Toys "R" Us: Coolest Toy Store Ever?

[imp]

I just had a wonderful IM exchange (on Facebook) with my buddy, Tom Franck.

Tom and I have been friends since college. We are both life-long toy geeks, and we co-founded the long-gone site, "CoolJapaneseToys.com" way back in 1996.

Tom and I have discussed Japanese Toys (especially Jumbo Machinders, Tom's area of focus) and Mego WGSH (my own passion) countless times in the past, but we have rarely discussed childhood memories. Go figure.

Anyway, we got on the subject of Toys "R" Us tonight, and I found his recollections to be pretty cool. Here's a 'copy-and-past' transcription:

Tom: I remember seeing stacks of Mego Elastic Heroes.

Me: What? Where?

Tom: Toys R Us. They had loose ones hanging from pegboards and boxed ones underneath.

Me: they had LOOSE toys on display? Wild.

Tom: Yes.

Me: TRU allowed kids to play with them? Test drive 'em?

Tom: Toys R Us had tons of stuff loose, hanging up high and tied to the board. You couldn't reach them, just see what they were.

Me: RU serious?

Tom: The Shopper's World TRU in Framingham wouldn't let kids in without an adult either. I would wait outside and sneak in with families.

Me: Wait. You snuck in with other families?

Tom: Yup.

Benjamin: Man, you are HARD CORE.

I thought that was pretty cool. What Mego Memories of TRU do you have?

-b

[starsky]

i use to visit cooljapanesetoys.com frequently! it was an awesome website!!
my mego memories of tru consist of wgsh hulk hangin on the pegs during the lou ferrigno series run. one of the very few megos mom bought me. also remember pegs full of hutch, jon and ponch hangin on the pegs as well. i eventually worked at toys r us for a coupla years since i loved toys so much!!

[palitoy]

I got lots of toys from CJT back in the day, during my popy craze (which coincedently was started by you Ben)

As for TRU, I never set foot in one until the 1984 when one opened in my town, the day I first went they had a parade of actors dressed like He-Man, Barbie and G.I. Joe. I was 14 and not too into it but I remember being totally PO'd we didn't get one sooner....

[kryptosmaster]

The first time I heard of one was in a movie. I want to say Blues Brothers.
I didn't think it was a real store.
I also remember some kind of toy store that was out here in AZ when I first lived out here in 79-82 but I don't think it was a Toys R Us. I think it had a kangaroo as a mascot (like Geoffrey is for TRU).
Anyway, I think TRU used to be cool but now they suck.
More like Mazes-R-Us to find your way through the store and they never have anything marked down on a good clearance plus they don't have models anymore like they used to. A whole aisle of models in the old days!
Rich

[vulcan2074]

Thats a really Cool Exchange of Information. I didn't make it into a TRUs untill I was a Lot older. I would of Loved being able to play with the Toys Though. I probably would of done the excat same thing as your friend. Thats definately a smart way to get around the management, LOL. One can Only dream of pegs filled with Mego Goodness
Sammy

[toys2cool]

God there was nothing like Toys r us in the 80's,I still watch the commercials all the time "I don't wanna grow up but even if I did!,I wanna be a Toys r us kid!" uhh the memories I was to young to remember Megos at toys r us,the only ones I remember seeing there were the Eagle Force on the clearance section

[Wee67]

My TRU memory is a bit more negative.

I am oddly loyal to the strangest things. An example of that irrational loyalty was my love of the local Kiddie City. That's where I remember being greeted by large, brightly colored plastic bikes and mini-pools as I made my way to the shelves of boxed Megos. TRU didn't enter my world until about 1980. By that time the Kiddie City near me was going out of business. Somehow I blamed big, bad TRU for Lionel's bad business practices. I don't know if I ever forgave them for somehitng for which they hold little if any responsibility.

[cjefferys]

Man, I still have a bunch of print outs from CoolJapaneseToys, mostly articles written by Tom about Jumbos and his many trips to Japan. Very entertaining and informative reading, I'm glad I kept them, considering the site is sadly gone (I really miss it)

As for TRU, I have zero childhood memories about the place. We had none were I lived, and whenever we went across the border to shop in Buffalo, NY, we just went to Childs World (but such visits were all too seldom). Childs World was the next best thing and I don't know if there was any TRU in Buffalo at that time. I didn't go to my first TRU until I was a teenager. Of course, I always remember seeing TRU ads in comic books when I was a kid and wishing I could visit such a wonderful store.

[megoscott]

Living in New Mexico in the 70s we didn't have TRU. I vividly recall the TRU ads on the LA Cable station that showed the Batman WGSH gang. I was desperately afraid I was missing out on life by now having a TRU and the opportunity to meet Geoffrey.

[kryptosmaster]

We had none were I lived, and whenever we went across the border to shop in Buffalo, NY, we just went to Childs World (but such visits were all too seldom). Childs World was the next best thing and I don't know if there was any TRU in Buffalo at that time..

No, there were no TRU in Buffalo back then. Child World was AWESOME, though. We never went there too often. I'm guessing their prices were probably higher than Two Guys, Twin Fair, Kmart & Kings. I don't recall exactly when TRU came to Buffalo but I want to say late 80s-early 90s.

I remember most of the words to the Child World commercial:
"There's no other world like child world,
it's the hap-hap-happy-happy store,
with aisles and aisles of toys,*
for happy girls & boys
and much, much, much, much more"

*although it may have been miles & miles of toys but aisles makes more sense
Rich

[The Toyroom]

We didn't get a TRU in our area until after Mego had been dead and buried for quite some time....

[cjefferys]

No, there were no TRU in Buffalo back then. Child World was AWESOME, though. We never went there too often. I'm guessing their prices were probably higher than Two Guys, Twin Fair, Kmart & Kings. I don't recall exactly when TRU came to Buffalo but I want to say late 80s-early 90s.

I think the first time I saw a Toys R Us in the Buffalo area was when they bought out Child World (or maybe just took over the Child World locations?), maybe 1989-90?

[toys2cool]

i remember the train sets up on boards hanging from the ceiling. they where at a slight angle so yo could see them running.

I managed one for 7 years and went to remodel ones all over the country and run into all kinds of old signage that I got up. Like the old hanging signs that marked each isles. I enjoyed my time there but wouldn't go back for anything.

I worked in one stocking for the Holidays at night and it was a blast,I use to get all the good stuff and put it away,when it opened at 6 am during the Holidays I was the first one paying

[johnnystorm]

We didn't have a Toys R Us until the late 80S in my hometown...nearest one was in Pittsburgh. They also had a store there called Children's Palace. Anyone remember that place?

[Tothiro]

Man, I still have a bunch of print outs from CoolJapaneseToys, mostly articles written by Tom about Jumbos and his many trips to Japan. Very entertaining and informative reading, I'm glad I kept them, considering the site is sadly gone (I really miss it)
{le snip}
As for TRU, I have zero childhood memories about the place.

I miss the site too! Do you have the article where Tom talks about... who was it? I thing David Geffen or someone collecting Jumbo Machinders? I think it was in his search for proof of the elusive Garada Jumbo (which later came to light and was a-w-e-s-o-m-e).

I didn't have a TRU or a Kiddie City (what we did have was a Lionel Playworld)
http://www.ditko-fever.com/lpw.html
Which had pegs and pegs of french carded zombie invisible gals and pastel-headed La Chose with broken rubber bands... Oh and discount micronauts, kronoforms and interchangeables.
The coolest thing about the place was the place. Because it held on so long and the retail cycles (rightly or wrongly due to my age at the time) at least seemed slower, it was the the Ark of the Toy Gods. You could actually walk from the front of the store back through various strata of toy-time, compiling a mental, archeological picture of dead toy fads and deceased companies like geological proof of extinction. The bigger and more faded the giant orange mark down labels (I mean they were the size of party name tags with prices hand written in magic marker) the more historical an item (and further back in the store) it was.
Close to their death they had marked down C.O.P.S. figures, but had recently sold Lords of Light, MOTU, French Zombie FF Megos, Micros, Flash Gordon, Power Lords, Crystar... They had all the cool off-brands. They were the only place we ever got Battlestar figures, Jedi toys (still remember seeing the Rancor there before seeing the movie and the lightsaber wiffle-bats before that), and they sold every video game system released starting, well I guess before the atari 2600 (though we didn't buy it - we got one at a garage sale). We did score a second hand NES and I remember being jittery staring at the gold chromed Legend of Zelda carts in their giant glass wall pull-a-tag of game goodness.
I never went out to the cement open air lot on the side (though I wanted to) but they had an Endor Guard Post swing set with a side mounted Speeder Bike swing. Tell me that's not cool. Depending on where you stood in the store (ie how old the stock was) you could lament on either being born too soon or born too late or just not having enough summer job money.
I'm near autistic-sevant with regard to various toy info memory and my sister was always shocked/fearful of my ability to identify small bits of plastic rifle or axe blade to specific figures in specific lines which I may have never even personally owned or played with. I owe much of that to Playworld. It was like the perfect union of toy store, toy museum, toy altar... and they'd always be pulling out dead stock they found in a warehouse somewhere or shipped in from another store. I would say "Holy Heck! They never even carried these!" You could buy entire lines for fifteen dollars. If the child labor laws had been different I would have entered a pay for play workforce much earlier and been a valuable asset.

Then they died - and while it was probably more due to KB stores and Target like chains eating into the shrinking market ... I did notice a few TRU swooped in to fill the void and they were a shallow representation of a missing glory. Who is this Geoffrey guy and what has he done with my beloved Steve Ditko Kangaroo mother and child? I walked in one and thought "Pfeh... they only have shiny new toys. Not a single Manglor. Blech."

Not that anyone would want one but... there you go.
YouTube - Manglor Toy Commercial

Sadly the Lionel Playworld building still stands - you can purchase discount mattresses from the new owner - Furniture POWER. Who may be the landlords... so in a way they're like Furniture POWER Land LORDS.