Magma

I’ve been wishing and hoping and praying to find a «go to» shop for gifts, and Magma has sprung right to the top of my list!
Magma is right off Earlham street in Covent Garden. Typographic placemats, witty totebags, cardboard robot kits, conversation starter cards, pinhole cameras… something for everyone! Definitely an element of Scandinavian design which I really enjoyed.
I was sad to leave behind the bookends and speakers I was playing with, but I walked out with a gin making kit which was a huge hit for Mother’s Day.
Well worth a trip if you’re looking for something a little offbeat. I’ll be back!

Petite boutique avec un assez grand choix de carnets (dessin, notes, agenda) stylisés, tasses de designer, jouets pour petits et grand, bijoux de créateurs, faux tatouages d’illustrateurs…
L’autre boutique un peu plus bas dans la rue offre un grand choix de livres et magazines de style graphisme/​art/​mode/​photo.
L’ambiance des deux est hyper branchouille/​hipster et les prix n’aident pas. Ce n’est pas forcément exorbitant mais rarement en dessous de 20 €.
Gros coup de cœur pour les magma sketchbook, des carnets créés pour répondre aux attentes des différents types de métiers créatifs. Par exemple, le carnet «art & illustration» est top avec son papier épais (blanc puis gris), la possibilité de faire un sommaire et un calendrier, puis un index qui donne un rappel des différents formats de papiers, les règles de proportions pour dessiner le corps humain, les outils pour peindre ou préparer le papier ou toile avant peinture et j’en passé. Absolument génial !
Ces carnets existent pour «design & art direction», pour «film & animation», pour «Fashion» ou encore «Idea generation»… Tous avec l’index technique lié au métier. Oh et les couleurs de ces carnets sont fabuleuses ! Génial je vous dis !!!

This shop is very cool with all items that have been designed with so much creativity. I feel I could buy everything in this store. Small and unassuming, the staff pretty much keeps to themselves and let’s you browse without hassle. I think you can find a gift for almost anyone in this store and may end up buying something for yourself. So hard to put down I words as you had to see some of the items yourself. I most certainly want to come back to this shop again.

This place has cool things: a plastic twin lens reflex camera kit; typeface mugs: little decorative scenes made from steel that clip to tea lights to cast funky shadows on you wall, but nothing you really actually want to buy enough to spend money on.

Toy shop? I guess so. Where the toys include collaged French cahier journals, dinner plates and table cloths adorned with modernist architectural icons such as the Barbican Centre and Trellick Tower, shoulder bags made with reused materials and neon printing, kitsch Sukie fabric iron-​on graphics and (hipster) moustachioed mugs… all dispayed on beautiful but simply constructed brown cardboard shelving.
I find the task of gift-​shopping here dangerous. The *gifts* often end up being bought for the same person…
If I could own my own store, this would be it (if I could also serve cupcakes and coffee to serve in the aforementioned mugs…).

This is my favourite shop in London right now.
My confusion about the previous statements is: if you’re aware that it’s a «toy shop», why are you concerned about utility? Point aside, the reason why I love this place is because they offer a range of obscure designer toys. There are tealight silhouettes of London and New York skylines, delicate metal designs, tiny wooden cube speakers that easily fit into pockets (though they may not be comfortable), plastic laser cut rings, miniature collectable chairs and other fabulous oddities.
Sure I can’t afford all the things that I want, but it makes me relive the wonder of finding interesting things and the magic of creativity. The items in this store capture the cleverness that we lose in mass produced items and put them on cardboard recycled shelving.

Brilliant for cardboard models, this also has map wrapping paper that is good enough for posters, only £2.50 a sheet, all the old NY, SF, London transport maps. Cardboard machine gun? check. Cardboard ipod ghetto blaster? Check. Babpapa squeezy? Check. Lots of goodies for us older types really. Also Japanese cartoon dolls from spirited away.

Just a few stores down from the Earlham Magma bookstore, their product shop is filled with contemporary knick knacks and gadgets, posters, and quirky domestic appliances, all arranged on eco-​friendly cardboard shelving.
It’s rather pricy but worth a browse for interesting gifts. This place is rammed just before Christmas.
Pros
— has Totoro toys!
— quirky little gadgets and knick knacks
— well located
Cons
— a bit pricy

This is an excellent place to buy quirky gifts, albeit potentially useless ones. It’s a design store with lots of beautifully crafted home-​décor items, which don’t fall into the useless category, and lots of items such a flip-​books and origami kits, which certainly do.
I love the cards and wrapping paper, which add style to a gift, or could be used to decorate a room themselves.
Magma bookstore, down the road, is also worth a look for its incredible selection of design books and magazines.

I really like old style toy shops and was therefore disappointed that this store doesn’t really sell a huge amount of toys. There is a wide variety of gifts however but it is definitely geared more towards adults who are into their art. There is some great stationary, cards and fashion accessories.
The prices are on the more expensive side, but the bits and pieces are of a high quality. It is the perfect place to go if you are looking to jazz up your work desk with some quirky accessories!

This store is the sister of Magma bookstore located on the same street. It is not really an toyshop, more like a gift shop, with selection of random stuff that no one really needs, to be brutally honest! Oh well it is good fun browsing around and wondering what the function of everything is.