Toy stores of the past

[spockoda]

When I first started collecting in the mid 90s I never thought I would say this,but thank goodness for KMart! Why you ask? Because it's the only discount chain around here that you can still actually put things on layaway if you're not made out of cash or don't feel comfortable jacking up a credit card balance. If I find 6 or 7 figures I want or a couple of vehicles I don't always have the $50+ it takes to buy them outright,so it sure does help me anyway being able to have the layaway option. Unfortunately,KMarts don't always have the best selection of stock but Kmart has been a God-send for my G.I. Joe collection lately.

[mrjayberry]

K-Mart was the toy store of my youth, which is sadly why I didn't have more variety but it was still awesome enough.

These day I love it because every time I go to buy something it seems to be extra discounted. For example I went in the other day and they had Golden Tee that hooked into your t.v. It was marked down to $20.00 but when I payed for it it came up $12 that was cool.

[spockoda]

Aug 19, 2008 18:53:47 GMT -6 mrjayberry said:

K-Mart was the toy store of my youth, which is sadly why I didn't have more variety but it was still awesome enough.

I can say that as well. I'm not sure when the first Wal-Mart stores opened and how long it took them to take over retail America,but I recall that KMart was pretty much it as far as collecting in the early to mid 80s in my part of the US. There are certain vintage toy lines that always make me think of KMarts,with Remco's Crystar being probably the top one that still does that.

[mrjayberry]

I was luckey enough to have a Toys R Us but we rarely went to it. It was a bit out of the way and Mom didn't realy need anything from them.

[spockoda]

There is a decent sized city an hour's drive from us that had sort of a "Mom and Pop" store called Toys By Roy that had a decent selection of action figures,models,etc but when Toys R Us came to the town in the 80s,it forced the slightly pricier Toys By Roy out of business.

[10incher]

Growing up all we had was a Woolworths and during the Christmas season a McLeods (hardware store), Canadian Tire and a store called Stylerite, that carried action figures. Woolworths turned to Wolco in the late 80s/early 90s (then finally a Walmart) and McLeods and Style rite closed in the early 1990s.

All but Woolworths were usually pretty slim picking for figures unless you got there within a few days of when they put out their Christmas stock. Transformers were almost always sold out though Star Wars figures seemed plentiful in the Christmas season. Really do miss those stores though.

[soundwave]

Hey Chad do you remember Toy City in the 80's??? with the big panda bear and beach ball logo on regent ave??

[Megatron]

Zayre
Children's Palace/World
Kiddie City
Gold Circle

[10incher]

Aug 26, 2008 18:34:29 GMT -6 soundwave said:

Hey Chad do you remember Toy City in the 80's??? with the big panda bear and beach ball logo on regent ave??

I think I remember seeing it once, I'm originally not from Winnipeg but did make a few trips into the city as a kid. Never did get to go inside though

[joshtx]

Besides Kmart, we had a place called Gemco that had toy aisles as well (It later became Target) and we had a local toy store called Arthur's that was huge, but didn't last long. Arthur's had really high prices and nobody really shopped there, but when they started going out of business, Toys really started flying off the shelves when it got to 40 and 50% off. I went there about three days before the place closed, everything was 80% off at that point and there was hardly anything left. My Mom let me spend something like 30 bucks in there and I walked out with a huge amount of toys, basically every Transformers toy they had left. I got Ultra Magnus that day, I'll never forget that. And it was so awesome becasue he cost something like 4 or 5 bucks at that point.

[ludevig]

I remember as a kid the toy sections were more filled with different lines. Today you can go to a store and there will be whole sides of an aisle dedicated to one franchise.
Gone are the days of Visionaries, Thundercats, Super powers, Secret wars, Star Wars, GI Joe, Starcom, Air Raiders, Ring Raiders, Captain power, Sectaurs, M.U.S.C.L.E.S., Dino Riders, M.A.S.K., He-Man, Dungeons and Dragons, Transformers, Go-Bots, Ninja Turtles, Corps, Inhumanoids, Swamp Thing, Bucky O'Haire, Captain Planet, Star Trek, Rambo, A-Team and Bravestarr all lined the shelves (though not at the same time the variety of figures and different lines was incredible)

It just feels like this decade has seen Transformers, Star Wars, GI Joe, He-Man, WWE Jakks, Marvel be the mainstays then movie franchise tie ins hitting the shelves.
It could be that in the 80's when the above mentioned figures mostly came out we had cartoons aplenty as well.
One day i wish to go to a toy aisle and just see a huge array of different lines.

If i went to Walmart today here are the lines i would see.

GI Joe, Transformers, Star Wars, Marvel, Power Rangers, Bakugan, Ben 10, WWE Jakks, Corps. Ninja Turtles, DC Universe, so there is variety today but it seems those lines are lasting longer on the shelves with more Series of figures in the sets rather than smaller lines like in the 80's.
Plus there may be variety now but many figures get repaints, rereleased or are store exclusives. Whatever happened to just having one line then in the next series putting out whole new figures?

It feels like the variety from toy companies is drying up and i think that is why i prefer to go for figures from my childhood. Plus looking at a lot of figures nowadays i know my old figures could kick their butts for longer before they started to get loose or have wiggly limbs. Too much articulation. Hell Star Wars figures from the 70's that are in very played with condition still stand up. I have figures that are brand new, just out the package but their ankle joint is not tight so they fall over (WWE i am looking at your figures)

Bit long of a initial post but wanted to go a bit more in depth and break down my thinking on it all.

Oh and one last thing. Whatever toy company exec thought that every figure needs to be bondaged to the plastic by twisted wire needs kicked squarely in the testes. I actually have a pair of wire cutters that i grab when i am opening Transformers for my son Jack. When releasing a figure you have to get wire cutters you know there is a huge slice of fun instantly removed.
When i was a kid i used to be annoyed by weapons being taped down inside the bubbles. Well they just had to go and find something even more of a pain to remove that that!

Thanks for reading.
Ludevig

[fishandchips]

I miss all those small lines too, but if they could not survive in yesteryear's market there's slim chance anyone will be interested in giving them another go again. That being said, there's still a surprising amount of variety available today, if you include Japanese, Hong Kong and European toys in the mix.

GoBots are still around in their latest incarnation Machine Robo Mugenbine. New as well as re-issue Zoids are still being released by Tomy. Lego has new pirate sets this year. Playmobil is going strong and did an awesome Egyptian series last year. DCUC is the modern equivalent of Super Powers. Marvel Universe for Secret Wars. M.U.S.C.L.E.S. in Japan the current capsule series is up to part 8 now. MOTUC is a huge success for Mattel and the line will be greatly expanded next year. We get new Ghostbusters figures in June.

Considering how dry it was just a few years ago, I think we are in a good place today!

[ludevig]

Yes we have variety now but it is established lines going into new series of figures. Lanard and Corps have managed to still keep going while Chap Mei delivers highly detailed figures on a yearly basis with new concepts and designs coming out every other month.
The point i was trying to get across was "Where's the new stuff?"
Some stuff came out years ago and did well while others fell to the wayside. It seems Toy Companies now would rather go down the route of what sold well before than try and put out new stuff that hasn't been out before.
Maybe i am attaching a lot of nostalgia to the toy aisles when i was a kid but they seemed so magical back then, always something new and different.
Nowadays the toy aisle is a lot of new figures but of characters that are already out. There are exceptions (ie when a movie comes out) but the main lines keep bringing out the same characters.

Transformers - Megatron, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Starscream
Star Wars - Vader, Han Solo, Luke, Anakin, Obi Wan, Yoda
WWE - John Cena, Batista, Edge
Marvel - Spiderman, Iron Man, Punisher, Wolverine
DC - Batman, Superman, Joker,
TMNT - The 4 Main Turtles getnew suits and gimmicks all the time.

Plus where are the comics or things like that gone? Now you get Star Wars comic packs with a full sized comic and 2 figures. What happened to MOTU style comics that gave some insight to the character and were based on that one character.
I have a Batman Beyond story CD and that was a very cool idea.
I could be looking at it as well from the point of view as a Dad now and thinking about what i liked as a kid.

There is a lot of good stuff out there, don't get me wrong. It's that you hardly see anything brand new like we used to see in the 80's and even the 90's. Still though i go to every toy aisle at any store and check out what they have and i still get that feeling like "What will they have today?" so that has never left me.
Personally i think some of us collector's need to get a job at some of the toy companies and tell them what people want to see rather than be told that another wave of figures will come out for an already expansive set (Star Wars i'm looking at you)

[kylefromdirtnapp]

Mark me down in the "Twisties ties suck ass" category.

[ryan0001]

Hey Ludevig, I'd liken this phenomena to a soundbite that I heard on the Today Show a couple years back. They were interviewing someone and they said something like: Every single movie the big Hollywod studios have made in the last 3 years has not been from original material and that instead every movie was a continuation of a franchise, adaption of a book, adaption of a comic book, adaption of a play, etc. However, I think since then some of the big studios have put out SOME original material, but in general I think they are too scared to go out on a limb.

[3 3/4"collector]

when i was a kid, i was 8 in 80. my dad would take me to toys r us maybe 1 or 2 times a year. it was way over on the other side of town. it felt like a world away to me. but we would go and i was just in awe. it was so huge! endless aisles full of cool toys i had never even heard of. back in those days the dime a dozen 3 3/4 star wars and joe rip off lines were in the dozens. there were dungeons and dragons type lines, western lines, space lines, army lines. just everything i could think of. i remember some really cool well made stuffed fraggle rock figures too lol.
but yeah i stopped going to toys r us because i was only interested in 80s 90s 3 3/4 figures. so in the late 90s when tru started doing the original mold joe figures i started going again after all these years and was suprised how small and lame that same tru was from my childhood.
now when i go there every so often to check stuff out, its still way over on the other side of town. i am just stunned. its so empty, instead of those huge long aisles. its just these little tiny aisles sometimes kind of cubed shaped sections with a small variety and alot of mostly empty pegs. and just alot of wasted space. i walk through that whole store and it just feels like i could display everything in there in a 6th of the space.

[Deleted]

When I was a kid I would look around in the toy section wal my parents did their shopping in the rest of the store. If the store we were shopping in didn't have toys, I would ask my parents if we could stop at the nearest store that has toys after we've finished shopping. I would only look around for a bit to see if there's anything I want.

[darkone]

A few years ago there was a AJ Wright by me. For the people that don't know the store its similar to T.J Maxx. But they had tons of toys and every time I went I would walk out with two to three toys. Sadly its closed down now.

[rihia2k]

Great topic. I grew up in a small town in a small country. There was a tiny store called Littleland owned by an old Stan Lee looking guy. My memories of it are dusky, but it was a dimly lit cave of wonder, saw my first GI Joe there, and a 3-3/4" die-cast space line (name escapes me). Staring at those shelves, they seemed sooo high up.

There was also an independent mall (tiny), where I saw my first Star Wars, Tron and Karate Kid figures.

The other store of my youth was Toyworld, they used to have buckets of MOTU and Joes for a coupla' bucks ea.
Toyworld still exists as a chain today... but its only frequented by parents with-
a) money to burn.
b) no incentive to shop around.

I miss the independents.

[Megatron]

Nothing more said

[anna]

I rmember jay-bee the regular things were expensive but the discounts were great.

[victoryleo19]

Childrens World/Palace was a really cool store. I remember as a kid walking through the (what seemed to be) massive isles and I picked up some Swamp Thing figures and a Nintendo PVC figure for my birthday one year. I wish that store had never gone out of business :/

[bowheadwhale]

I remember a now disappeared store called JOUBEC in the mall in Trois-Rivières. Not only you could find there incredible society games like Guess Who, Master Mind or World's travel, but also european toys like Schleich classics(which were once all Made in Germany), tons of smurfs, single plastic insects, french-made miniature cars for the boys and other treasures. Joubec closed in 1990...

[runamuckduck]

Anyone from Philly/South Jersey will have fond memories of a store called Discount Harry's in Camden County. It was a humongous independent toy store/pool supply/playground supply store.

First of all, the prices kicked ass. They would regularly discount things like crazy, always evidenced by black wax pencil written on the package. My parents bought a bunch of Kenner Star Wars figures in the Kenner baggies for 26 cents a piece, beating Kay Bee's 2/$1 priced bins by a margin. They knew how to move product.

The great thing for a kid like me was that they would continue to keep toys in stock longer. The G.I.Joe section was humongous, but part of that was because they kept figures that other stores had long since sold out of because they ordered so many. I remember being really into ARAH Joe stuff in 1990 and 1991, and as late as 1991, you could easily find figures and vehicles from 1986 and 1987 there being sold as brand new stock (I specifically remember getting Gung-Ho v2 and Croc Master new on the card in 1991).

If any other members remember that store, I'm sure they will have similar stories!