Toys-R-Us closing! With an important question.

[Star-Lord]

Toys-R-Us had been gone in here since 2005ish. Used to go there at least once a month to get my monthly dose of toy cars (HotWheels, Matchbox, Maisto, Bburago, Tomica, you name it). It was the sh*t back then. Huge stores, many choices to choose from, even offering something that other toy stores hadn't offer back then like Playmobil and Siku diecast.Nowadays, I still collect toy cars, but I'd rather buy them at some independent toy seller and hobbyist. They usually offer better stuffs at better price than the big box toy store, but on some occasion, big box and department store still delivers hidden gem at cheaper retail price.Damn, I miss being a kid. Especially the toys.EDIT: Wait, does that mean the biggest Toys-R-Us in Big Apple is also closed? Damn, it will be one of my biggest regret to never be able to visit that place in my lifetime.

That one is going too unfortunately.

The one and only FAO Schwartz Toy Store on 5th Ave AKA world's largest Toys R Us. Featured in Home Alone 2 and Big with Tom Hanks.

 

[YouTube]

[/YouTube]

[universetwisters]

I never liked going to Toys R Us. Hobby shops were better imo

[Exkabewbikadid]

I was about nine years old when my parents took me to Toys R Us to get Super Mario Bros 3. They had to shell out an absurd 70 USD, not exactly chicken feed to working folk like them, but my oh my, was it ever one hell of a game! Looking back now though, it's strange to see the world changing like it is. As if massive toy stores with aisles full of toys weren't excessively convenient enough 30 years ago, today I don't even have to get dressed to buy most things. I don't even have to leave my chair to buy a game; a few clicks of a mouse and I'm playing a new game within minutes. That kind of change was unimaginable to most of us 30 years ago.

 

Still, I don't think it's a terrible loss necessarily. I have just as many fond memories of playing with jagged rocks and crummy sticks in lumpy yards as I do going to toy stores. But kids today may be finding it harder to appreciate the simple things in life when everything is conveniently at their finger tips all the time. It's a level of convenience with which a lot of b&m stores can no longer compete.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Xcommunicated

[Is this The Guy?]

Didnt have one close to where I grew up so when we took family trips Kaybees and Toys r us were like day long visits for me

 

Id get 20$ and told to go buy something with that and staying in the store for like 5 hours while everyone else did other sh*t.

I still remember that feeling of walking through the front doors and the smell of the store. I dont get that same feeling shopping for stuff anymore

Edited March 20, 2018 by Is this The Guy?

[Clem Fandango]

I remember Toys R Us was chock full of all these crazy things but my parents realised "hey, f*ck does he know?" and they could just act like they'd have to remortgage the house everytime they bought a little $2 plastic action figure, which would have the effect of 1) making me behave myself until a set date (when they'd knew they'd be going to the mall anyway) 2) making me never dream of asking for any NERF guns or little cars you ride around in or whatever.

 

That stuff was all pretty superfluous but I still feel kind of gipped.

[ṼirulenⱦEqừinox]

What does this mean to Toys-R-Us abroad?

 

As a child, I was always envious of Americans for having access to Toys-R-Us and their always recent catalog of Lego, whereas we in Brazil had to content with Brazilian stores and less recent Lego (also more expensive).

 

There's quite a number of them here in Japan, and they sometimes have sales on Lego too. Wondering if the closing is only in the US and their branches abroad are owned by someone else or something.

Well so far right now all the Stores in the U.S and U.K have been closed and since those two countries make up the majority of their customers any single stores around the world are likely to close as well

[Rhoda]

I just remembered I once guilt tripped my dad into buying me an R2D2 action figure and I feel awful.

 

It didn't even do anything. The middle leg didn't even retract. It was like peeling the curtain back to reveal brick, and a lone graffiti tag that said "up yours, kid". Nowadays there's R2 figures that fire rockets and I don't even want one.

[ṼirulenⱦEqừinox]

I just remembered I once guilt tripped my dad into buying me an R2D2 action figure and I feel awful.

 

It didn't even do anything. The middle leg didn't even retract. It was like peeling the curtain back to reveal brick, and a lone graffiti tag that said "up yours, kid". Nowadays there's R2 figures that fire rockets and I don't even want one.

I remember those as well, Even though I wasn't into Star Wars and never saw the film I would see him on TV doing all this cool stuff so I had to have it and when I finally got it I stopped playing with it after 2 minutes and went outside

[trip]

I just remembered I once guilt tripped my dad into buying me an R2D2 action figure and I feel awful.

 

It didn't even do anything. The middle leg didn't even retract. It was like peeling the curtain back to reveal brick, and a lone graffiti tag that said "up yours, kid". Nowadays there's R2 figures that fire rockets and I don't even want one.

You say something?

 

 

For years, I kid you not...YEARS, the Toys R Us theme was the song I sang the second I woke up. I just changed the lyrics from "I don't want to grow up" to "I don't want to get up". I left all the rest the same. "More bikes, more trains more video games, they're the biggest toy store there is"...blah blah blah. Only recently did that leave my morning ways. I think now I'm just too tired and stressed to think about (singing in my head) anything.

[ṼirulenⱦEqừinox]

Yup I still remember the jingle word for word too but damn if it isn't a good song

[Rhoda]

Trip, the question here is, does his third leg retract?

[trip]

It does not.

 

But my original R2D2 model does.

*may edit in pic.

 

My original '78 R2D2 model. Don't mock the peeling decades. Adhesives don't last forever ya know.

 

Full functioning middle leg, full functioning prob arm, and much much more.

 

Edited March 20, 2018 by trip

[Is this The Guy?]

I don’t want to grow up, I’m a toys r us kid..

 

I still remember the old commercial with a young Urkel in it

[Official GTAF Crew]

I grew up with Kiddy City around here. It was huge. It was amazing.

 

Turn that frown upside down!

 

My local Kiddie City closed sometime in the early 80s when I was still a kid and I was crushed. There was also a Toys R Us which is still open as of last week, but obviously that's not for long. We had Kay Bee Toys in the local malls, as well. Those went sometime in the late '90s, leaving Toys R Us as the last hold out.

 

I also remember FAO Scwartz in NYC when it was still on 5th Ave in the '70s and '80s, that place was truly Mecca for kids unlike even the boy Kiddie City and Toys R Us stores back in the LV. Trips with the old man to there were the highlight of when I'd be dragged up to stay with him for a couple weeks in the summer.

 

My kids, honestly, have never really been all that excited by trips to Toys R Us, it just wasn't the same draw to them and honestly, over the last decade, it doesn't strike me the same way that they used to when I was a kid.

 

edit: I remember having that R2D2 toy as well as a big chewbacca head to carry all my star wars guys around in. Funng thing is that I've never even really liked Star Wars and feel no nostalgia for any of those lost toys other than knowing some lifeless neckbeard would give me phat stacks for them if I still owned 'em.

Edited March 22, 2018 by Official GTAF Crew

[Wingate167]

I have a love/hate relationship with the place. I loved going there a kid to get toys and it was always a sight to see. The hate part comes from working there and it sucked. Sadly, this place goes the way of Borders' for not adapting. As they say, all good things must come to an end.

[ṼirulenⱦEqừinox]

Who knew "Official GTAF Crew" is an actual person, I just assumed it was another account run by the GTAF Hamster

I also remember FAO Scwartz in NYC when it was still on 5th Ave in the '70s and '80s, that place was truly Mecca for kids

That brings back memories too, I remember seeing that store on Home Alone 2 and when we visited NYC I begged my parents to take me there even though I knew I wasn't going to get anything I just wanted to go and find the houses that Harry & Marv hid out in before robbing the place, I got to take my girls there too back in 2012 when we visited NYC even though my youngest was only 2 at the time she doesn't remember it but my oldest does.

For those not familiar FAO Scwartz is better known as Duncan's Toy Chest in the movie Home Alone 2: Lost In New York or the toy store in Big with Tom Hanks where he plays on the big keyboard

Edited March 22, 2018 by Ai®aCob®a

[Official GTAF Crew]

Who knew "Official GTAF Crew" is an actual person, I just assumed it was another account run by the GTAF Hamster

 

 

Am I just to be like a clockwork orange?

[trip]

Turn that frown upside down!

-Upside down-... We've got selection... -upside down-... Low prices too.

Let Lionel Kiddie City make it easier for you.

 

*prob wrong because it's from memory.

 

 

When Kiddie City folded my local supermarket bought a bunch of their shopping carts. It was weird grocery shopping and looking down at the plastic handle of the cart and seeing Kiddie City written.

 

 

 

This past weekend I was in Target and I visited the meager toy section. Depressing.

 

 

Toy stores aside - will the world accept the loss of brick and mortar stores? Will the world accept a society where you never have to leave your house? What can you not get delivered to your house?

 

It is entirely possible to sustain a life without ever leaving your house. That can't be good.

Edited March 22, 2018 by trip

[Official GTAF Crew]

In some of the hobby circles I travel in people are starting to realize the downsides to having price shopped mom-and-pop hobbyist orientated places out of the market with online and big box stores being all that's left.

 

Specifically, I see a lot of that regret in both fly fishing and music (specifically non-electronic music instrurments). I know it was a big issue in my old aquarium hobby, too, and that was in the '90s before it got really bad.

 

Something like a toy store I don't is too hurt, shopping online just kills instant gratification but other than that you're pretty covered by something, there's no a need to actually check the physical properties of an item to match you like in some of the other things I've mentioned (or livestock in teh case of aquaria).

 

I suspect that we're going to see teh cycle snap back in the other direction for certain markets, but I wouldn't eb surprised to see a long term dynamic shift in the way people keep merchandise on order.

[justinlynch3]

Doesn't matter, Wal-Mart is everywhere anyway and killing anything that tries to compete with it.

[ṼirulenⱦEqừinox]

Toys r Us founder Charles Lazarus died today

 

Https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/03/22/toys-r-us-founder-dies-94-company-heads-liquidation-charles-lazarus/450403002/

[Big_Smiley]

Toys r Us founder Charles Lazarus died today

Https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/03/22/toys-r-us-founder-dies-94-company-heads-liquidation-charles-lazarus/450403002/

The damn irony i tell ya.

[ṼirulenⱦEqừinox]

 

Toys r Us founder Charles Lazarus died today

Https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/03/22/toys-r-us-founder-dies-94-company-heads-liquidation-charles-lazarus/450403002/

The damn irony i tell ya.

 

 

Yeah, I said the same thing and how sad he had to of been knowing his legacy is gone just as he was about to die.

 

It looks like the C.E.O and Board of the Bratz Dolls are looking to try and buy and keep 200 Toy's r Us stores open across the U.S

 

Also

 

Amazon is looking at buying some stores to turn them into Amazon Go stores but have no intrest in trying to keep the Toy's r Us franchise going to even to keep the name they simply want the stores

Edited March 23, 2018 by Ai®aCob®a

[Laura91]

We didn't have a Toys R Us in town. We had to drive 30 or 40 miles to get to one. I got my toys at department stores like Hills (which has been gone for ages) and Target.

[ROCKSTAR MANIC]

Toys have gotten expensive over the years. Thats also a reason, I still remember purchasing Marvel action figures in the late 90s & early 2000s for no more than 13 dollars around that price range. Now I see these for 20 plus USD each. Im like wtf is going on. Of course it depends what you are looking for, and with inflation it isnt helping either. STR8 up I think toymakers are getting greedy. Quality is getting worse too.