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When We Had to Grow Up: Remembering Toys R Us

There is more to Transformers than movies, cartoons, comics and toys. Discuss anything else Transformers here.

Re: When We Had to Grow Up: Remembering Toys R Us

Postby o.supreme » Mon Mar 19, 2018 4:04 pm

Motto: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"
I have many TRU memories going all the way back to 1979! I remember seeing the shogun warrior Godzilla there...

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Of course as I got older. Toys R Us was always a great experience, especially since the one closest to me in Hayward CA was right next to a Chuck-E Cheese. Going to one, then the other was always a cherished event. Transformers were still quite expensive back then, but I do remember seeing tons of them on the shelves always, even though I had only a few back then. Masters of the Universe was more economical for my family, and my mom would coordinate *lists* with my family members so I'd never get duplicates of anything, and get the greatest hauls during the holidays.

Then of course there was the scary story of the Ghost that haunted another Bay Area Toys R Us in Sunnyvale (I’ve told the story several times, you can google it) which made national news in the early 80's. I had only gone there a couple of times, never saw anything weird, but it freaked me out quite a bit as a kid.

Upon turning 14, and moving to Sacramento I, for a time, tried to put my childhood away, going through angst ridden teen years, but after highs cool, and the Emergence of Beast Wars, this encouraged me to get it all back, and then some. The TRU closest to me in Sacramento was never that great, but in the late 90's a new store opened in Roseville (considered a *cleaner* higher-end city, not associated with Sacramento). We loved to go there, because their selection was usually vastly superior, that's where I got most of my BW toys, and TF commemorative series in the early 2000's just after getting married. Unfortunately in 2005, I had to sell most of my collection. And for a decade I had no Transformers. I'd still take my toddler kids in the store, just for the experience, though we often didn't purchase anything. We would occasionally get a random TFA or movie figure, but nothing with real purpose...Until of course Combiner Wars. This gave me purpose again as my most loved aspect of Transformers was back, in a big way. Unfortunately in 2015 I found TRU to be lacking when compared to Walmart & TRU in terms of selection & price, with the exception of Titan Class figures of course.

I'm just glad my kids got to experience it a little, even if it was not during its best time.
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Re: When We Had to Grow Up: Remembering Toys R Us

Postby 1984forever » Wed Mar 21, 2018 4:01 pm

chuckdawg1999 wrote:
1984forever wrote:I wanted to say something nice about Toys r us, but then I remembered an incident that happened to me in September of 1987. I took the bus to the Staten Island mall after school, and picked out the 3 Autobot targetmasters and Weirdwolf (who was the last of the 3 ‘Con headmasters that I needed, having already gotten Mindwipe on Father’s Day and Skullcruncher from a Brooklyn TRU over the summer.) So anyways, the price comes up to about forty something. I give the cashier $50 and then she starts asking me “did I go to school today?” and all sorts of nonsense... then she wants to see my notebook to prove that I attended school as if she’s some sort of cashier/truant officer. All of this with people waiting on the line behind me! So she confiscates my notebook and tells me to have my parents come and get it. I tell my Dad when he comes home from work, he races down to the Toys r us and the manager has the nerve to ask him “what am I doing with that kind of money?” So that was the last time I bought anything from a TRU until 2012, and that’s only because my son asked to go there.

So good riddance.


I'd like to know how you had fiddy dollars back then too. $5 was a lot for me, lol.

Lol

I was 12 and babysitting my cousins for $25 a week... got fired after 2 weeks. I can tell you this much though- I got the 3 Decepticon Targetmasters plus Trypticon that Christmas, and it definitely wasn’t from TRU.
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Re: When We Had to Grow Up: Remembering Toys R Us

Postby UltraMarginal » Wed Mar 21, 2018 7:49 pm

Motto: "I like chocolate"
I grew up in Country Victoria in Australia, a fairly remote area. we had two small toy stores. We'd occasionally go to Melbourne (the state capital, 3.5 hours drive away) but I don't remember seeing anything bigger. Toy World was our preferred local store and it was part of a larger chain.

in 1992 (I was 12) we did a family trip to America, at one point we stopped at a shopping mall and saw a Toys R Us!! it blew my sisters and my minds. A toy Supermarket (Grocery store) so big that they provided trolleys! who would ever buy enough toys at one time to need a trolley??

I don't remember what we bought there, and it wasn't long until TRU started showing up in Australia, though it was still 3 hours drive to the nearest one for us.

But that first exposure to the mega store that was Toys R Us was an exciting moment in our young lives.
As much as they are expensive, and I only really shop there for exclusives and sales, I hope the Australian part of the company survives.
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Re: When We Had to Grow Up: Remembering Toys R Us

Postby no-one » Thu Mar 22, 2018 4:51 pm

I don't have any TRU kid memories because there wasn't any nearby. We had a K B Toys in the nearest mall though. I didn't start going to TRU regularly until I was a young adult and all I was interested in was video games. Back then all the games were just pictures of the cases with tags you had to bring up front. This was also a all time before games were mainstream and I used to get some crazy markdown and clearance deals.

I do remember the commercials though :-?

Mostly I'm here to just share this.

Image

I guess "clever" is a bit of a misnomer in this case :twisted:
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Re: When We Had to Grow Up: Remembering Toys R Us

Postby Rodimus Prime » Sun Mar 25, 2018 3:26 am

Motto: "Individual freedom above all else."
dragons wrote:That's nice ...... I'll keep fond memories of store I use work there I don't need read other people stories about it if I want to hear other people situations about missing ToysRUs it will be people I know FAMILY not strangers on website
Then why bother posting? You contribute absolutely nothing to the discussion. And how about using some proper punctuation? Your posts look like you just vomited all the words onto the board and make no sense half the time.

As for my TRU story. I don't really have any special connection to the store, I didn't go there when I was a kid and sparingly did so when I got older, until this happened. It's the story of how I found Beast Wars again. In 2006, I walked into a TRU looking for something other than a Transformer. As I browsed the shelves, I came across a 10th anniversary 2-pack of Optimus Primal and Megatron. I had gotten out of collecting after Armada, and this was the first time I looked at a Transformer in a store since that line ended. Then the memories of Beast Wars came back. I hadn't seen the series since it was on TV back in '98 and I never owned any of the toys besides a beat-up original Optimus Primal that had its chest piece and all its weapons missing, and which I found buried in mud in a stranger's backyard. No doubt some careless kid had mistreated it. So I bought this 2-pack, followed by the recently released DVD set of the TV show at the Best Buy next door, and just like that, I was hooked on Beast Wars. Since then I made TRU a regular stop, and have bought a lot of figures from there, even if the price was a bit higher than online or other brick and mortar stores. Unfortunately, the TRU near me was never really good about stocking the newer waves of each line, so I always got figures later than most of you. Once in a while I would get lucky, but not often.

What will I miss about the place? I will miss what made TRU different. Other stores have toy sections. TRU was a toy store. All toys all the time. Sure, there was a KB Toys in the mall, but it was much smaller. TRU had its own building and was filled with toys from floor to ceiling.
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Re: When We Had to Grow Up: Remembering Toys R Us

Postby chuckdawg1999 » Fri Apr 13, 2018 3:28 pm

Motto: "The man, the myth, the legend... yeah right."
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Went to my TRU for probably the last time today. First, I was surprised that it was still full, that was probably due to the fact that even though signs said up to 30% off most stock was only 5-10% off. Surprisingly they had some of the new Solo Nerf guns, but that was about it on new stock that I could tell. I should mention there were signs that said they were getting new stock everyday because they were clearing the warehouse. In terms of Transformers they only had their last knight exclusives and some wave 2 one-step changers, with a lone leader and voyager Megatron. No studio series, no Thundercracker. They did have one Legion RID Grimlock and a smattering of Titan and Prime Masters. As we left my heart was heavy because I couldn't help but think what I saw was a big part of why this was my last time at TRU.
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Re: When We Had to Grow Up: Remembering Toys R Us

Postby o.supreme » Fri Aug 20, 2021 1:46 pm

Motto: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"
Just saw this article. Looks like TRU may be coming back via Macy's in 2022:

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/toys ... 18829.html

I did a search on macys.com/toysrus No Transformers yet, but we shall see. When i did a general search, of course it brought up everythign Macy's has which is TF related (Mostly clothes and a few novelties), but no real toys to speak of.
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