Sixty-five yeses, in fact. (Although the first comment was apparently an old friend of Ty’s trying to find him. Are you hiding, Ty? Maybe she just didn’t want to admit that she’s always wanted a Mr. Men luggage tag.)

Let’s face it: Free stuff rocks. Especially cute free stuff featuring characters your kids love. And with 65 entries for 5 prize packs, that means that your odds of winning were 1 in 13 (not bad). It’s not the Publisher’s Clearing House, but at least your odds of winning were a lot better.

Anyway! The random number generator has spoken, er, generated. Our contest winners are commenters number 4, 11, 58, 29, and 38! Hooray!

Oh, did you want to know who those were? Picky, picky. Okay, that’s ~moe~, virginia, RAN, desi, and DW! If one of those people is you, please check your email—I’ve sent you a confirmation and need you to respond with a mailing address so that Ty’s can get your prize out to you. You’ll each receive the Mr. Men and Little miss luggage tags, a Noddy keychain puzzle, and a Noddy pen.

Thanks to everyone who played! Don’t forget that there’s new merchandise being added to the Noddy and Mr. Men/Little Miss stores at Ty’s, so check back often.

And who knows… maybe we’ll have another contest here. I could get used to giving out cool stuff—I sort of feel like Santa Claus. Ho, ho, ho!

Stop looking at me like that.

Promotional items are great fun, because it’s somewhat up to the discretion of the licensee (that would be Ty’s, in this case) as to how they’ll be distributed. For example: Starting today (March 24th, 2008), spend $50 at Ty’s Toy Box (either in the Noddy Store or elsewhere at Ty’s) and you’ll receive a Noddy keychain free with your order.

Nice, right?

I love getting a bonus-with-purchase item, myself. I do. But what I like even more is winning something absolutely free, because I’m cheap like that. And I figured that if that’s what I like best, it was a good bet that some of you Ty’s shoppers and faithful readers would like that, too.

So here’s the deal: Five lucky readers of the blog are going to win a promotional prize pack. Each pack contains a Mr. Men luggage tag, a Little Miss luggage tag, a Noddy keychain, and a Noddy pen. Have a look:

All you have to do for a chance to win is leave a comment on this post by noon on Sunday, March 30th, 2008. Your comment should tell me which Noddy or Mr. Men/Little Miss item you think your child would like the most, and please be sure to leave a valid email address so that I can contact you if you win.

Winners will be announced on Monday, March 31st, 2008—one week from today. Leave a comment and you could be one of the lucky ones!

Next, I want to tell you a little bit about two exciting new lines here at Ty’s which you may or may not have noticed, yet. I don’t know about you, but oftentimes I find that Ty’s is bringing in so many cool new things, I can’t possibly keep track of them all without a spreadsheet. Seeing as how most people are not going to resort to a spreadsheet to keep track of things (okay, it’s possible I’m a wee bit compulsive about this stuff), consider me your crib sheet.

If you haven’t met Noddy yet, you can learn all about this great PBS show for preschoolers over on their targeted site. They characterize Noddy this way:

Noddy is a little wooden boy who lives in his own little House-for-One in Toyland. Noddy got his name because his head is on a spring and when he gets excited his head just can’t stop nodding!

(In France, Noddy goes by the name Oui-Oui, which I know means “Yes Yes,” yet my inner 10-year-old boy finds it hilarious. Just sayin’.)

And then once your child becomes completely hooked on Noddy and his pals, come check out the Noddy Store here at Ty’s.

In addition, you may have noticed the new Mr. Men and Little Miss Store here at Ty’s, dedicated to all of those quirky little personalities starring in the book series and Cartoon Network series of the same title. (Oh, look! They even make a tote bag with my daughter on it! That was awfully nice of them.)

And you can of course learn more about the Mr. Men and Little Misses on their site, although they’re pretty self-explanatory, I think. (Hmmm… I wonder what Mr. Grumpy is like….)

Anyway, we’re excited to welcome Noddy and the Mr. Men gang to Ty’s, and hope you’ll enjoy them, too. And who knows—you might find one of those giant Easter eggs while you’re browsing!