Stand for a few minutes near the checkout counter at Playthings Etc. and you're likely to hear someone shout, "Wow!"

Owners Todd and Nadine Shingleton say that's a common reaction -- and not just among children -- when customers arrive at their new toy store on Route 8 in northern Butler County.

The family business, which opened this month after several years of planning, is housed in what must be the most unusual building in Clay, if not the county.

Designed by Mr. Shingleton to look like a giant, gleaming spaceship, its roof appears to tilt upward, giving the impression that the structure might take off at any moment.

Its entry doors resemble intergalactic air locks. On the rear wall is a flickering star map of the December sky above Butler County. Young shoppers can flip switches and push buttons at an instrument panel that controls a "Nadineisa Stunner," an "Allien DiFrischiator," and an "Olivia Neutron Bomb."

"We drove by and wondered, 'What is this place?' " said customer Georganne Allard, who lives in nearby Slippery Rock Township. "What a great selection of toys."

The Shingletons define "toy" broadly, which explains the "Etc." in Playthings Etc. Items range from a rubber-chicken key chain selling for $1.95 -- squeeze the chicken's belly and an egg bulges out -- to a custom-built turquoise 2005 Harley-Davidson motorcycle selling for $19,000.

About 1,500 different items line the walls and fill the aisles in the 5,000-square-foot mock spacecraft. The owners chose toys based in part on their experiences raising two sons and a daughter. "We have stocked the store with things we often could not find for our own kids at mass merchandisers and malls," Mrs. Shingleton said.

Their wares include wooden toboggans, Flexible Flyer-type snow sleds and the pedal cars remembered fondly by many baby boomers. One difference between the 1950s version of the cars and their 21st century descendants is that the modern ambulances and fire engines sport small strobe lights.

Another wall of the store includes what is labeled, "The best kite section in Pennsylvania."

The Shingletons have sought to buy Pennsylvania- and American-made goods when possible. Playthings Etc. stocks a line of Gemini Kaleidoscopes, optical toys that are made a few miles away in Zelienople. Some of the kaleidoscopes are packaged with bags of Mike & Ike chewy candies, produced by another Pennsylvania company, Just Born Inc., of Bethlehem, which is best known for its Marshmallow Peeps.

Dual purpose

For the Shingletons, opening their store was as much about following a calling as starting a business.

"Our mission is to keep the family strong through play," Mr. Shingleton said. That is why they don't sell video games but concentrate on "interactive toys."

"Our business plan was actually an afterthought," he said.

Now that the store has been open a few weeks, they are starting to get reactions from customers to the toys they demonstrate and sell.

"Boomerangs," Mrs. Shingleton said. "I never would have guessed they would be a big seller, but kids are getting very excited about what is a very old toy."

Other children have found their own ways to play with contemporary toys such as "Shooting stars," a space-age gun that fires glowing plastic rings.

Mrs. Shingleton and her son-in-law, Allen DiFrischia, co-manage the store. Two other family members work there.

Mr. Shingleton, corporate safety and environmental director for Wabtec Corp., has years of business experience in purchasing, inventory control, compensation, risk management and employment law. For the past 17 years, he has traveled most weekdays from the family home in Brady to his job in Wilmerding. Why didn't they relocate?

"Our kids were in school, we liked our neighborhood and we decided it was easier for me to commute than to disrupt the lives of five people," he said. The Shingletons have three children, Benjamin, 24; Sarah, 22; and Tim, 19.

The toy store is the second business the family has operated on Route 8, about 10 miles north of Butler.

When they bought what was an 80-acre tract in 1997, it had been the site of a two-mile-long, off-road track for go-carts. Shortly after purchasing the land, the Shingletons constructed a Motocross motorcycle track they named Switchback. They sold that business in 1999 but kept six acres on which they planned to build their store, a pond for sailing toy boats and a field suitable for running radio-controlled cars.

Mr. Shingleton walked over to one of the store's display cases and brought out a cardboard model of the store. The finished "spacecraft" looks nearly identical to the scale model he designed in 2001.

Construction of the one-of-a-kind store began July 30, 2004, with July 30, 2005, selected as the date for completion. It was critical that timetable be met because the Shingletons planned to host a wedding reception for their daughter there.

They just made the deadline.

The outer walls of the "spaceship" are made of aluminum plates that are three-sixteenth of an inch thick. The sheets of aluminum were welded into 11 panels that hang on a wooden frame that allows for up to 2 inches of seasonal expansion and contraction. The floor is concrete and coated with multiple layers of a non-slip material.

The Shingletons, both 48, are 1975 graduates of Butler Area High School, but with a class numbering about 1,000, they didn't know each other in school. They met several years later when both were working at a marina at Moraine State Park.

The store represents an investment of more than $500,000, and the Shingletons have used retirement savings to finance construction.

The store is open 42 hours per week, which is a limited schedule for a retail business, and it is closed Sundays. The question of Sunday hours, however, is a topic the Shingletons said they are likely to revisit. "But we are in the recreation business, and we think it is important for people to have a day to recreate," Mr. Shingleton said.

"Business types will tell you we are nuts," he said. "But we want people to think of Sunday as a different day."

Challenging business

Playthings Etc. has picked a tough time to enter the specialty toy business.

Overall toy sales in the United States have declined since 2001 when they peaked at $25 billion. They slipped to $20.1 billion last year, according to NPD Group, which tracks retail sales.

At the same time, merchandising giants like Wal-Mart have become formidable competitors by trimming prices and selling the most popular toys in volume. Several specialty toy stores such as Zany Brainy and Noodle Kidoodle have merged, closed stores or filed for bankruptcy. Even Toys R Us, the 500-pound gorilla of the toy business, has had to reorganize under court protection.

The news isn't all bad, however. While retail analysts have speculated that skyrocketing prices for home heating fuels and higher gasoline costs may force families to trim Christmas spending, another NPD Group survey indicates that the average shopper plans to spend more on gifts this holiday season. The NPD survey of 2,116 U.S. consumers found they plan to spend an average of $681 this holiday season. That's 4 percent higher than last year's $655.

Ironically, tough economic times can offer opportunity for specialty toy sellers. "When things get tough, parents still want to be protective of their children and will stretch their budgets," said Paul Caplan, a buyer for S.W. Randall, a Pittsburgh-based specialty toy store in business since 1970.

"Quality becomes more important when things are tighter," he said. "In those times, specialty toy stores like ours -- that offer high-quality items with good play value -- do better."

The absence of a must-have toy on the market also can work to the advantage of specialty stores, Mr. Caplan said. "When kids are not being directed by media toward asking for one toy, parents need more direction. Specialty toy stores have the staff to help customers make better choices."

That is the kind of relationship Playthings Etc. hopes to build with its customers. For example, employees will be able to demonstrate every item, Mr. Shingleton said.

A former preschool teacher, Mrs. Shingleton plans to work with local schools to arrange field trips to the store that will have an educational aspect. Gyroscopes, pogo-sticks, kites, bottle rockets and rubber-band-powered airplanes can be used to show scientific principles in action, she said. Field trips on the science behind toys can be used to teach simple physics and chemistry to children as young as 4.

While the store is along a busy highway, it is a distance from large population centers. That means most customers will have to make a special trip to get there.

"We are a destination site, but well worth the trip," Mr. Shingleton said. "Children who arrive here think they are boarding a space ship that landed here filled with toys. If they have to shop, this is the kind of place dads want to take their kids to visit."

The choices at Playthings Etc. certainly grabbed the attention of Addie Allard, 6. "Mommy, come here," she shouted to her mother, Georganne. "The train is making smoke." She watched, almost hypnotized, as the model steam engine huffed its way around an oval track.

Above Addie's head, a 3-foot-long helium-filled dirigible floated silently by, its direction and speed controlled via a remote control by a boy who looked to be about 10 years old.

"I'll be back for some Christmas shopping," Georganne Allard vowed.

Playthings Etc. is on the east side of Route 8 in Clay, about six miles north of Clearview Mall in Center. For information on store hours, call 724-285-7529 or log on to the Web site at www.playthings-etc.com.