Current Events > Do you have fond memories from Toys R Us as a kid?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Are you sad all stores are closing? :(
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It was my favorite place to go.
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It's the only place within a 3 hour drive that I can get points for my Lego purchases.
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The one in my city had this huge, cavernous entrance hallway with an amazing echo. I used to stand in there and yell "PINOCCHIOOOOO"
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I only remember going there once as a kid and apparently I loved it.

I went to one a few years ago with my friend to look for a toy for my nephew for Christmas. They had this giant Link figurine for $40 that I wanted soooo bad. Now I wish I had gotten it.
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Not really, the bare bones warehouse look always turned me off.
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I remember mowing lawns with my buddy to get money for toys.

Then I remember getting to go get one. Can't say I liked it more than KB toys at the mall or anything but then again I didn't like it less.
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My parents almost never took me there. It was kinda far to be worth it, and you could get all the legos you wanted at other stores
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Fondest memories of Toys R Us was looking through the catalogs around Christmas

My family mostly shopped at other stores and other than the nerf gun I bought on impulse a few years back, the last thing I got from Toys R Us was Smash 64
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It was where I played Super Smash Bros. Melee for the very first time.
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I can only recall going there like twice, maybe three times. I was more of a Gamestop kid
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Yes but they were all when I was super little. My store has sucked since 20000

But yeah I remember getting my Super Nintendo there and my great adventures castle
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I do, but I don't care now. The last time TRU excited me would've been like 20 years ago :/
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I had a $1000 shopping spree at Toys R Us from Make-A-Wish foundation when I was like 8 or 9. Bought a lot of video games that day and a few other things.
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I have fond memories of going as a kid AND as an adult. I fucking went as recently as a few weeks ago. My girlfriend and I liked going on Valentine's Day cuz then we would jokingly tell our friends we bought some toys for Valentine's.

I'm incredibly upset about it.
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I mainly just remember having to take those stupid tickets to buy video games, pay for it, then wait at another counter for the actual game.

Many fond memories of Toys R Us as a kid, it was the place to get things be it games, toys, or cards.

Pokemon League at Toys R Us was the place to be, and it was lots of fun playing the card game or or battle over link cable.
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i remember buying all my toy train cars from there
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Antifar posted...

I can only recall going there like twice, maybe three times. I was more of a Gamestop kid

how old are you? Gamestop wasn't even a thing until the very late 90s iirc

before that I remember going to electronic boutique for vidya sometimes but usually toys r us had the best selection in my area
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A lot of the magical things we grew up with are gone. I feel bad for kids growing up today.
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i don't have any sentimental attachment to toys r us.

for me that was more funcoland.
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There wasn't one where I grew up.
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It was great as a kid but when I worked there as an adult it sucked. They create memories for kids in exchange for making their employees miserable and it's probably one of the reasons they tanked
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@EastKingStar

Not having a lot of these things is what is making the kids today more anti social, crazy, and shut ins.

In the 90s you had to go out, interacting with other kids was a must if you wanted to get toys, or games. Pokemon also promoted socialization because trades were face to face back then.

Kids today are too hooked up to the internet and do not go outside as much.
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I have several although the most important ones are when I went to buy Pokemon Blue and when I bought Conkers Bad Fur Day I remember them asking for an ID and saying I needed to be over age if 18 to purchase the game I told them my parents were outside and ok with it so they sold it to me. I remember asking my mom to buy a PS2 on release date she waitied in line and all that stuff but we didn't have it pre-ordered so she couldn't get it after she waitied like 8 hours outside the store....getting the GBA on release date, getting the GameCube on release day.....I have a lot apparently
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Yes, we'd go nearly every Sunday after church. I loved that store as a kid.
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I mainly remember Toys R Us from the SNES era and before. The last of my memories there are playing demo PSX games like Legend of Dragoon. I remember seeing DKC3 advertisements around that same time, dunno if I ever actually saw the game (I definitely never played it).

Most of the purchases I remember are gameboy games actually
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Played a N64 with Super Mario 64 for the first time at a Toys R Us. Struggled to get my head wrapped around 3D movement.
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The videogame section used to just be a wall of posters or something, full of little paper slips that you'd take to a window in the back to actually buy the videogame.

Also I picked up a half price Megabloks Technodrome fairly recently. That was pretty neat.

It's one of the places my mom would take my siblings and I to look at toys around November, then later on throughout the next few weeks to buy Christmas presents for each other. In hindsight that was really awesome of her. I got my zoids from there. And I went to some yugioh weekly games there in middle school.Goodt times all around, I will miss the place.
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Questionmarktarius posted...

The videogame section used to just be a wall of posters or something, full of little paper slips that you'd take to a window in the back to actually buy the videogame.

yessir

I think it was basically a picture of whatever the box art was. Not really a poster exactly
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I used to go there to buy video games, since they usually had a great selection.
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i remember toys r us mostly when i was in middle school. i got my tamagotchi there... my Game Boy Advance, all my snes and n64 games. good memories.

when i was in high school me and my friend would go there to participate in the Yugioh tournaments they had. i remember one kid had all the japanese God cards before they were translated or even in the show. i was like dude thats illegal but then didn't care. he killed me in 2 turns. my friend would stack his deck to get exodia in the first turn.
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They were overpriced from the beginning.

I remember when they were still Childrens Bargain Town. Really did well after WW2, but their prices ended up killing them especially in this internet shopping age.
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Balrog0 posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

The videogame section used to just be a wall of posters or something, full of little paper slips that you'd take to a window in the back to actually buy the videogame.

yessir

I think it was basically a picture of whatever the box art was. Not really a poster exactly

Well, yeah. They were arranged the way Walmart does posters, in that sort of giant-book type display, except it was about as long as an entire aisle.

First time we had to make a short road trip to get there and I think I picked up a Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) toy.
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Questionmarktarius posted...

Balrog0 posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

The videogame section used to just be a wall of posters or something, full of little paper slips that you'd take to a window in the back to actually buy the videogame.

yessir

I think it was basically a picture of whatever the box art was. Not really a poster exactly

Well, yeah. They were arranged the way Walmart does posters, in that sort of giant-book type display, except it was about as long as an entire aisle.

Yeah I wonder if there are pictures of it online somehow. I was real young when it was like this but I do remember it. It was a hanging thing you could flip up and the cards to take to the counter were under it.
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Questionmarktarius posted...

The videogame section used to just be a wall of posters or something, full of little paper slips that you'd take to a window in the back to actually buy the videogame.

This is what I always remembered as well as getting extremely lucky and being able to get the BIG FAT launch PS2.
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I wonder why stores stopped doing that, in favor of having to find someone to unlock the games display.

Last time I've been to one was when I bought a Gamecube on launch day

I miss KB Toys more
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I bought gta3 there a month after it released.

I remember a few days after Pokemon Diamond and Pearl's launch, my family went to see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway then we went to the TRU at Times Square to buy the games. I remember my parents and employees there telling me that they remember us, still no idea how, but I guess we must've went there quite a few times before that. It had the giant ferris wheel in it, I think I went in it once. But yeah, that day we bought Diamond and Pearl, and these Pokemon accessories like a gen 4 starters DS Stylus that I still have, and a small switch and carry bag for DS and some DS games.

There's a TRU close to me too, but I don't think that one has as much memories as the Times Square one.
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I loved TRU. I remember the old ticket system they used to have in order to purchase video games back in the day.

i found this blog post that perfected describes it. Fucking magical:

http://thingsmykidswontknow.tumblr.com/post/19797516531/40-the-video-game-slip-at-toys-r-us

TheDarkCircle posted...

http://thingsmykidswontknow.tumblr.com/post/19797516531/40-the-video-game-slip-at-toys-r-us

Prior to that, in the NES era or so, they had huge vinyl cards in a sort of giant-book format, that had a bunch of slips on each 'page'.

Or maybe that was Sears, back when they didn't suck either.

Not really, there was a different toy store my mom took me to when I was like 4 that I remember fondly though
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