After a terrific run of 37 years, Pam Pier will be closing her East Village toy and kids’ clothes store, Dinosaur Hill, at the end of this month.

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This store peddles brightly colored wooden blocks and games you won't mind seeing in your living room.  Owner Pamela Pier, who opened shop in 1983, sells a dozen varieties of blocks, in languages including Hebrew and Braille.  For preliterate little ones, there are Haba and Selecta wooden rattles ($7 to $21.50) and the Kouvalias Musical Toy ($58.25), a set of rainbow-hued wooden globes connected by springs to a revolving wooden base, to help stimulate those tactile skills.  And for children on the move, Pier carries gear like Selecta's delightful, waddling mouse push-toy on a stick ($35.50), the perfect companion for when the stroller set actually begins to stroll.

-New York Magazine Best of 2006

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The 15 Best Toy and Game Stores in New York City:

#9. Dinosaur Hill Toys

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Susan Loh: Awesome collection of children's books. Mix of classics and never-seen-before gems.

JC Earle: Cutest toy store ever. Nicest owners too, and they have this really adorable shaggy dog that just walks around while you shop. They have a lot of throwback toys. It makes you feel like a kid again

Village Voice: Critics' Pick winner of The Village Voice Best of NYC 2012 Best Toy Store

"Expect the unexpected" at this "simply marvelous" East Village "wonderland", where every "nook and cranny" is filled with "magical" toys, making it "fun to wander through with a child"; it has "all the basics", but it's also jammed with the "sort of stuff you would've gone nuts for when you were a kid" like kaleidoscopes, marionettes from around the world, stained-glass fairies, wooden dollhouses, steel drums and figurines.

-Zagat's Survey 2006

Pamela was a Judge for Parenting Magazine's Toy Hall of Fame in 2006
Toy Hall of Fame: Judges: 2006 Cliff Annicelli, editor of Playthings magazine; Lou Casagrande, president and CEO of the Boston Children's Museum; Janet Chan, editor-in-chief of Parenting; Shelley Pazer, Ph.D., president of The Discovery Group, Inc.; Pamela Pier, proprietor of Dinosaur Hill Toy Store, New York City; Marianne Szymanski, coauthor of Toy Tips: A Parent's Essential Guide to Smart Toy Choices

-Parenting Magazine's Toy Hall of Fame in 2006

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"A fanciful philosophy pervades" this East Village "wonderland" that feels like a "small town toy shop" yet offers and "amazingly large assortment", with "treasures tucked in every corner"; "delightful owner" Pamela Pier stocks "quirky" handmade "goodies" "for every child" (and "adults too"), from unbelievable puppets" from Bali, Burma and Mexico to "classic" playthings and musical instruments, plus "unique baby and toddler clothes."

-Zagat's Survey 2004 and 2005

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