Want to work with me? The Lab has jobs. Sort of.
By Joseph, with Dad checking the rules · Updated August 26, 2026
The Lab is me, Dad, three printers and a guard guinea pig. That is a great team, but some days the stall line gets long and the ideas pile up faster than I can print them. So: the Lab is looking for helpers.
Got a toy idea that does not exist? Send it in. Draw it, describe it, or build it in the Imaginator and press "I love it!"
If the Lab turns your idea into a real product for the shop or the stall, you get: the first print free, your first name and your idea in Lab Notes (with a grown-up's OK), and eternal Lab glory.
Send an idea through the ImaginatorStall days are the best days: three tables, a gacha machine, and a printer running live. Kid helpers (with their own grown-up nearby) help demo toys, run the gacha line, and hand out mini keychains. Payment is the classic Lab package: minis, snacks, and first pick of the Oops Shelf.
Grown-up helpers are welcome too, especially for setup and teardown muscle.
Are you an engineer, designer, toy person, shop owner or maker who reads this site and thinks "I have one piece of advice that would save this kid a month"? Send it. Dad reads everything with me, and the best advice ends up changing real toys.
Texas Toy Lab is a parent-supervised family business (Crabtree Ventures LLC). "Helping at the stall" is informal, unpaid fun between families, not employment; kid helpers stay with their own parent or guardian, and any arrangement beyond that gets agreed between grown-ups first. Every idea submission is reviewed by a parent before anything is printed or published.
Email joseph@texastoylab.com and say which kind of helper you are. A grown-up should send it, or at least know about it. Howdy!