Vintage Toys R Us

Pictorial of the 80's Toys R Us Experience

I had to go to Toys R Us recently to pick up a Star Wars Toy for my nephew and when I got into the store I realized something..... Toys R Us just ain't what it used to be.
Browsing the store now is like traveling in IKEA, you're stuck in a virtual maze of oddly bending toy isles that hold VERY LITTLE stock and even less selection.
I just don't get the redesign of the stores, they screwed them all up with the intent of keeping you in the store longer by having to follow a set path so the consumer sees more product... SO STUPID!
I understand that some of the Toys R Us stores OUTSIDE of New York that didn't close weren't redesigned and still have the original lined up isles setup. Well for those of you that remember the Vintage Toys R Us, the floor to ceiling toys, the isles that seemed to NEVER END here is a now and then pictorial of Toys R Us.......

The NEW Toys R Us design is targeted for MASS exposure to a wider variety of toys BUT with the absence of MASS product. What that means is more selection in terms of product diversity but fewer stock of each selection, because Toys R Us does the majority of their business ONLINE. Did I say I HATE the new store design?
Here is the NEWER stores layout. Ok I admit they do look cool on the outside BUT looks can be deceiving.....

Now for the inside... I swear this place is a maze. the first 2 pics below show a deceiving picture of what the isles look like now, Yeah straight isles right? NOT... they're a quarter the length of the 80's Toys R Us isles and don't hold nearly the same stock....

The isles really loook more like this, little nooks shaped like a big U, showcasing a specific product...

Even this "midway isle doesn't come close to vintage Toys R Us glory...

Now I don't know about you guys but when I was a kid and I walked into Toys R Us it was like a Toy Warehouse, I mean the isles were so long and so tall that the toys just seemed to go on forever. And the amount of product on the shelves was INSANE, as you'll clearly see in a moment. It was a cornucopia of kid coolness!

Now the first thing that got us excited in the car was seeing that god awful BROWN Toys R Us sign. it was so god awful that we loved it to death, and it got us CRAZY just to see it, and we aren't even in the parking lot yet!

And as we drive into the lot you caught your 1st glimpse of our childhood equivalent to Superman's Fortress of Solitude....

Once inside your adrenaline started pumping and we could hardly contain ourselves... GET ME TO THE ACTION FIGURE ISLE! LOL how many races I had with my friends only to arrive at the sight I can not count....
Notice in the 1st pic below the amount of GI-Joe figures out for sale AND if ya look close on the right you'll see the coolest jet ever produced for a toy, the F-14A GI-Joe Skystriker!

Oh My God the absolute goodness in this view, and it only gets better!

Would you look at the amount of GI-Joe vehicles that are on those shelves!? It's kid insanity in all the best possible ways that this could be interpreted in! It was awe inspiring to see what seemed like miles of endless toys just waiting to come home with us!

Who remembers the good old days of Video Games when you went to the isle, grabbed a piece of paper with a bar code and the name of the game you wanted, and then you had to pay for it 1st and then collect the game at the "cage"? I remember it. HATED THAT lol cause many times the color sticker showing the game cover didn't show us the game graphics, and that SUCKED because we left it all up to chance as to whether or not the game would suck.

Is this not every boys childhood dream!? Look at the massive selection that was loaded on these shelves.
Being smaller aka a KID it is obvious to me now that the isles seemed endless, and they towered over us, BUT I say again look at all that product!? It's hypnotizing even now to look at these pictures because it takes me right back to being 9 years old in 1984. I get that same excited butterfly feeling even though I'm not going home with a new toy lol.

So, what happened to our Toy Castles? Why did they have to go Ka-Flooey? Internet Online Sales that's why. Alas all good things must come to an end BUT at least we can look at pictures like this and reminisce about the golden days of Toys R Us! If you have vintage Toys R Us pics of the retro isles UPLOAD EM' and share the wealth boys n girls lol.

Comments

Man those photos bring back so many memories. It brings a tear to my eye. I too hate the way toys are handled these days. It is so hard to actually find ones. Toys R Us was the best. You parents would say "Pick out 1 thing" but it would take you 2 hours just to find something because there was so much to choose from. Real Ghost busters, Transformers, G.I. Joe, they had isles of it. Ever since BAIN Capital bought them they have gone downhill. In act which company hasn't since they were bought by those mongrels.

After making a big family move out to College Station, Texas I found a store that has not been remodeled since it was built 18 years ago. It is a stand alone Toy R Us location without a Babies R Us. At first glance I assumed it was a remodeled store because it does not have the brown rippled roof but it does have the older Toys R Us sign with the yellow R and the early to mid 90's Geoffrey cuter looking giraffe. When I got closer to it I started to get a little more excited because I saw that it also had the brown lettered "Entrance" sign with the backwards R and the brown lettered "Exit Only" sign. I thought no way!?!?!? Then as we walked into Toys R Us with our newborn son for the very first time the excitement started ramping up as this already seemed like an older laid out store. As we walked into the store you could clearly see the floor to ceiling toy isles, they also had the board game wall, glass cased merchandise, enormous bike racks, and the pull ticket video game isle.

One question I wanted to ask in my previous post was when did Toys R Us start adopting the Lean Business Model System? Lean meaning having a better variety of product but less of each product. With the use of computers today and even 10 years ago it makes sense to use such a business model. Where as back in the 1980s and early 1990s computer inventory tracking systems were no where near as good and as detailed as they are today; unless you were a pioneer such as Wal-mart that could afford the upfront expense of developing such a system. It would make sense that keeping a significant larger amount of inventory on hand per item in each Toys R Us store in the 80s/90s era was necessary since inventory tracking was typically done by manually counting every item. This must have been a very slow and quiet business model integration process for Toys R Us and probably other retailers at the time. I am just curious as to when this actually started happening in the world of Toys R Us.

I went into my local childhood Toys R Us a few months ago and I was so disappointed and confused at the same time when I walked in. I was thinking where in the world is all the massive product!?!?! I had not been in a Toys R Us since the late 1990s so my expectations were a bit different than what the store offers today. Now that I know the store layout I had envisioned before walking into the store is now gone, I really want to find a retro laid out Toys R Us if one still exists. Your pictures are so great and I am glad that you posted them. I am literally heartbroken over what Toys R Us has become today. The toy store experience will not even come close to what I experienced in the 80s/90s for my soon to be newborn son. This makes me really sad but that is the reality of today, things do change even if you do not want them to. Does anyone know of any Toys R Us stores today that still have the retro store interior layout with massive product? If so, where?

25 years, and still a Toys "R" Us Kid down till I die! (despite having a soft spot for the other chains that didn't fare as well)

I remember going to the one at the corner of Maize Road and Morse Road in Columbus a LOT, mainly to buy a new bike, or to spend whatever quarters I had on Sailor Moon cards.

I swear, every time I entered under Geoffrey's entrance sign (or should I say, "ENTЯANCE"?), each trip there was ABSOLUTE PARADISE for a Columbus boy like me!

How eerie! Just yesterday I was speaking to my wife about THIS VERY TOPIC and low and behold I bump into your article today! Those pics were amazingly wonderful! Thank you! You made me smile in amazement just as if I were 10 again and staring down that GI Joe isle! :O)

Sweet Monkey Jesus!!! Those 80s pic are awesome!!! I wish I had a DeLorean or a TARDIS to go back to that beautiful time. Where awesome toys, cartoons, and movies were everywhere. Kids now don't know a good toy or cartoon.

toys r us is a mess now compared to when i used to go there, i remember before there was a no cash return for video games, i'd buy one then take it back within the 30 days, buy another, and do this until i was sure of a game i wanted...now if you crease the corner of the wrapper they won't take it back lol!!!

P.S. I totally remember and forgot about the clearance aisle. My sisters and I ( there were 4 of us) rearly got to go to toys r us, unless it was a birthday or christmas. Often we recieved TRU giftcards, we would really try to stretch the money and the clearance aisle was great to find cheap, but entertaining good. because of the clearance aisle we were introduced to some rear board games, etc... Sniglets, scruplets kid's edition, melvin the bird, etc.... good times indeed!

I completely agree, I was in toys R Us maybe a year or two ago getting a gift card for my nephew. Couldn't agree more, when walking in the store completely different and not in a good way.

What I would give to travel back in time and walk those aisles.
Of course I'd take heaps of cash with me.

The Beast:

Really happy you dug the article man. The problem I see facing Toy Stores today is believe it or not an indirect marketing issue.

Star Wars is virtually the ONLY product to last the past 30 years respectively. Star Wars is also one of the only toy lines that also still has ongoing cartoons and or movies to go along with the product, outside of super hero figures.

In the 80's we had a LIMITED supply of cartoons in the sense that they were usually on for ONE DAY.... Saturday Mornings, OR were primarily an after school thing running from roughly 2pm to 5pm, IE: GI-Joe, He-Man, Thundercats, Voltron, Transformers, etc.

Today with the advance in technology kids have cartoon channels which surprisingly are all but devoid of any real content of substance AND more importantly are devoid of TOY LINES to compliment the cartoons.

In our day the toy line followed the cartoons, and since we were limited in our exposure to the cartoons, the toys kept us busy till Saturday Mornings for the most part. One hand washes the other here, it's a no brainer.

BUT look at the diversity we had in cartoons and child entertainment as opposed to today's programming. Sure today's kids have 24 hour cartoons BUT to what extent are these original OR diverse? Really not so much, NOTHING like what we had. And mind you in the 80's we had a BOOMING Hollywood scene pumping out some of the most original and entertaining movies of all time. Indiana Jones and Star Wars films, Back To The Future, The Goonies, Gremlins, the list goes on and on.

We had some good stuff going on that toy companies were able to capitalize on and actually make real money. Today however even the toy manufacturers are a dime a dozen. We have 15 different companies producing THE SAME CHARACTERS aka Star Wars, Video game, and Movie Figures for instance. We need this why lol?

It isn't the same game anymore. Sad i know but true. makes me love my 80's that much more. AND as a Toy Collector have you noticed a trend in toys?....... Almost ALL of our famous 80's toys are being re-released again........ SHOCKER!!

I'm an avid 80's/early 90's toy collector and if there was ANY place left on earth with shelves/pegs filled to the brim with mint-in-package goodness from the glory days, we would essentially have a toy collectors version of Fort Knox O__O

BIGMercenary: You pretty much summed it up! Isle 7c forever

Today's toy isles are lanes of mediocrity. Kids have no variety to choose from anymore. They have the option of one of four different franchises. Iron Man, Bakugan, Zhu Zhu Pets, and Star Wars. Not to mention the loads of movie merchandise from whichever summer blockbuster is upon us each year. No matter what movie they toys are from, they always end up on clearance...ALWAYS.

Thanks for taking the time to dig up these rare photos. Quite a treat for the brain at 2am

Tryclyde:

It SUCKED when Child World closed, I LOVED THEM. But then again I loved all my toy stores. Who remembers PLAYWORLD? I do lol

JP: Sure am, Northern New Jersey. Since Child World was closer to me (even though Toys 'R Us' world headquarters was located in my town), it's where I did the bulk of my childhood toy shopping. It was every bit as good, if not better, than Toys 'R Us.

BIGMercenary:

Very well stated lol :-)

8 Bit:

I hear ya 8Bit, and I agree, sad but true

An armada of GI Joes ready to fight against Cobra just across the aisle. Ninja Turtles ready to fight whatever baddies attacking from Dimension X. Miles of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, stunt tracks, playsets... and the occasional Micro Machine. Two or three full aisles of pink Barbie toys to make any little girl scream in delight. Being a guy, I never went down those aisles but, I remember passing a toy pony large enough for a kid to ride on. Bikes and skateboards, pads and helmets. Baseball bats, hockey sticks, basketballs, footballs, etc.
NERF GUNS and SUPER SOAKERS! An arsenal of each that would make the kids in the neighborhood run home crying.
THAT is what the Toys R Us of old was like. I don't think I can ever forget the wonder of it all.

I agree about kids growing up too fast nowadays. Perhaps that's something every generation says about the next. But I think there is a legit case to be made. There seems to be more pressure than ever to be "cool" at a young age. Kids seem to be abandoning playing with toys and other, well, "kid's stuff" at younger and younger ages. I have a stepson who I have tried to tell numerous times over the years to just enjoy being a kid while he can. Heck, if I had it to do over again I'd probably play with toys and whatnot until I was 16 or so lol. Why not? You only get that one childhood and then it's the real world for the rest of your life. Why cut that shorter than it already is? Sadly, most kids are too short-sighted to understand/appreciate such things.

8 Bit:
Thanks for the kind comment! It is MUCH appreciated!

I agree with you, kids now a days don;t know what they are missing.
I think today's kids are growing up too damn fast, and lose sight of what it meant to really be a kid. Our generation, the 80's generation before Generation X were the last generation to truly be able to enjoy childhood up to age 14 pretty much. So sad, BUT makes me SO SO THANKFUL to be an 80's kid.

Really enjoyed the article jpdraven. It was almost like going back in time. I actually feel bad for the kids these days who will never get the classic Toys R Us experience. I can still remember the magical feeling of just PASSING BY Toys R Us, even if we weren't going in. Good times....

Tryclyde:

If you remember Child World then you HAVE TO BE from the East Coast!

I LOVED Child World, place was awesome

Man, the colored "piano keys", as I called them, on the outside of the store really brought me back. Funny, because I have a young son now and I was in a Toys "R" Us a few months ago. I remarked to myself how much better the old design was. I hate the new, lower racks and displays...On another note, anyone remember Child World? It was pretty much a carbon copy but was pretty sweet.

dark knight:

I am SO HAPPY you got the same feelings I did. I was stupefied when I saw them and got all warm n fuzzy inside lol.

WOW!!! these pics are awesome!! i remember it just like this and have wished many times i could see toys r us in its previous glory. thanks to you i just did. great article. like many others, it takes me back to some of the best memories of my childhood. it gave me chills, especially the gi joe section, which is the one i visited the most. thanks for the article and pics!!!AWESOME!!!!!!

By the way fellow RetroJunkies all of these pics ARE downloadable, just right click them and click SAVE IMAGE AS..... poof now you own them lol

I have literally dreamed about going back in time and walking the aisles of 80's Toys R Us one last time. Your video game aisle comments are right on, The CAGE, man, The Cage! And that awesome 80's brown on the sign, takes me back to the age of innocence in a instant. Short, but very effective article.

Loved loved loved the pictures of the old toys on the shelves. That is so hard to find these days, pictures of that, but wow what nostalgia. Awesome.

The logo alone made me so damn excited as a kid.

rauld10:

I remember that vividly, and I recall usually waitng impatiently as the person in the "cage" took forever to get you your game. I also remember the legend of Zelda fiasco where we got the GOLD Cartridge. There were 3 of us, Me and Robby got the GOLD Cartidge, David lol got stuck with a grey one. When the guy went back to look for more there were no more.

No to best of my recollection ALL the original Zelda games were GOLD, so to this day we have NO IDEA how he got one in a grey cartidge, or how it even made it in the box.

Either way David was teased for a month about having a "no frills" Zelda game because he is Jewish and ALWAYS and I do mean ALWAYS got the knockoff toys of all the popular stuff we were buying, OR he got all of the toys no one wanted. His parents refused to spend the money on the name brand stuff so to speak. VERY CHEAP they were lol.

When we got Transformers, he got Gobots, if we got Star Wars, he got Captain Power... LOL it NEVER failed. He even got some knockoff no frills Cabbage Patch Kid once, and was the ONLY boy in our neighborhood with a Cabbage Patch Kid LMAO.

Ahhhhh the memories. I have nothing against anyone who's Jewish by the way. Very important to point that out.

pure awesomeness! gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside seeing those old isles!

That was great. Toy's R us was like the holy lands when I was a kid. So many great memorys of that place.

Great article. My favorite memory of Toy R Us was when I was living in Dallas TX in the 1980s I saved my money and bought the Double Dragon NES game. I took out the yellow ticket then gave it to that guy who was in that cage where all the sealed games were. The job most have been the best ever.
Does anyone else remeber the old toy r us where you would take the ticket from the game display then give it the guy in the cage where all the games were?

I always loved going into Toys r us as a kid. Do they still use Geoffrey the Giraffe in their adds anymore?

drummerboy73:

All I can say to this is I just laughed so hard I almost threw up for a second there LOL. OH MY GOD LOL I remember doing the same thing LOL

1980's CHRISTMAS WISHBOOKS!!! YES! I spent HOURS in the bathroom with those things...my mom always used to get mad when I'd take 45 minutes for a number two and emerge with the catalogs, notepad, and pen in hand, only to brush her off and and hand her a list to "mail to Santa" - complete with picture cut-outs!!!

I just read the article again...LOVE IT! I can't wait for the Wish Book one!

To all the fans of this article......

You all got me thinking and I decided to write a new article focusing on the 1980's CHRISTMAS WISHBOOKS! Any and virtually every 80's kid has got to remember the JC Penny's, Sears, Service Merchandise, and numerous other monster Christmas Wishbooks. HUGE catalogs that showcased anything worth buying and ALL of them had HUGE toy sections. This was our "menu" of choice outside of the Saturday morning toy commercials.

Well, I came across a boatload of actual Christmas Wishbook pages, with the prices of the toys and just had to write an article on it. Once approved you guys should dig it..... I hope lol.

Keep an eye out for the article named 80's Christmas Wish Book

wow...love the old pics! it brought back a lot of memories. oh I wish to go back in time (just as long as I wouldn't change my future)! thanks!

WOW! That brought back some serious AWESOME memories. Everything you described in this article is 101% accurrate! I got chills just seeing the old desgin of the sign & store from the outside, let alone the inside! It really did seem like a toy warehouse and the toys & video games just seemed to go on for miles. You would know exactly where to RUN to once you got inside. He-Man, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Thundercats, Go Bots, Tyco RC cars, Race tracks, & train sets!! Good ol' days are lonnnngggg gone unfortunately. They should go for a retro look again on the inside & out. I would love to bring my own kids to the same memories that I grew up on with Toys R Us. I noticed alot of the stores have closed down too which is sad. I can't believe people prefer Target & Walmart over Toys R Us nowadays. Bad enough we lost Kay Bee Toys & Child World. I guess that's just the nature of business though. Thanks for the memories with this article though!

We truly are lucky to have grown up in that era. I too admit that I got a little teary when I saw that pic of the GI Joe aisle...my heart jerked a little bit. I remember going to Childrens Palace as a kid, searching through 20 or more feet of Joes pegged 4 high and 8 or so deep, trying to find the coolest looking little dudes (which were usually Cobras). I remember being mesmerized with my friend's collection and NEEDED to get the 89 Alley Viper. I still remember searching through hundreds (compared to nowadays' "tens"

looking for one until i finally found that rare gem. Once I got hooked on Joes, I turned my back on my MotU figurines (which I had as long as I can remember) and never went back. Now I miss them too...I wish I hadn't given them to my cousins! Anyways, I would LOVE to see some more photos of ANY of these toy lines on the shelves...and I agree that some photos of the NES/GameBoy/Snes era video game aisle would be GREAT! Anyone? Great article!

As I read everyone's response I can't help but recall something no one has mentioned and I all but forgot about.... the Clearance half isle!

The Toys R Us' here had a clearance section for toys, a 1/2 isle, one side boys one side girls.

I used to check it ALL the time for deals on toys, and as a Toy Collector I found so many obscure and popular lines on clearance at some point.

I remember buying almost the entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line on clearance in 1 shot, only missing April O'Neil and Shredder, many transformers, he-man, thundercats, voltron, and gi-joe stuff as well, and tons and tons of vehicles. Vehicles and larger playsets were always in there.

Another trick I learned was where the toy collectors used to stash toys to come back and get at a later time. In the Toys R Us here there were big outdoor playsets like castles and log cabins in big boxes way up above the video games. In one corner there were ALWAYS a horde of action figures. Since the playset boxes could only be stacked 1 box deep on a shelf there was considerable room back there. half of my hard to find original Star Wars Toys were pillaged from those stashes lol. UP YOURS TOY SELLERS LOL. Also the bottom shelf of all the old Toys R Us aisles used to flip up, with about 6 inches of clearance underneath them. The Toy and comic book store owners used to hide countless items under them, mainly in the girls section, and sometimes right there under the boys toys. We found so many goodies there, AND the best part it is much of it was items that were left there for years, so they weren't on file OR were at some ridiculously low clearance price. I distinctly remember finding a Black Costume Spiderman Figure from the Secret Wars line under there in 1990. At that point the figures were out of the stores for a few years, and I got it for 99 cents because it was not on file. I also scored numerous Original Star Wars figures that way, GI-Joe's, and plenty of "chase" figures on later years.

The new stores I don't ever find anything like this, the majority of those golden hideaways were discovered when the stores did their makeovers and outright killed because the store layout changed. It's also much harder to do that now a days because the security cameras see you doing it and store associates retrieve that stuff and put it back on the shelves. Grrrrrrr sucks bigtime!

Ahhhhhh the good old days.... boy do I miss them.

I loved old school Toys' R Us! I remember the multi-color bars as the signal that I was entering toy heaven. I could spend hours there just looking up and down every aisle. Also, for me, living in Chicago, we had to drive to the suburbs to reach the closest Toys' R Us, so it made the trip that much more exciting. Modern Toys' R Us have for sure scaled down (and I've grown bigger) but my kid still asks if we can go there every time we are within 5 miles and he catches a glimpse of the sign from the highway. So it is still exciting kids, even if it isn't as cool as it used to be. Loved the article, bringing back great memories.

I can tell you in complete confidence and maturity that upon seeing a couple of those pictures of the old Toys "R" Us, my eyes got a little teary and I got goosebumps I the sight of all those G.I. Joes and Vehicles. Not that I was a huge 'Joe fan until I started collecting them a few years ago but I kind of went through the same thing when I got into Star Wars and collecting Star Wars toys in the late 90's. There is so much I could say about Toys "R" Us as an American kid in the 90's but I think this sums it up well:

"I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys' R Us kid
There's a million toys at Toys 'R Us that I can play with!
From bikes, to trains, to video games,
It's the biggest toy store there is! Gee whiz!
I don't want to grow, cause maybe if I did,
I wouldn't be a Toys 'R Us kid!"

Amen brother... :-D

The pics of the old school stores is epic. So many memories.
Terrific article!

I wish we had a Toys R Us when i was growing up. Alas I only had the commercials, and one of the best jingles ever.

not much to say here except freakin awesome.

Nightwatcher:

Toys R Us looked bigger for 2 key reasons...
1- We were smaller lol
2- The stores were JAM PACKED with stuff from floor to ceiling! The amount of product the old style store layout could hold was much more plentiful. There is no comparison between old and new.

Unfortunately because of online shopping stores in general have scaled down bigtime. Toys R Us closed most of it's stores because they do just as much business online and don't have the overhead with having a physical location. All it took for them to make more money was:
1- Close stores to save on overhead expenses, and employee salaries, benefits, disability, etc
2- Buy or build a warehouse / shipping headquarters large enough to accommodate online sales and shipping. This costs them much much less then having store fronts.
3- Consolodate the product "in store" because there is no need to stock so much product because in store sales have dropped drastically since the 90's and the internet explosion.

It sucks I agree BUT, it is what it is, that's progress for you.

Rearviewmirror:

YES I remember Playworld, in fact I have a GI-Joe Skystriker in the box with a neon red Playworld srice sticker on it lol.

I also remember Child World aka Children's Palace, Kay Bee Toys, Woolworths, JC Penny, Sears, TSS Stores, and Mc Crory.

The thing I remember most was no matter what store we went to they ALL had decent toy sections.

Times have certainly changed BUT we were lucky to have these things before they died, in their absolute peak, when they were at their strongest.

Nothing lasts forever BUT those memories certainly do for all of us, and hopefully we incorporate them into our present lives. If so then those things never truly die.

Sorry, me again. When I said what the video game section is supposed to look like I meant, as in, all the major system stuff out on the racks as it should be. These days that stuff is crammed into the glass case behind the counter while the shelves now bare nothing but Leap Frog. WTF! Not where I come from pal!

Good article. I can remember going through turn-styles when entering. Anyone remember Lionel Playworld?

I forgot to point out that I see a few things in the vintage pics that I had back then. Sweet! And you got a pic of what the video game section is supposed to look like. It's just to bad you don't have a vintage pic of that section with systems like NES, Genesis, Game Boy and other systems of the periode. It's still cool though. I also remember the place looking alot bigger back then, but then again, to little kids everything looks really big. Sweet article, here's to seeing more vintage Toys R' Us pics. Thanks, man.

Holy Crap!I feel like I just stepped through bthe computer screen into my childhood! I will admit that my mom didn't take me to Toys R' Us alot when I was little because the closest location was about twenty minutes away from our house. Sadly, that location has just recently shut down.

However there is another location about the same distance in the other direction so at least we still have one. I'm not usually fond of flashbacks but this one was pretty sweet! Where did you find these pics?! Transformers (G1), Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe! And the original appearance of the store itself!! Damn!!! It's just to bad you don't have pics of toy lines like Thundercats. That's okay though, awsome article!

If there ever comes a time in which we can time travel, I have many destinations in mind. One of them being TRU from the mid 1980's. Just look at the Masters of the Universe and G.I. Joe aisles.

I'm constantly in Toys r us because it's right around my job. I do remember a little bit about the old design.

I gotta say this again.... I am just so happy that this article was a hit!

This site is ALL about nostalgia and getting tiny glimpses into our childhood. Apparently I was right in posting this article because it seems so many of you are enjoying this so much, and to me, that's what it's all about, sharing the memories, sparking ones we've buried deep in our minds, and pretty much just reminiscing for a few minutes in our adult lives and HOPEFULLY smiling.

Keep the comments coming, love reading them!

Sooo many great memories from Toys R Us! The retro TRU photos are awesome! I do remember getting the piece of paper in order to pick up the Nintendo game from the "cage" or whatever it was. The anticipation of that was crazy! Kay-Bee was great back then too, and like jpdraven above, I also checked out McCrory, and also Caldor for toys! Sometimes they'd have rare stuff that TRU or KB didn't have!

LBD_Nytetrayn:
Those are all the pictures I've found so far. IF I accumulate more then there will be a part 2 to this article lol.

I remember Kay Bee Toys, Child World aka Children's Palace, and Play World Toys Stores. I also remember Woolworth's and Mc Croroy having HUGE toy sections. Woolworth's had a great Toy section. So sad to see these stores gone... quite literally every one of them are gone.

Oh man...I loved Toys R Us back in the day. It was a rare treat to go to one with my family. We usually went to Kay-Bee toy store (which wasn't that bad either back then).

Fantastic. The two Toys R Us stores in my area still look like that on the outside, but definitely not on the inside. I can't believe that it's the ONLY toy store where I live and it's kinda sad looking.

Some of my fondest memories are of running through the aisles and grabbing figures until my dad said "okay, now you've spent enough". The economy was better and so were the toys.

I agree with you on this article. I was at a Toys R Us not too long ago and its disheartening to see how everything has changed.

...and I feel I should add that Toys R Us in Times Square should probably be considered an exception to this whole thing. It's pretty massive and awesome in its own right.

Such great memories... I remember when someone was looking for such pictures on another forum once, and I had been wanting to see some like this myself. Thanks for posting them!

But are there more? The above comment left me wondering.

Nonetheless... growing up, I usually lived in smaller towns, and Toys R Us was a "big city" thing, so the opportunity to go there (and Lionel Toy Warehouse-- anyone remember that?) was always a big thing.

I still remember the "World of Nintendo" quite well. And I've just always loved the sheer density of toys packed into the space. It truly felt like the "world's biggest toy store," unlike today. I pity my future kids, who will probably not get to share the same experience.

I agree! I miss the old Toys R Us!

Love that picture of the Masters of the Universe figures! Probably my favorite line of action figures when I was a kid. It was cool when they came out with the re-issues in the early 2000's - my kids are now teenagers, but we still have the whole line of figures they bought a decade ago.

OH... MY... GOD!!!! YES!!!

I remember the papers with the bar codes! This was before the time when those thick, hardy tamper-resistant plastic shells were around, otherwise you had to get a store associate with a key to open the glass case, pull the game out and bring it to the register. Those were orgasmic times as a kid.

When I got my Game Boy Pocket and several other Game boy games back in the late 90s, my brother and I had to go through the excruciating process of picking out our games with those slips of papers and bringing them to the "Cage" so we'd get the real deal.

Last I walked into a Toys R Us, it was back in November... It just wasn't the same anymore...

And I totally remember that nasty brown sign... though when I was younger, it was probably the best thing ever to see! That, and seeing the huge sign on the building as we often drove by. My closest TRU is 10 minutes from here.

matacron:

AN ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF SEARCHING THE WEB TO FIND THOSE PICS.

What happened was I was searching for some odd thing, I think madballs, and the pic of the Toys R Us aisle with all the GI-Joe stuff came up and I just froze.... I bugged out actually much like you did when you read this, and that was the catalyst to this article, it was the "spark" that caused the search for vintage toy store pics. And so here it is LOL.

mikemonmouth:
If I could live those days again I would too, I know I know it SUCKS certain things aren't the way they were then.

There are certain things we notice, and certain things that are out of sight out of mind.... BUT once those things come back in sight, WATCH OUT, cause OH MY GOD the memories just start flooding back.

I was hoping this article would induce the same exact emotions I felt when I stumbled across the Vintage pics. I am SO HAPPY that it did for all of you. I realized that these are the things that are truly worth having... all those memories, and all those good times!

We have 2 Toys R Us stores around here. One of them got the makeover and will agree, selection is limited. It's like that they just give you a little taste of certain things and that's it. The other Toys R Us still looks completely old school with the long straight aisles. I'm sure selection still sucks however...though their RC aisle was quite promising. The only praise I'll give to TRU at the moment is that they actually carry yo-yos I'm an avid yo-yoer who often likes to purchase them in the store and TRU actually stocks Freehand 2's. Back on topic, I will miss how TRU used to be and not the watered down limited selection we have now. Most stores are going this route these days though...including the big W and the big T.

oh my god man, i never had the pleasure of walking into a toys r us in the 80's but it must have been heaven. The pictures are seriously making me freak out!

OMG! Where did you get these pictures? I am freaking out. It's like the '80s are back! I love love LOVE the shots of the Transformers, G.I. Joe, and He-Man figures.

I remember the Toys R Us in Eatontown NJ that had this long hallway when you entered and then you would turn the corner and bam! All these amazing toys would just be all over the place. I miss the old Toys R Us. Nothing beats being a kid in the 80's.

yeah when i saw the crazy variety in the he-man and joe aisles i was like...oh shit haha. i wanna live in those pictures for real...is that possible?

An awesome article, it brings back a time when you go in a store and actually find what you're looking for without have to contend with scalpers taking things and annoying case ratios.

Loved this! Loved seeing the pictures of the He-Man stuff on the shelves. Really cool!

Never went been to A toys TOYS R US as A kid Because there wasn't one near by and the parents were weird about driving in A city. I like this article because I see what I missed and remember alot of the old toys from your pics.

I saw the pics of RETRO Toys R Us and I was FLIPPING OUT, they brought me right back to being 8 years old again, I HAD TO share these with everyone, and I am so happy that the same feelings I got, you guys got when you saw them!

This is a kick ass article! Toys R Us was a luxury because I didn't live near one, and these pictures capture my early 80's trips to a T.

Another well done, brief, to the point, memory lane trip. I have to agree, change is inevitable...and it sux, period. Thanks for pics brother!

Oh man! I forgot all about pulling the ticket for the game before picking it up at the cage! LOL, Toys R Us was our Mecca. I recently went to my childhood store and it just isn't the same. I remember when there was Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, & power rangers toys that just went on for what seemed like miles. This new generation of kids have no idea what GREAT toys are! We had it the best guys!!!

After working at a Toys R Us store I realized how horrible the company really is which sort of spoils the memories I used to have. This is still a nice article though, just don't ever actually work there. People complain about Walmart, I would say they are way better then this place.

It seems today that toys stores are more concerned with presentation and display that have a large stock available. But seriously, who are they trying to impress? When was the last time you heard a kid say "My my, these toys sure were set up in an impressive display"? Kids don't care about presentation, they just want the toy they are after to be there and available. I suppose there is a certain convenience to internet shopping, but as they say, "When you gain you just might lose."

I love the variety I see when looking at those pics of GI Joe and MOTU. This past Christmas I went to Toy R Us to buy a Batman toy for my nephew and they had a row of Batman and a row of The Joker. That was it, no Two Face, no Riddler, no Robin. Where is the variety?!! We didn't have a Toy R Us when I was growing up, but instead we had KB Toys and K&K Toys. Both stores were located in the mall and therefore where rather small, but still they had a better selection than the Toy R Us's of today. Hell, even the toy sections at Wal-Mart and K-Mart had better selections. Anyway great article, a very enthusiastic thumbs up.

Damn it! Now I want to go buy some G.I. Joes (Mostly a Cobra Rattler since it's a blue jet, can you tell I like them?) and drag my He-man action figures out of my grandmother's attic.

If I wandered into a section of retro he-man figures at a local toys-r-us I would probably faint with joy.

the picture of the he-man and g.i. joe stuff alone makes me give this a thumbs up. it was like a portal, i want to go in there