I know this is late and its already over but I’m confused why so many people are ripped up about this. Some personal history: as a kid I got the same toys from Wal-Mart and aome local TCG dealers are where I got my yugioh cards. That or target or Kmart where my mother worked. So Toys “R” Us had zero impact on my life.
With that said I dont understand why some people are torn up about this. I would like to know why.
It’ a childhood icon and the last of the big pure toy only (minus baby’s r us) store chain left.
Kiddie City, gone.
Childworld, gone.
KB Toys, gone.
And you have yo remember the nostalgia factor. Some of us come from an age where the only way you learned about new toys was the Sears Christmas wishbook and limited commercials. (Pre-cable we only had about 7 channels). Toys’r’us was the Mecca for us. Going there was stepping into the largest toy box in the world. Those memories linger and no Wal-Mart, target, caldors, Bradley, or the like compared.
Yes, they had issues in how the company was run. Yes online is a big thing now. Yes there are those insane unboxing videos on YouTube. But, when we were children such items did not exist. So for us, Toys’r’us held a special place.
It’s no different than why my parents like Johnny Rockets or other throwback malt shops.
It’s also that the company itself was profitable. Except that when it was bought, the debt for buying it was pushed onto the company, which meant it lost money (as it had to service that debt)
I got my teenage and adult raving gloves and accessories there… They will be missed. 
Pretty much this. I’d say 80s 90s kids TV was pretty much 100% commercials. (I’ve been asking around if Saturday Morning Cartoons are still a thing, and all I get back are blank stares.) The shows themselves were commercials for toys. The traditional commercials were about evenly split between breakfast cereal/junk food, super soakers, other toys, and toys r’ us.
This is so true… GI Joe, Transformers, M.A.S.K., Inhumanoids, he-man and she-ra, and so many more. It reached a point where you eagerly awaited the first episode of the new season because it introduced you to the toys (characters) that would be released with the Christmas lineup.
As for today, there is no more real Saturday morning cartoons. Between Cartoon network, the various Disney/Nickelodeon channels and such, there are cartoons on 24/7 and for the most part they seem to be divorced from the toys. Yes there are toys for say Paw Patrol, Lego knights and Ninjago are tied to toy lines, but there are also ample that are not.
And the stable of characters in each show have shrunk drastically. Thinking back to transformers and gi Joe, we were always excited when our favorite obscure character was featured in an episode. Ooo… Soundwave ejected Frenzy instead of Rumble or it was an arctic episode on GI Joe and Snow Job was featured. But part of this was because there were so many characters. This does not seen to be the case now.
And of course this ties back to Toys’r’us because back then it was one of the few places that had the shelf space to feature all these toys for you too look at and drool over.
One of my first jobs was as an intern at a Toys 'R Us store. I remember my surprise when I discovered that a) there was such a thing as Collector Barbies and b) they had their own aisle at the shop and one of our jobs was to make sure that customers were aware that those wre not toy Barbies and the price was set accordingly.
Be noted that back then, those shops were a novelty thing in Spain.
Kind of sad to see an icon go. But, I guess I’m about to say some sacrilege here… their selection of toys wasn’t that great, in my opinion. I’d take my kids there, and try to find fun toys for them, but nothing seemed that fun or interesting. My son usually ended up going with diecast NASCAR cars, and my daughter went with stuffed animals. Traditional stuff, that you use your own imagination to play with.
We did get some great VHS videos there though. The Wiggles. Dave and Becky’s “There Goes a [type of vehicle]” videos. Both of those were great.
Did you all hear about the severance pay issue?
That and even till the bitter end their prices were terrible.
(A kind of interesting but not that interesting sidenote. One of my good friends from college became Toys ‘R’ Us’s national buyer in the late 80s. He was responsible for going to industry shows and picking the items for the stores’ inventory. He was a Psych major during school, was a hang-around student who took about 8 years to get a B.Sc., and a really funny and laidback guy. But when I say him a couple of years later, after he was the corporate buyer, he’d become kind of an arrogant codpiece. I met up with him in a bar, and he had two dates with him-- a babe on each arm. Like in a movie. We just sat there with me treating him like his old college bud self, and him treating me like a boring nobody.
Anyway, I always thought about that guy when we’d go to the stores. The toys were all kind of gimmicky, lots of lights and digital sounds and stuff, but not very interesting. It was like the toy did the playing for the kid, and the kid was just supposed to be entertained and not participate much. And my preschooler kids didn’t really find anything to grab onto and try to cajole us into buying it. I can’t really remember many times having to say, “No, we’re not buying that today”).
well, the people get the government they deserve. you all deserve shitty products overpriced in a society where everything is based on scarcity and greed… it is after all, the WORLD YOU CREATE.
Oh my. I had no idea such things even existed. Thank you for that one!
I had to google it and found a nice video, too:
I happen to be a huge fan of physics and light… so naturally light shows are dope and Ive years of expereince dancing with liquid… youtube the liquid pop collective. some old old friends there, missing club space in Philly… the 1990’s and early 2000’s will never be again sadly.
Check out some of the light sensory items teachers use with autistic kids. For example Lakeshore’s Light Sensory Play Table. Also the LED light noodles, which you can drape over you, wrap around things, arrange as art, etc. I used to get Lakeshore’s catalog in the mail. All kinds of kind of trippy light-and-sensory stuff like that. Some teachers use them to make sensory rooms for autistic kids. If the kid is disengaged/distracted, the sensory room will help perk him up. If he’s agitated or having a bad time, it will help calm him down and focus.
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