website are from Fred, I think mostly because the ideas driving Fred’s development team mirror our design philosophy. Fred is always our first stop at the NY International Gift Fair. Some of the most consistent and popular Fred products we sell are the Ouch! Toothpick holders, the Fuzz Crime Scene Scarf and the Xposed Bags. Also, Fred makes a wide range of fun silicone ice trays that mold ice into different shapes, and a whole line of different doormats made from recycled rubber. The ice trays and the doormats are some of our best sellers. Besides all that, the Fred team is a bunch of extremely entertaining and warm-hearted people, which makes doing business with them a pleasure.