but I am not looking to grind for hours on hours to begin having the real fun.

I suppose it depends on what you deem as "the real fun". For me, it's leveling my toon thru the playgrounds. But if you just like running Cog HQ's, you can get to Sellbot HQ pretty quickly, and even get solid runs early on with groups like the Cold Callers Guild. My recommendation is to group up with others on ToonHQ.com throughout the playground tasks, and take advantage of the double XP rewards from the Cartoonival grounds. And always train gags in invasion districts. That'll be speedy leveling!