The Good Ol Days

[michael41293]

I miss Toys R Us and I miss going to Walmart and Target and them actually having a lot of figures on the shelf I know the pandemic affected that and still has today and I also know how big online shopping has become but as much as I love going to stores sometimes it’s annoying having to go to so many stores and either not finding anything or only finding something because you had to go to so many stores please wright your thoughts below

[wrestlingcollector80]

I miss a store mainly on the east coast I think "HILLS". Hills was where the toys are! They had stock too. Toys R Us was good too usually had stock. Then my local plaza mall had KB Toys usually had good toys on hand. Woolsworth was ok for toys but they had the video games going on. Should of bought those Vince McMahon toys R Us special figures.

[Flair Forever]

Don't forget we used to have K Mart, too.

And there was a gigantic "K B Toys OUTLET" in Wilmington, Delaware that was wonderful! Had bins and bins of Clearanced JAKKS figures. I actually met "The Big Red Machine" Kane at their Grand Opening!



It's a real shame that when Toys R Us closed, Walmart pledged that they were going to step up their Toy division to help supplement the loss of America's biggest Toy Store, and then Walmart did absolutely nothing of the sort.

This article was from CNN in 2018. Big promises from Walmart.

[wholefnshow420]

Oct 13, 2024 17:52:51 GMT -5 wrestlingcollector80 said:

I miss a store mainly on the east coast I think "HILLS". Hills was where the toys are! They had stock too. Toys R Us was good too usually had stock. Then my local plaza mall had KB Toys usually had good toys on hand. Woolsworth was ok for toys but they had the video games going on. Should of bought those Vince McMahon toys R Us special figures.

hills was pretty good for figures I got so many different Hasbros there including multiple of all the green cards and also got the jakks razor and diesel 2 pack there as well then mine shutdown shortly after bca series 3 came out remember during closing they had the complete set marked for 1.99 each

Woolworths was also a good place for awa ljns and galoobs but mine shutdown completely after a fire in 93 or 94

[marino13]

Oct 13, 2024 17:52:51 GMT -5 wrestlingcollector80 said:

I miss a store mainly on the east coast I think "HILLS". Hills was where the toys are! They had stock too. Toys R Us was good too usually had stock. Then my local plaza mall had KB Toys usually had good toys on hand. Woolsworth was ok for toys but they had the video games going on. Should of bought those Vince McMahon toys R Us special figures.

I used to work at a Hills back during the Bone Crunching days. I'd be opening cases and doing the "one for me, and one for them" thing. It was great.

[The Madness]

I always thought Children’s Palace had an even better selection than Toys R Us in the LJN/Hasbro days.

As far as department stores go, Hill’s remains untouchable!

[Crossfit Jesus]

I miss toys r us. I loved working there when I was younger

[oprtnshtdwn]

My go to back in the day was Family Toy Warehouse. I remember always going to the one and they’d always have ones K-Mart didn’t.

[MKSavage]

Oct 13, 2024 19:29:04 GMT -5 The Madness said:

I always thought Children’s Palace had an even better selection than Toys R Us in the LJN/Hasbro days.

As far as department stores go, Hill’s remains untouchable!

Dang! I haven't heard of Children's Palace in a long time. They did have a great selection. I remember finding all of the Dick Tracy figures there. Well, except for Blank. Toys'R'us and Children's Palace were great places to get figures. Also can't forget about K.B. Toys. Their 3 for $10 deals were great. 

[michael41293]

Yea so many great toy stores and great memories

[wrestlingcollector80]

Another good one was Ames. Used to have decent toy selection . Zayers was alright.

[Grenouille]

Enjoyed going to a Toys R Us again last weekend in Quebec. Nothing I needed thankfully at those $35 Canadian prices before taxes.

[catsoftheworld]

I miss KB toys. Just aisle after aisle of action figures when there were no where near as many toys lines as today. There was another toy store at some malls too. I cant remember the name as a kid, but the one was upstairs and the other was downstairs at the Century 3 mall outside of Pittsburgh PA.
Toys R Us was fantastic though. I remember finding the TTL Hardys and Jericho there. The 2nd Jericho, I did not want that long headed 1st one from the 2 pack. I am a huge Mattel collector but I still think Jakks/ Gentle Giant beat them on the faces. Not the figure though. It's sad every time I lool in on of my RA bins abd more arms are about to fall off.

[arossi417]

I'll echo the love for KB Toys. I wasn't collecting wrestling back in those days, but I was buying Hot Wheels and NASCAR diecast. Loved Boscov's, K-Mart and Bradlees back in the day, a lot of good memories with my grandfather walking around those places. I hate that we get two big choices for retail nowadays and only one shows any effort.

[kgchampion]

My Walmarts and Targets have been pretty good lately because of the exclusives. But it seems they only get big hauls of generic stock quarterly.

But in the 2010s I realized that there are just long stretches where nothing new comes in and I made too many trips to Toys R Us where nothing new had come in. You gotta keep checking in at stores hoping they got new product on the shelves. It really takes the fun out of collecting. I don’t like hunts where I find nothing. I only like finding what I’m looking for, but that’s pretty rare.

It was different when I was a kid, because I liked several different properties, so I could always find something that piqued my interest and my collections were always kinda small (except for Marvel but that stretched across several toy lines in the early 90s). Today I only collect WWE Elites.

[jokerjohn]

With how prevalent online shopping is now you would think these big companies would offer better in stock products on thier websites. Target is pretty good for Legends but not for regular elites and ultimates.

[Mongo Bears]

Oct 13, 2024 20:19:22 GMT -5 wrestlingcollector80 said:

Another good one was Ames. Used to have decent toy selection . Zayers was alright.

It was spelled Zayre’s. That’s where I’d get all my gijoe’s back in the 80’s.
Child world was also a place similar to toys r us it just didn’t last as long. But I never bought wrestling figs back then. In the last 10 years though the retail experience has gotten so much worse with being able to find figures. I hate it and it’s made me pretty much quit collecting and along with all the rereleases too ☹️

[Flair Forever]

Oct 14, 2024 16:46:08 GMT -5 jokerjohn said:

With how prevalent online shopping is now you would think these big companies would offer better in stock products on thier websites. Target is pretty good for Legends but not for regular elites and ultimates.

Target has been downright terrible in 2024 as far as stocking Main Line Elites, PPV Elites, and Main Event figures. It's really bothersome because Walmart doesn't do such a great job of stocking these either;

It truly seems like Mattel is trying to force product into the stores through Shippers, and so the "Big Two" Walmart and Target decided to stock even less because they get the shippers.

But it seems like neither store is doing a good job of keeping up with demand for these.

We were always told that New Main Line Elites come out every other month. So we should be seeing new Main Line Elites every at least every two months.... but Walmart/Target only seem to get new stuff every 4 months or so and then a shipper in between (which is a random crap-shoot).

I truly wonder why Amazon doesn't do a better job of stocking the Main Line Elites. Seems like even they rarely get the new stuff anymore.

[AxelSmackdown]

I miss K-Mart and Toys ‘R Us. I feel like Walmart used to be better at stocking WWE and Targets I’ve gone to within the last couple years or so just suck anymore, too. When I go to a specific city that has Targets I just don’t bother anymore unless my girlfriend wants to go.

I miss my dad taking me to another city to go to another Walmart and let me look for new figures. I remember once I got E5 Swagger and maybe some others, not sure, from a specific Walmart. Now I go to that Walmart and it’s loaded with UE Ortons, Greatest Hits Scorpion Rock and Superstars Kane.

I miss actually finding something I wanted. scalping and fake returns.