Magic Pony has closed the doors of their West Queen West shop in a move that's taken Toronto's art community off guard. The vibrant, downright magical shop was the first designer toy store ever to open in Canada, and has been a creative hub on the street for the past 10 years. Citing changing times, Magic Pony is "looking forward to new adventures in the next dimension," which will hopefully include a new shop on the horizon, though no location has been announced as of yet.

A heartfelt blog post on the shop's history and decision to close the Queen St. location reads in part:

"As a business fueled by creative projects, we've always found a way to survive, but there's been a harshness to the last few years in small business that has taken it's toll and threatened our existence. We've found that there are compromises we don't want to make in order to remain on Queen Street and we'd rather take this somewhere new, where the sky is open with possibility. And so, with the inevitable development of Queen Street, our time has come to leave."

Read the post in its entirely here.

The shop will live on online via their webpage, and in their Design Exchange (234 Bay St) pop-up shop for the This Is Not a Toy exhibition until May 19.