I'll probably never be as happy again as I was as a kid

>>6131352
When malls were cool.

Instead of Westworld, they should just recreate a peak era KB for me to run around in. I miss it.

>tfw you never bought any of those 10" Toy Biz X-Men figures when they were 3 for $10

When I was a kid the only thing I liked about KB was that you might find toys that were several years old when all the other stores had long since got rid of them. I remember seeing TMNT figures there in like 1999 and Robotech figures there in like 1993(!).

I could tell even then that the prices were a fair amount above the other stores, though,

I loved looking around KB Toys as well, but man was their shit overpriced.

I never noticed their prices being any different than other stores, but half of what i bought there was stuff I never saw anywhere else so was usually willing to pay whatever the price was. This was before everyone was buying off the internet after all.

>>6131365
It was great for buying toys that got rebranded, like Transformers, TMNT, and a few other things, since they'd clearance out EVERYTHING before bringing in the new stuff.

I got my Armada Unicron for 27 dollars, and the toy wasn't even that old.

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>>6131384
The years of armada being current was when I found some of the coolest shit there, including medabots and zoids. I remember them selling an opened armada optimus to me without the minicon for like 1 dollar and i lost my mind.

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>>6131352
>I'll probably never be as happy again as I was as a kid in middle school walking around with my little brother finding cool stuff at KB toys.

Guess who you can thank for that?

>KB toys
>get like 5 things for 10 bucks because they always had near-free sales

They had xevoz basic sets for 2 dollars each when I was younger, I bought so fucking many.

>>6131352
KBs was magical. I remember buying the entire line of Toy biz Resident Evil, buy one get one free.

I remember seeing the Palisades RE stuff another time, too, and I passed. So stupid...

I do miss it, but I always hated the dim lighting in ours. It lead to some weird nightmares or dreams where I always felt rushed, like they were closing...

>>6131389
With the retail industry as it is it would be dead by now anyway.

Yeah

I would go directly to the mall and this would be the first place I'd visit after school just to avoid verbal abuse from my stepmom.

Yeah, their clearances were pretty dope. I remember buying the entire line of Exo Squad Robotech reissues at like $25 for everything. I was a huge early mecha weeaboo in the mid-late 90s so that was a big deal.

Sadly I still have more of those than actual Macross toys because motherfuckers be expensive.

>yfw kenner jurassic park toys section

>>6131356
This. When mall where more than just clothing stores from one end to the other, because nothing upset me more than going to a shopping mall or outlet and realizing there's no toy store.

>>6131462
my mall fucking sucks now, it may as well be a fleamarket, but it was glorious when I was a kid. Shit even had a two story carousel.

>>6131352
RIP KB Toya

>>6131469

It's all clothes and makeup at our mall now. Even the Disney Store left. Fucking sucks.

>>6131492
We have a Build a Bear and that's about it for toys. It's sad seeing kids begging to go to the puppy store instead when all of those puppies come from puppy mills.

>>6131506
>Puppy store

holy fuck we had one of those in a different mall and it was horrible after I learned what puppy mills were

TMNT mecca back in the day. Got probably 60% of my collection there, easily. Always well stocked. I can still remember being in there for certain purchases, like the cave-turtle figures that came with ride-on dinosaurs, or getting the military themed turtles when they were marked off 3 for 5. Insane.

I remember absolutely loving the LARP stuff they had too, like those robotic skeleton claws you'd put on your arms. Came in both grey & tan. They had a crude almost animatronic-like functionality. Then there were the many samurai, knight, ninja, western, etc. sets. I really dug all that shit.

Used to 'bug' the hell out of my mom with the many fake spiders they kept at the counter, haha. They were smart to keep candy up there too, catch you on that sugar impulse. Definitely the good 'ol days, shopping-wise.

Anyone remember Caldors? Just another run of the mill department store, but the one in my area always had a badass toy section.

>>6131506
>>6131515
In irony that supply and demand keeps that he'll going. its so fucking crazy how dependent we humans are on animals.

>>6131430
In addition to the poor lighting, my KB Toys seemed hellbent on cramming as much inventory into the store as possible. It didn't faze me as a kid, but I noticed how cramped the aisles were as I got older. I'm pretty sure they also had merchandise stacked way too high. Still, I almost always stopped in when I got dragged to the mall.

>>6131527
OP here, i remember as a kid in kindergarten my dad took me to some small family owned toy store somewhere. When i was in a different aisle he threw a giant spider over the shelf towards me. I screamed.

>>6131515

We had a pet store next to the first KBs in my hometown mall when I was growing up. I remember they had a big display window in front and at one point they had a fucking ringtail lemur in there for a while.

>>6131557
>any type of monkey at all

That's so fucking cool but if friends taught me anything it's that monkeys are horrible pets

>>6131469
I no longer have any reason to go to malls. The best cinema isn't in the mall, no game stores anymore (gamestop left awhile ago), I can get brand clothing for cheap in other places, and no toy stores.

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>>6131359
There's a comic store in my area that could pass for a KB.

>>6131492
The Disney store was never any good. Give me a Warner Bros store any day.

>>6131572
>WB store
my absolute nigga
when they still had one of these at Bluewater it was fantastic

>>6131492
Same, we were shocked when our Disney store left, they never even changed the storefront from the old early 2000s stage look even though now it's a shit clothing store. At one point it was even a Toys R Us outlet.
We used to have a KB Toys that got rebranded over a few times but it eventually died and got made into a dollar store.
We're lucky enough to have two gamestops with staggered inventory and doubled midnight releases though.

>>6131572
>Warner Brothers store
I remember going into one back in the early 2000s, I don't remember where it even was but it had some cool space-themed thing that kids could play on in there.

KB was great for the exclusive stuff Playmates would release to them under their discount subline and Kenner would dump there as repaints.They were my go-to place in the 80's because Toys R Us was too far a drive. I still remember buying my Masters of the Universe Snake Men there.

The problem was they'd constantly over-order and as mall rent went up they eventually starting charging like 5-6 dollars more than everyone else.

I still miss walking by their storefronts and seeing the cheap electronic rabbits and backflipping dogs and penguins climbing stairs.

>>6131538
>dragged to the mall.
When I was a kid I LOVED going to the mall, which was usually like once or twice a year when my mother wanted to buy shoes.

And KB was the #1 reason why I loved the mall (others were the Space Port arcade and Waldenbooks which was the only bookstore I remember when i was child. This was well before Barnes and Noble and stuff.)

>>6131572
When they first opened both the Disney Store and Warner Bros Store were basically two sides of the same coin. They both used to stock exclusives plush toys along with stuff like framed animation cels and high-end goods like watches and tableware. Now WB is gone and Disney is all toys, toddler costumes, and plastic tumblers.

The Sesame Store was neat but it was sad constantly seeing the tongue ripped out of the Oscar they had in front of the store. Fucking kids.

>>6131572
>>6131582
The one in the Mall of America had a large Marvin the Martian's rocket in the back of the store with a wall of monitors playing Looney tunes above it. As far as I can remember you could crawl into the rocket and there were just some buttons and shit at the control panel you could push.

Man, KB was good memories though since that was back before you could just look at toys on the internet. The only info you had for toys was the back of the boxes and KB carried a very different selection than target and even TRU. I remember me and my brother loved it because it was the only place we could find Monster Rancher figures.

>>6131609
I've never been to the Mall of America so they must've had that same setup in other stores, it was probably in Florida or something while I was on vacation.
Speaking of, why is Florida the only place where malls aren't horribly dead?

>>6131572
It's always cool seeing displays like this irl but it's usually ruined by how ridiculously overpriced it all is.

>>6131582
As for the WB store, yeah, that shit was based as fuck. The one in my mall had 1:1 scaled Gremlins on display. Not sure if they were replicas or originals (they were up super high so if they were legit, they were safe) but it blew my balls off seeing them every time.

>>6131609
Their willingness to carry stuff other retailers didn't want was probably their major redeeming quality. Even if a lot of it was shit they also carried a lot of licensed stuff that other retailers were unwilling to put in buy orders for and generic unlicensed stuff from independent companies. Figures based on the unreleased Gen 13 animated movie, a line based on the Syndicated Robocop tv show, Mortal Kombat figures from some unknown back when nobody else would touch the brand. They even carried Chap-Mei in the U.S. long before Toys R Us started repainting their stuff as an in-store brand.

Now a toy company can't survive unless they get into Toys R Us or Walmart. The decline of KayBee also helped bring down struggling companies like Palisades and Zizzle.

KB had the best clearances. They had ExoSquad for years. Ronin Warriors a plenty. I got some Bots Masters toys for a buck a piece.

>>6131645
Yeah but it's got a Legoland.

I miss it too, I also miss when Spencer Gifts in the mall had cool stuff like figures and movie memorabilia. Now they just have college trash and sex toys. Fye isn't too bad, but they can be pricey.

>>6131352

Remember the mall pet store? Usual near the toy store. Good times.

>>6131352
This was my favorite store growing up until it was replaced with a "sports collectibles" store that barely had anybody in it

Malls had pet stores?

There were three huge malls near me (in New Jersey so kind of a famous region for malls) and none of them had pet stores.

>>6131515
>tfw work in pet supply store and every time people ask 'do you sell puppies here?' I have to physically restrain myself from telling them places that sell them get them from mills

I miss how big Toys R Us seemed as a kid. Maybe it's just that I'm older, but half the store seems devoted to toddler supplies (and it's not even one of those ones that's half BRU).

>>6131725

Back in the day. Back when America meant something.

Fuck, I remember playing Aladdin on the SNES at KB in the mall when I was a kid and another kid walked up and taught me the code that allowed me to skip to the final boss. I was so fucking excited.

>>6131637
Yessssss. We had a KB Outlet Store and my friends were into Ronin Warriors, so they were happy with their presents that year.

>>6131588
>Waldenbooks
I really don't feel so alone about remembering these stores now. I sort of miss that place.

>>6131741
It was bigger. There was a point where babies R Us didn't exist and toys took up the entire floorspace. The bicycle and power wheels section was larger and more prominent.

The Burbank CA toys r us is still very similar to this old layout with big isles dedicated to single franchises

>>6131747
>>6131588
>waldenbooks

I used to sit in there and read the new monthly issue of toyfare because I didnt always have 6 bucks for it

Children's Castle
Family Toy Warehouse
Discovery Zone
Tilt
Aladdins Castle
Pocket Change
Spencer's
National Record mart

>>6131786
Children's Palace, Hecks, Hearts, Hills

>>6131725
I still know of like three malls in Jersey that have pet stores in them, except now they're done through things like the SPCA.

>>6131786
Tilt?

Deerbrook Mall?

Who remembers Louises in Queens NYC? I use to buy Captain Power, Transformers Action Masters and the 89 version of He-man.

>>6131588
>Space Port arcade
Fuck man I remember when an arcade in a mall was a staple.
Consoles and PCs really fucked over the arcade scene.

>>6131786
Spencers went from "don't go in there honey" to "THAR BE DILDOS AND PENIS-POPS and crazy rave lights in the back" to "HAHA BRO I BET I CAN DRINK ALL THIS BEER THROUGH MY ASSHOLE" really fast

>>6131786

Fuck yeah Aladdin's Castle! I even had my birthday there a couple years... God, I may still have some of their tokens...

>>6131365
>I remember seeing TMNT figures there in like 1999

I think that was actually a reissue series KB got exclusively. In fact, a lot of these weird late releases KB had where actually exclusive reissue/ recolor sets they'd get.

Anyone else grow up in Asia...?? There was this lone store ran by a grumpy old man but he had some of the best Japanese toys selection. You'd have to ask him to take something from behind the glass case. That was where I found Dunbine as a kid, I saw it as a toy first.

Toy stores in my hometown back then were already hobby shops that only sold import toys. When I moved to the US later on it really was disappointing to see that it was a novelty instead of the usual standard.

How do normies even deal with malls now? How many clothing stores do you need?

Why is TRU express such shit? With their shitty carpet flooring, the bland metallic shelves, that dusty warehouse-like interior, and zero clearance sections. KB toys was pretty much the reason to go to any mall

I miss KB too. I occasionally still have dreams of stopping through there and seeing their slightly weird inventory. I actually found a Toys R us Express last year and memories of KB came flooding back.

>>6131389
Die in a fire Shit Romney.

>>6131747
>Waldenbooks
I loved that shit at our mall. I saved up my lunch dollars to buy DB manga as a child, since I could never watch it on TV. Ours turned into a Borders Express for a long time before turning into a furniture store and now some brand clothing store

>>6131584
>KB Toys
>penguins climbing stairs
My memory associates the rabbits and dogs with a thousand other things, but holy shit the penguins brought back a flood of memories
Ours was pretty rad, and it's actually one of my earliest exposures to game pricing. They kept their games behind the counter so noone could run off with them, and I blanched at how much they cost. Honestly though I had no frame of reference. I got a couple Hamtaro figures there at their height, wish I'd picked up more.
And I'm PRETTY sure it was KB that I was walking by around 1999 and they had a rack hanging out into the mall a bit to act as a lure for Tamagotchi. My mom asked if I was interested since I was looking, but I was too cool for Tamagotchi at that point and said no I couldn't believe they were still making them.
It was the Ocean I looked at, which easily go for $300 now

That location is some bouncy house place now

>>6131389
Bain?

>>6131786
>Discovery Zone
It was this and one other place like it that was hot shit for like five years before disappearing. I remember having one party here-- it was awesome.

>Spencers
it is the weirdest damn feeling to remember Spencers when it mostly sold lava lamps and those electric wave lamps, and being told not to go to the back behind the curtain, because that is where they keep their 18+ stuff
My awesome lamp is from that trip to spencers
do they even sell those crazy wave lamps anymore

>Pet Shops
Noone in my area (or around it) has or has had a pet shop in a mall. The first and only time I've run into that was on the other side of the state a few years ago, and I was like whaaaaattt

>>6131800

Crap, I meant Lewis. It was a five and dime store. Had a little of everything but that's where I bought many toys in the late 80's-early 90's.

Who remembers Sukons?

I remember Christmas of 1993 and they had a whole shelf of PR Zords (back when they were scarce). I was too embarrassed to ask for that since I was 12 and SUPPOSE to stop buying toys.

Not even on the US but the same shit happened over here.
>have huge toy shop on the city's biggest mall, back when it was the only functioning mall in the country
>literally called The Toys Store (El Jugueterïa)
>it has everything, though I was born a transfag and only cared about transformers
>sadly, i'm a poorfag during a huge fucking recession that almost killed the local economic system though there are still malls because richfags gonna rich
>can only look at the toys and leave
>randomly closes one day
>it becomes another fucking clothing store

I don't recall actually buying anything but I still loved going there.
I'm so tired of all these fucking clothes and makeup stores.

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Goddamn this thread.

The nostalgia is giving me so many feels. The 80's & 90's were the greatest time to be a kid in America. Where did it all go wrong? Why is the world now all about smart phones, SJW's and Bazinga? All I know is that everything started to change for the worse back in 2007.

I remember having a Babbage's and a Funkoland in the mall at one time, and they both carried toys at that time, too. I still kick myself for not buying that Epoch Link and Epona from Babbage's...

>>6132004
I'm not one to say all the THE 90S WERE GODS GIVEN ERA but yeah 2007 was amazingly polarizing for shit

>>6132004

-Modern social media
-Parents killed Saturday and Weekend cartoons because they're too lazy to do actual parenting.
-Toys themselves got super expensive such that we now got hollow deluxe class Transformers at $15-20.
-The rise of the hipster who likes things "ironically" and pay for urban vinyl
-Giving in to political correctness
-The religious right was mostly defeated and the SJW left took its place.
-9/11 made it hard to watch movies with collateral damage and not think about that.

>>6132004
We were born at the precise time to experience the peak of 80's/90's pop culture as impressionable kids and then become jaded, self-hating adults right as a huge generational culture shift took place. In other words we're going to make our parents' bitching about "kids these days" look like nothing.

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>>6132004
every generation looks best by those how grew up in it.
I'm sure kids today will think this is the best and the future generations life style as garbage

>>6132052
>the bitching

We already are, wait till we're in our 60s and these kids are our nurses/doctors.

The whole "grandma what was music (top 40 obviously) like when you were young" thing is hilarious when you think about questions like that and current stuff

I think TRU bought up a lot of what KB Toys left. I've been to a few TRU "Express" stores in little shopping mall like areas out of state and it's basically a KB Toys. They even have the same metal and stuff is overpriced too~

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>>6132037
>Parents killed Saturday and Weekend cartoons because they're too lazy to do actual parenting
It's the flip causing that. Fewer parents are letting their kids sit glued to a screen TV or otherwise and take them out. It's double the activity since the 60s, also Movie seats on weeks with family have been on an upward climb. If anything neglectful parents created Saturday/weekday baby sitter channels for bad parents. And those bad parents still exist they just use streaming like Netflix and hulu which is greatly helping some toy brands get back on market.
>Toys themselves got super expensive such that we now got hollow deluxe class Transformers at $15-20
I see all you deal with is likely TFs and anime stuff. TMNT toys are still bi sellers and are still under $10, Pokemon merc has stayed at cost, same with Lego, Cars and hotwheels.
>The rise of the hipster who likes things "ironically" and pay for urban vinyl
That relates nothing to kids nor toys they buy but in irony that was born from McFarlane getting into the toy biz in the 90s, he's a big factor to why urban vinyl exists where he was the strongest flag ship for adult collector toys of the 90s.
>The religious right was mostly defeated and the SJW left took its place.
Right that's why Hilary won right? Read some history, you'll discover this is nothing new. every few years it seems like the sky is falling because group X is in charge only to flip again.
>-9/11 made it hard to watch movies with collateral damage and not think about that.
I take it you haven't watch much Disney Marvel shows? Hell EMH? Star Wars Clone wars series and rebels? Half of adventure time? Hell even Steven Universe has a lot of collateral damage

what's happen is you are getting old and the world has "changed" You don't like it because it's not the world you had.
To summarize:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV0wTtiJygY

>muh generation was the best!

Trying to look at it objectively here...

I have made the point on /vr/ before that being born circa 1980 was the perfect age to 'grow up with video games'.

NES at the perfect target age, hitting SNES RPGs and arcade fighters at about middle school, Playstation at high school and PC gaming was pretty great early 2000s when you were old enough to own your own computer.

With /toy/s though I might say it could be better to have been born mid-late 80s to early 90s. 80s toys were pretty rubbish honestly for the most part especially earlier in the decade.

>>6131454
I remembering seeing that giant red t-rex at KB's and wanting it so bad.
>>6132004
yeah man. I'm sure life seemed just as fucked back then, but as a kid everything seemed so careless and simple. the closest thing we had to cell phones back then was fucking gameboys.

>>6132086
The issue is toys and even cartoons you have a lot more products over the years and it's a lot more personal.
Games have milestones of tech spikes and the argument can be arranged with those levels such as your debate that the 1980 up is ideal because the toy/kid focused gaming era started and the tech ladder. Some could/would argue that 1990s be better because the pioneering of online world that happen and the game it brought. But regardless we have clear lines as to how people debate that.
But toys? Hell some only get hand me downs others get whatever is popular and others still get what was clearance out. That creates a mess of differences but as you see in this thread most of the "muh" is focusing on what their childhood was. They haven't matured enough to take that old phrase to heart: "You Can't Go Home Again" You can love your childhood, it was your childhood, it's good that it was happy, but the thing is time moves on, the generation after you doesn't have it better or worse in the novelties of life, they just have their version. Accept you had what you had and love it but don't fight it as some better world because you only show how much you feel stuck and failed in the world you are in right now. Yes we'll miss those days, but lets keep our eyes to the days to come and the good we can have with those, and if you can't see any good in your future I think we can all agree toy stores are not going to fix that problem.

>>6131352
KB was always a clusterfuck of toys with waaay too tight aisles, but I always dragged my mom in anyways. Think I got most of my Kenner ayyliens there.

>>6132086
>born in 1982

>constantly felt neglected because my 20-something parents were always playing the Colecovision

The local malls are all like 50/50 cell phones and fast-fashion anchored by a department store, WalMart, and/or Target.

My nieces and nephews always look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them the malls all used to have stores that sold organs, tobacco, candy, toys, and books.

I had to explain to someone what Woolworth's was a few days ago.

>>6132092
>but as a kid everything seemed so careless and simple. the closest thing we had to cell phones back then was fucking gameboys
I like how my grandpa put it once to my dad when dad was bitching that my youngest girl was "so lost in her tablet"
>You know, when I was young ,to pass the time we would carve wood, scrawl on paper or read books that's all we had but damn, would we get lost in that.
>When you were young it was toy cars and comic books, I was always having to take those books away to get you to pay attention.
>Your boy it was gameboy and that laptop when he got older
>Now grandkids have smartphones
>maybe, just maybe son, it isn't these new things are awful and ruining us, maybe we are just pissed they have it better? Or maybe we just don't understand it because we ain't ten no more and having more free time than sense isn't something we deal with anymore. No matter what son I will say this: kids will always get lost in things around them, no matter what. So let Samantha enjoy the damn game.

>>6132127
What WAS Woolworths? I mean, I was alive when they were still around, but I don't remember much about them other than they had a toy aisle and I would sometimes wander over there to look for stuff if KB had nothing good that day.

>>6132130
Really smart dude, your grandpa. Respect.

I missed when toy isles actually had toys in stock. Now you want to find that Legends Gnaw, you'll have an easier time getting in online.

>>6131786
The mall I went to in the 80s as a kid had an Alladin's Castle, KB toys, and a Waldenbooks bookstore

Video Games, toys and comics.... it was glorious

>>6132130
Your grandpa speaks the truth, but at the same time I still argue that there was an elegance in the simplicity of the 90s especially. It was that bridge between the glory days of the 80s and the shittyness of the 2000s. It was the golden era of video games because it was that perfect time where they were advancing from Pong-tier level games to the 8-bit era and beyond. We witnessed the dawn of gaming as we know it today as well as the dawn of tons of other pop culture phenomenons.

We're getting to the point where kids will read comics on a tablet rather than hold it in their hands and read it the way its meant to be. Kids will grow up with VR instead of Sega or Nintendo. Yeah, it ultimately boils back to "not muh x y or z", but ya know what, our shit actually made us think. it made us use our creativity to see past the shitty graphics and mold the worlds we played in our heads, rather than it be presented to us right in our faces, literally. kids are going to be less creative because of this shit, that's what I'm afraid of. We already see propaganda being spewed even from MTV now about white people being mean and evil. MTV used to be cool, just like everything else I mentioned. It feels like South Park's "everything becomes an ad" is becoming reality, and now ideals are being advertised.

wew, sorry, went a bit off topic there.

>>6132148
Yeah what the fuck is up with stock lately? Feels like my walmart has one tiny sliver of transformers stuff and it's all older shit, they never refresh. Even noticed it in my toys r us.

Maybe I'm in a bad area?

>>6132130
You have to take what >>6132179 is saying into account, there was an actual "charm" to the 90s because stranger danger wasn't a full on thing yet and kids weren't locked up inside houses fully.

Local arcades and to an extent some specific mall stores DIED because of stranger danger bullshit.

>>6132142
>What WAS Woolworths? I mean, I was alive when they were still around, but I don't remember much about them other than they had a toy aisle and I would sometimes wander over there to look for stuff if KB had nothing good that day.


A micro-department store. The closest modern equivalent would be Marshalls or Gabe's if you have one of those. Maybe TJ Maxx or Kohl's but less clothes-centric.

A lot of my childhood toys came from Woolworth's or K-Mart as those were a lot closer to home than the area that had the mall with the KB and the TRU across the highway.

Woolworth's selection was often a little behind the newest stuff and as years went on things got more and more closer to dollarstore junk.

>>6132179
point I was trying to make at the end is, kids used to be taught how to think, and toys and games helped them with that and reflected that concept. Now it seems like, just as technology advances and becomes more simplified, so does ideas. people going to school are now faced with "are you pro-this or anti-this" instead of "whats your viewpoint?". not only are our toys and games becoming simplified but so is our culture, and nuance is being taken out in the process. toys somehow reflect our state as a culture.

>>6132142
Woolworth's was like 80's K-Mart without the flashing blue lights or a pre-Walmart Walmart. They sold a variety of things for cheap (including, oddly enough, budgerigars) and most had a small diner inside or next door that was famous for its turkey dinners. As Walmart expanded and they started struggling their inventory started declining and by the early 90's they were half-empty and understaffed (picture K-Mart today) and they suddenly decided to close all stores back in 96 or 97.

>>6132004
I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice (or at least feel) that the real turn was around 2007. Huh.

>>6131615
>Speaking of, why is Florida the only place where malls aren't horribly dead?
Tourism.

So here in Orlando or in Miami the malls aren't bad, but near my hometown the Merritt Island mall is rundown and just clothing stores and Books a Million. And a Cobb theater which is not as good as the AMC used to be.

>>6131681
Spencer's is kind of garbage now, but they sometimes have cool stuff.

>>6131786
>Tilt
I miss the Merritt Square Mall having an arcade.

But even more than that I miss Mr. Arcade. The grandfather of my best friend used to run this place called Mr. Arcade. You would go there and pay $5 to play all day and they had almost a hundred cabinets with games ranging from Moonwalker to Street Fighter Alpha. And his uncle would set up the N64 in the front of the store and we would play Goldeneye multiplayer.

We would go there and just hang out all day on the weekends and during the summer. Eventually they weren't making enough money (around the same time most arcades started to go under in the late 90's to early 2000's) and dropped their lease. Now there's a CVS there.

>>6131901
>Why is TRU express such shit?
Because it's meant to maximize profit while minimizing cost, but taken to the extreme.

>>6132086

This is true. I was born in 1987 and grew up playing my parents NES and SNES.

I also happened to be a kid long enough to see the height of 1/6 toys at retail and Bandai bring the Gundam Mobile Suit in Action line to the US.

>>6132179
>I still argue that there was an elegance in the simplicity of the 90s especially
I think everyone would say that to what generation they grew up in. That the world was better in their era.
>It was that bridge between the glory days of the 80s and the shittyness of the 2000s.
See big flaw there, what made the 80s great? what made 00s shitty? You are stacking the game by standards you see rather than truths.
> It was the golden era of video games because it was that perfect time where they were advancing from Pong-tier level games to the 8-bit era and beyond.
That gets debatable however and preference kick in. A home arcade lover would say around the early 00s because arcade perfect ports happen and gone were the days of downgrades and awful load times. Other would claim growing up in the early 00s was when major game development happen like TES3, Deus Ex, Kotor, WoW and everquest. See how easy it is for one to see their generation as better?
>We witnessed the dawn of gaming as we know it today
"as we know it today" That could be said to every generation, in fact you sound like my dad talking about video film of the betamax era.
>as well as the dawn of tons of other pop culture phenomenons
Again every generation can say that and the 90s was when we hit stagnation and started to spin backwards with that stuff.

>We're getting to the point where kids will read comics on a tablet rather than hold it in their hands and read it the way its meant to be.
>meant to be
Big flaw there, there is no right way to read something, the story is the same and the only difference is what you are use to. To take that approach one could argue you can't read printed books and should go back to pre printing press and read only hand written books "as it was meant to be"

part 1

>>6132181
Toys are a loss leader for Walmart. As long as the section isn't literally on fire they don't care.

>>6132220
>Orlando

My brother are you also smoking that crazy artegon shit yo

ARTEGON IS THE FUCKING BOMB

>>6132229
>artegon
http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2017/01/12/artegon-marketplace-is-closing-for-good

Even as a little kid, i knew that place was an absolute ripoff. Prices were literally 2x higher there. It was a cool place but so expensive. TRU was way funner/better

>>6132225
>>6132179
> Yeah, it ultimately boils back to "not muh x y or z", but ya know what, our shit actually made us think.
no it didn't, the fact you are making these hop jumps show it.
>it made us use our creativity to see past the shitty graphics and mold the worlds we played in our heads
You are almost word for word of most 50 somethings anon "it made us use our creativity to see past the words and create a world in our mind, we didn't need colors or blimps on a screen"
>kids are going to be less creative because of this shit
I can site you two books from the 60s that said the same thing about TV and countless books that said the same thing about video games. You havev become your parents generation in a bad way anon.
>that's what I'm afraid of.
"old" people like us tend to fear that shit but guess what, what we are really fearing is that world is passing us by and we are being reminded we are going to be dead before them.
>We already see propaganda being spewed even from MTV now about white people being mean and evil.
I can find you some propaganda from the 18s about that to but it was Republicans attacking democrats over wanting Mexicans and immigrants to go back home. This is nothing new. period.
>MTV used to be cool
subjective more so that PC was their thing in the 90s.
> It feels like South Park's "everything becomes an ad" is becoming reality
Where were you in the 80s and 90s? We had hundreds of shows made to sell merc, that's all it existed to do, get kids invested enough to buy toys and merc and then they had adds in between that add.
>>6132185
We had stranger danger back in the 50s and it spike again in the late 70s. Also arcades died because home entertainment. It was a real killer because arcades survived well until the late 90s when most home consoles could 1 for 1 most arcade games, that and what parent want to waste X number of quarters at the mall when they could just buy the product and be done with it.

>>6132225
what I meant about the book thing, is, they're no longer "books" when they're on a screen, now they're just stories on a screen. books were designed to be read on paper, now that the text is being transfered over to the digital format, how can we even call them comic books anymore? might as well just call them comic stories.

if you read Harry Potter on a tablet, do you say you're reading a book, or just reading Harry Potter?

Thats the point I'm getting at here. and when a book is printed it feels like it holds more value. the writer worked hard for that to be published. its easy just to say you posted a story online.

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>>6132185
>stranger danger
>a term from 1966
Also wasn't that more a early 80s thing? I remember seeing a lot of PSAs in my youth that was warning about not trusting strangers or having parents leave their kids alone and I was born 76.

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>>6132209
>They sold a variety of things for cheap (including, oddly enough, budgerigars)
Holy FUCK, I just remembered this!!! It was like a long-dormant buried memory. It was surreal to see that kind of thing in a normal-ass non-pet store.

>>6132234
FUCK

NO

at least gods and monsters is getting a new store

>>6132242
>I can site you two books from the 60s that said the same thing about TV

Interesting. And you know what, I might agree with those studies if I read them, but I haven't. I'm no intellectual by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see Americans and people in general are getting stupider, not smarter. Nuance is dying and tribalism is taking over again.

>>6132255
I honestly had never heard of the place, but I'm here for school so when I have time off I go back home (to Cocoa).

It seems like it would be pretty cool.

The best shopping district I've been to was Pike's Place in Seattle. There's a pretty big comic shop there.

>>6132246
>how can we even call them comic books anymore? might as well just call them comic stories.
How about just "comics"? I agree with most of what you were saying but that's just a stupid complaint. There are so many advantages to reading things digitally that the only counterargument people are left with is "muh feel of paper".

>>6132247
The movie "Adam" struck absolute horror into my mother in the early 80s. And when i went to kindergarten in the mid-80s I remember an entire class course about 'don't talk to strangers.' I remember my reaction to this was actually saying in class 'they should give us guns or swords to fight the strangers!' What a time. They couldn't actually tell us they were pedophiles out to rape and murder us so instead 'strangers' were portrayed almost like cartoonishly shady villains.

>>6132246
>is, they're no longer "books" when they're on a screen, now they're just stories on a screen.
and before books it was just stories told by storytellers and bards.
>books were designed to be read on paper
No they were designed to tell a story, back in the 11th century they were on tablets hanged in areas of keeps and lodgings.
>and when a book is printed it feels like it holds more value
For someone fearing "everything is an ad now" you have some weird logic about consumerism.
>the writer worked hard for that to be published
And many now get recognized way easier thanks to digital being there, no longer is their story block by publishers and landmasses, they can self publish and make their money and no author would see means to share art as a bad thing.

You are painting a clear picture what the real issue here is: You were born with books, they were what you had, but now they have grown old and a new way to share stories has come. You hate it because you grew up with the old ways, these new ways are just awful because you can't understand it. When the truth is this, a good story is a good story where it read on a cloth hanging in a castle, heard by a bard trying to earn coin, bound in paper and ink, or digitally created for a screen to be read on. That story is still good and the technology hinders nothing.

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>>6132254

Remember when Petland has THIS?

>>6132256
Not that anon

>but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see Americans and people in general are getting stupider, not smarter.

This is wrong though. Read up on the Flynn Effect.


>Nuance is dying and tribalism is taking over again.

This is wrong too. The situation we exist in now is no worse than in the past. It's the same thing when people say we live in a "post fact" world. We've never lived in a "fact" world! There's always been "fake news", there's always been people who were uninformed or misinformed, and there's always been propaganda arms of the state pretending to be news outlets.

We are literally living in the most informed and intelligent era of humanity.

>>6132246
Ehh, I'm not the guy you're replying to, but I think you're a little mired in the past here. I love books. I spent the majority of my childhood (and even most of my teen years) with them. And even I can admit their flaws. Books are heavy to tote around. They're unwieldy. They are extremely easy to damage. Best believe that I upgraded to an eReader when they came out, and I've never looked back.

Sure, there is a definite pleasure to the heft and smell and feel of a physical book, but I'll save that for my nice bound copies at home that I take down and look at when I want to savor the experience. For everyday reading and reading on the go, tablets simply make much more sense.

Also, I kinda wanna note that a lot of your defenses here are either heavily based in opinion rather than fact (ie, a book has more value when it's printed) or they're sorta...irrelevant little details (like what you CALL a digital book). For the record, they're called eBooks. And no, I wouldn't mention that if I were telling someone what I read, that's just weird. Do you announce to your friends that you recently viewed The Avengers on BluRay Disc™?

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>>6132256
>but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see Americans and people in general are getting stupider
we used mercury to treat pretty much anything for over a hundred years. Parasites were used as a weight loss drug in the 1800s, fucking Bloodletting that killed our first president. We are more staying the same than getting dumber. No anon, the world isn't worse, just you.

>>6132256
>I'm no intellectual by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see Americans and people in general are getting stupider, not smarter.

In all likelihood the general public was never any smarter, its just that things are more open and visible and you can see how dumb most people are. Conversely, there's a lot of kids who take advantage of the stuff this deluge of information given to them and are able to do things like programming or creating things, purely out of novelty; when 20 years ago a kid doing so would be called a prodigy. Only a few decades ago most people's schooling capped off at high school.

>>6132037
>-Parents killed Saturday and Weekend cartoons because they're too lazy to do actual parenting.

That was just cable, and now internet. No reason to wait for a specific time to watch cartoons anymore. Saturday morning cartoons started dying once Cartoon Network and Nick got a bigger foothold.

>>6132281
> Only a few decades ago most people's schooling capped off at high school
and a few decades before that completing high school was like completing college.

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>>6132267
JFC YES

....actually, I think I saw that thing for sale at Woolworths as well. I stared at that thing many times but in my childish brain, I couldn't justify a purchase since I didn't own a fishtank. It really looks like a knockoff Zoid, and actually, having just Googled it, it seems like it is...? Unbelievable. Seems like there were even a few repaints.

>>6132238
I'm old enough to remember when TRU was the more expensive of the two. >>6131584 is right about mall rent fucking KB almost as hard as Shit Romney.

>>6132284
I specifically remember the death of Saturday Morning cartoons being 1992 when NBC got rid of their cartoon programming for 'TNBC' which was all live action Saved By The Bell shit.

Our local cable (Comcast) didn't have Cartoon network until close to the end of the decade but I do remember Nickelodeon stepping up their cartoon programming at this time with Nicktoons. Still, in my recollection at least, the early 90s was a dark age for cartoons and I would pinpoint the revival sometime in the late 90s when Cartoon Network finally veered away from constant Hanna Barbera reruns and introduced Toonami.

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So many memories of Kay Bee...
As a kid in the 80s i got a ROTJ Skiff Gaurds 3-pack, shit was so cash at the time.
As an adult I remember getting the Mcfarlane Matrix Sentinel for $15
TRU and KB sometimes had different paint jobs on their Spawn figures. Chicks would be more revealing, dudes would be 'blood splattered'.
SICK candy selection at the register.
I found War Planets figures on clearance.
Bin loads of Gundam MSIA @ $3 ea
Reissue Skeleton Warriors and Earthworm Jim

Still got some old bags in my collection (pic related)

>>6132286
exactly. college degrees are now almost as useful as high school degrees. young people go to college to achieve a piece of paper rather than an education.

how can we trust the people we're putting in these positions if their intentions to achieve their majors aren't fully genuine and moreso based off of pure selfish desires rather than passion for their selected career? you gonna let a dentist who just graduated from school operate on your teeth? or someone older and more experienced? maybe age isn't the only thing going on when you make that determination...

>>6132281
>Only a few decades ago most people's schooling capped off at high school.

Even now most people don't go beyond high school. Only about 1/3 of Americans have at least some college.

>>6132295
>He didn't watch Kid's WB or Fox Kids
Nigga you missed out on some good shit.

>>6132299
>Bin loads of Gundam MSIA @ $3 ea

I wish I had a time machine. Trying to plug holes in my MSIA collection gets expensive because everyone thinks an incomplete figure they played with until it fell apart is worth $100.

And then some of the best versions never got released in the US, like the second version GM and Zaku II or the Extended MSIA figures.

>>6132308
There were a few good shows on those channels. I especially liked Teknoman (the Tekkaman Blade dub) on UPN. Still a low point compared to the end of the 90s imo.

>>6132281
And now it's getting worse. Now a bachelors degree isn't enough, now they also want internships, and co op.

I'm actually screwed right now since I do have an internship, but no co op and I only have two semesters left.

>>6132295
>Still, in my recollection at least, the early 90s was a dark age for cartoons

Nah, it was amazing. Fox Kids, with BTAS, X-Men, Animaniacs, and The Tick, and disney throwing their hand(and budget) in the ring giving us some of the best animated tv cartoons with gargoyles, Ducktales, Darkwingduck, Talespin, etc. Despite being more relavent to this board, the 80's where a darker era for cartoons.

>>6132304
>how can we trust the people we're putting in these positions if their intentions to achieve their majors aren't fully genuine and moreso based off of pure selfish desires rather than passion for their selected career?
That's been people for centuries anon. Most don't become doctors to help people. They do it for the cash and "job security" This is nothing new.
>you gonna let a dentist who just graduated from school operate on your teeth?
Dentist (and really any medical field) have to go though an apprenticeship and are handheld quite a bit. It's like how family practice has a senior staff that watches over the other doctors. You got to go third world to get even get the chance at a"first day on the job" dentist with no oversight.

>>6132315
b-b-but, it always been bad, anon..... don't worry bout a thing, everything gonna be alright. you could always have the black death or some shit.

>>6132295
>>6132318
There was no "dark era" there is just what we like, what we grow up with and what we don't like.

>>6131352
Remember when nearly every peg had a different type of toy, or toy line, or size of toy in a toy line? Except for TMBT, which always had a minimum of four pegs.

>>6132319
>That's been people for centuries anon. Most don't become doctors to help people. They do it for the cash and "job security" This is nothing new.

The fuck is the purpose of the doctor's pledge then? You honestly believe someone's gonna go through years of medical school if they're not passionate?

The problem isn't, and no one is claiming, that its just starting to happen now (people being less passionate and more motivated by $$$), it's that its becoming more frequent.

My brother's girlfriend went to art school for 2 years, then realized it was useless and wasn't going to land her a job anywhere. So now she's going to med school to do x-rays or some shit. Bear in mind she has 0 experience whatsoever and never cared for it before then.

This shit wouldn't be happening if college was either more affordable or other jobs were more available.

There's 40 and 50 year olds working at McDonald's. This type of shit might not be end of the world tier bad or new, but its still not good and not a bright future to look forward to, regardless of how bad its been in the past. Like who gives a fuck how bad it was for my ancestors 200 years ago. They're dead.

>>6132322
I'd argue early-mid 90s was legitmately a dark era for cartoons as the big networks ended their Saturday Morning programming and afternoon cartoons began to leave the smaller channels too. Less cartoons were being shown, which is why the dark age. Not a subjective preference. WB/Fox/UPN's single weekend mornings and two cable channels (Nick/CN) had to carry the torch and CN was legitimately shit endless Hanna Barbera reruns until 97/98. CN didn't truly get rolling until 2000 or so, actually.

>>6132331
>You honestly believe someone's gonna go through years of medical school if they're not passionate?

Yes. People do it all the time. People go through STEM programs even if they're not passionate about the field. People pick up trades even though they're not passionate about welding or pipe fitting.

For many people quality of life and income so they can do the things they actually enjoy in their time off is a major part of the equation when considering very education or training intensive occupations.


>it's that its becoming more frequent.

Can you cite any scholarly article to back this up?

>My brother's girlfriend went to art school for 2 years, then realized it was useless and wasn't going to land her a job anywhere. So now she's going to med school to do x-rays or some shit. Bear in mind she has 0 experience whatsoever and never cared for it before then.

She sounds pretty smart honestly, or at least smart enough to realize after investing two years into a shitty program that the art field is about your portfolio and networking and not about your degree.

And why the fuck do you care if she's not passionate about being an x-ray tech? Being passionate doesn't pay the fucking rent. Getting a job that pays well does pay the rent and leaves you with enough money or time to do the things you are actually passionate about.

>There's 40 and 50 year olds working at McDonald's.

There will always be adults working in the service industry.

1. Service industry businesses must be open during times minors and students can't work, such as during the week in the mornings and early afternoons.

2. Working adults are 10000000% more reliable than teenagers and students. The employer won't have to work around their class schedule, worry about meeting legal requirements for breaks or max hours, and they're more likely to come in on their day off.

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>>6132331
>You honestly believe someone's gonna go through years of medical school if they're not passionate?
Read up how many malpractice suits happen in a year. Also that was how the campaigned to get more doctors back in the 30s when their were fewer attending schooling for it "be rich and needed" is basically what it was.
>its becoming more frequent
I disagree I'm with the anon that stated it's just you can see it more clearly know, we are more self aware (or at least can be) then we were in older generations. You couldn't just dig up the data on screen 30 years ago.
>My brother's girlfriend
That's anecdotal evidence in a bad way anon.
>art school for 2 years
That's not all that surprising, my mom did similar before switching to Bioreasurch because that was the trending money maker of the 60s.
>This shit wouldn't be happening if college was either more affordable
Actually looking at most people it's a safe bet it be the same or worse.
>or other jobs were more available
This doesn't fix your claim either
>There's 40 and 50 year olds working at McDonald's.
We have fewer elderly in the work force than two decades ago, also you don't know how they got their. A lot of people fuck up their own lives just fine without outside help.
> but its still not good and not a bright future to look forward to
You think anyone had a "bright future" anon?
29 crash
WW1
WW2
Missile crisis
Race and gender riots of the 70s
70s Oil Crisis
90s IRS
and on and on, every generation, every human is faced with a wild world that has no certainty. There was never a better time, we were just young and innocent. You have been face with the world and maybe it's crashing on you but there was no better time, just evils of another color.
>who gives a fuck how bad it was for my ancestors 200 years ago. They're dead.
So why obsess even over 20 years ago. That time is dead as well anon. You are dying every minute, what are you doing with that time?

>>6132209
Woolworth's was the shit
sold pets and toys

>>6132342
>Less cartoons were being shown
actually we record highs thanks to CN, Nickelodeon and Disney channel
That one anon summed it best, everything just moved to cable and now to streaming.

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>>6132331
>My brother's girlfriend went to art school for 2 years, then realized it was useless and wasn't going to land her a job anywhere.
And you see that as a bad thing? You really want people to follow passions even if it means they will live a worse life for it?
You're a NEET aren't you?

The Spencer's near me was always a dumpster for nothing but college party supplies and "erotic novelty use only" products. But it was also right next to a college campus.

>>6132295
I remember that point. There was also a point where Disney pulled all their cartoons off non-Disney channels, or my local stations just chintzed out on licensing network programming. Cable in my area didn't have Disney Channel or Cartoon Network until the late 90s or early 00s. I stopped watching cartoons because there weren't any on TV.

ITT: I was born in le wrong generation, dae le old 80's/90's thing which is now technologically and culturally obsolete, upboats to the left.

>>6132295
>1992 when NBC got rid of their cartoon programming for 'TNBC' which was all live action Saved By The Bell shit.

Im pretty sure that's when Fox filled the void and we got X-men, Spider-man, Power rangers, Ekk the cat, Big guy and Rusty, Animaniacts, Gargoyles, Aladden animated series, Batman, Tick.

>>6132402
Really I was getting a "back in my day" vibe.

>>6132402
Most of the posters in this thread are in their 30s, anon.

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Used to work in one of these, for about three years.

The place was really shit for fucking up paychecks and never ever paying certain employees for months. Especially seasonals, they would quit after a week when their check never showed up.

Still it was a fun place for majority of the year.

And one of our employees worked in the Waldenbooks across the hallway too.

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>>6132456
We don't really know that. Most here could be teenagers shitposting or rats running over a NEETs keyboard.

>>6132058
You would think so but next to no one looks back on the 70's fondly.

>>6132466
My mom does. She even has a facebook group where she nostalgias with all her old friends about it.

>>6132466
>no one looks back on the 70's fondly
Where are you finding these "people" because for starters most people that grew up in the 70s are in their 50s now.

>>6132209
I remember there being a shitload of -Mart type stores around in the late 80's early 90's period.

Beyond Walmart, Target, and K-Mart.

Roses immediately comes to mind, Zaire, Woolworth was the one with the grilled cheese counter, and at least two or three more in my town that I just cannot remember the names to.

>>6132004
Just a vague question, what WOULD it take for you to feel that sense of happiness again in the post-2007 world? And you can't use any resources from the past in your answer.

>>6132255
Gods and monsters sell shitty overpriced bootlegs in a few different areas of their store. I can't enjoy shopping there when I have to inspect shit to make sure I'm not buying something fake from China. The comics are good but I don't trust the other merch. I saw fake pokedolls and stuff straight out of aliexpress man.

>>6132477
A Roses moved in after my favorite Big Lots moved a few years ago. I have no idea what Roses used to be like, but that one is like a supersized Dollar General.

>>6132496
It was the exact same thing as K-Mart and pre giant Walmart.

Actually trying to look up defunct stores just to see if I remember anything. But lots of different K-Mart type stores were really common then.

>>6132499
>But lots of different K-Mart type stores were really common then.
yeah, Bradlees was a K-Mart type around my way. Then Caldors started springing up in a few places, and then Ames bought them all out but went out of business in like 3 months.

Then Walmart and Target moved in. Somehow that same K-Mart is still alive, though.

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>>6132477
>zaire
Zaire is the former Democratic Republic of Congo. You're thinking of Zayre stores. I was but a wee bairn when these stores were around. Zayre will forever be etched in my memory as the only store that carried pic related. Then they both disappeared. I think the one in my area became a Kohl's department store.

I also have vague memories of Woolworth, mostly of their aquariums and getting rainbow sherbet and bubble gum ice cream cones from the lunch counter.

Damn, I'm old.

>>6131572
>that badrock in blue

I was only ever able to find the red variant.

>ctrl-f kiddie city
>no results

>>6132540
>kiddie city
I remember going there exactly once as a kid, it was like 45 minutes away.

And my parents took me there to buy a Halloween costume, I guess they liked some advertised prices or something. I don't remember anything about the toys really other than the fact that Lionel train company owned them.

>>6132460
I used to work in one of these too! The worst performing store in the company no less. The only reason we stayed open was because the mall didn't charge us rent.

Loved that job

>>6131352
Mitt romney killed KB toys.

>>6132628
Explain this meme.

>>6132635
Through business dealings he basically killed KB

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OP here, damn I was amazed my thread got 160 posts in less than 24 hours. I was a fool to believe it would all be about KB toys though.

>>6132331
>The fuck is the purpose of the doctor's pledge then?
If people did things for the right reasons you wouldn't need a pledge dumb ass. Anything that ask a pledge or oath is trying to keep things on the up and up. Humans are selfish and opportunistic by default. However we don't like that so coping mechanisms come into play. The most common is to shame the generation that isn't yours, where it be the young person approach of attacking those that came before or the old person approach of attacking those that are coming now.

>>6132611
Hey I went from a B store to a C store and it was amazing. No one ever went in that mall. It was the most relaxing job I ever had.

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>>6132516
This reminded me that I used to want that Badrock figure really badly. I never did find it. Now looking back at it, the sculpt ain't great, and the articulation is so basic.

But fuck, when is anyone ever gonna made another Badrock figure? Probably never.

>>6132712
My store was so dead, and my manager so crooked, one day we cracked open a returned PS2 (when they were new) and slit open some games to play while we hung out and got paid. It was fucking awesome.

>>6132745
We plugged a PS2 into the little 13 inch tv in the Nintendo display and played games daily. When we were not doing that, we generally had either Episode 2, Fellowship of the Rings, Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, or Lilo & Stitch playing. I pretty much saw all of those movies so much during that time that I never really cared to watch any of them again.

Except the PS2 we had was a return that still worked. We also opened at least one of each game to use the box as a wall display so we had a binder of games behind the counter in that tiny locked cabinet under the register.

We had loads more movies in the back that were played on the training tv. Typically Clerks, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Brazil were the most played.

>>6132635
Meh, the idiota dont get that kb was already bankrupt by the time mitt got hold of the company. Romney basically bought up companies like circuit city and attempted to turn them back around, ir sell off the remaining stock and cut the loses.

High costs compared to walmart and target, coupled with high mall rent, and a shrinking economy with massive competition to low pay jobs has put most of the non vital retailers out of business. Sam goody, kb toys, suncoast, and so on. Online shopping has only compounded the problem for malls while alleviating troubles for consumers.

But its much easier for simpletons to repeate a mantra like bush lied people died, mitt romney killed kb toys.

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>>6132488
>what WOULD it take for you to feel that sense of happiness again in the post-2007 world?

I know it's an impossibility, but the answer one I've long thought about:

>Kill the internet.

Like I said, it's impossible. But the internet is changing humanity for the worse physically, spiritually, and especially mentally. Our brains our being rewired via our constant use of the internet to take in large amounts of data, but not to analyze it. Thanks to sitting in front of a computer, we're far more sedentary than our forefathers. Which leads to our current obesity epidemic and other health problems. And of course talking to strangers online will never replace actual human interaction, but we do it anyway, which leads us to a whole host of social problems. From NEETS to gross bizarre porn like shitting dick nipples, to a general sense of jaded nihilism in the world today.

The internet on the whole has done more harm than good to humanity. I could go on & on about this, but instead let me recommend the book in the pic for a better argument than I could make. In the end, the internet has fucked over my life, both inside myself and in the outside world. If the internet never came to be, I think we would be happier in the long run.

...And KB Toys would still be around in a brightly colored mall filled with a variety of stores selling a variety of items.

>>6133222
Hi Shittens.

>>6133222
>kb was already bankrupt by the time mitt got hold of the company
Oh look, another lie from Shit Romney, nobody could've seen that coming AMIRITE?

>>6133222
For someone who worships a novel you sure do make a lot of spelling errors.

>>6131572
What happened to the WB store anyway?

>>6133231

But the gross bizarre porn is why I connect with some of the people I do...

Skip everything: research self-enquiry for happiness.

>>6133435

Read all about it here:

>>http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-02-05/business/0102050014_1_studio-stores-warner-stores-aol-time-warner

>>6133231
And the fact that you're conscious to these effects doesn't alleviate any grief it's caused you?

>>6133222
As I understood it, it's more like:
>Buy company with credit but don't actually pay for it
>Use your new company to borrow lots of money and give yourself a big bonus
>Leave the company alone as it tries to pay off it's crippling debt or go bankrupt

>>6131572
I think I know this store. Is it in Arlington Massachusetts ?

>>6133541
>buy company with credit

God damn, I didn't think it was possible.

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>mfw I didn't even know KB Toys went under and I was looking for it at my mall a couple of weeks ago
I could've sworn there was still one there a few years ago

>>6133231
>that garbage post.
All I can say is this on par with the grumpy old men that hated all new technology. What's really funny is you sound like The New York Times in 1904 when the Telephone was mainstream tech.

>>6133618
How? They went under nearly a decade ago, it must have been something else (probably one of those shitty TRU express).

>>6132312
My nigga. This was my first anime and I didn't even know wtf was going on. I just liked that it had continuity like adult shows did, rather than one episode's story being independent that regular cartoons had.

Bless my fellow oldfags.

>>6133231
>Kill the internet.
>uses the internet

>>6133449
Best post in the whole thread, honestly the best out of 4chan.

>>6133231
>But the internet is changing humanity for the worse physically, spiritually, and especially mentally.
People have been saying that with every advancement in technology since the invention of the wheel
>Our brains our being rewired via our constant use of the internet to take in large amounts of data, but not to analyze it.
That's been said about books, TV and video games. Every new tech is seen as some brain killer.
> Thanks to sitting in front of a computer, we're far more sedentary than our forefathers.
said about TVs, Books, video games and trains. Yes trains.
>Which leads to our current obesity epidemic and other health problems.
Our health and weight issues that are nearly 40 years long are driven from factors not associated with the internet. The biggest one is cheapest of manufactured and processes foods and the rise of demand for healthy eating making it more costly. Factors after that are more tied to 1st world problems that have been here since the 1960s.
> And of course talking to strangers online will never replace actual human interaction, but we do it anyway
That was around in the past too, shutins and all that are not that uncommon in the history books, it was just years ago it was TV books and food. The internet didn't make or increase these issues it was just a new distraction to those poor sobs. A fool that throws his life away for the internet would have done so without it as well.
>From NEETS
NEETs as a concept is nothing new and dates back as far as the 1880s, even the term NEET is from the late 90s and was just a media buzzword.
>to gross bizarre porn
Read some books.
> to a general sense of jaded nihilism in the world today
1. jaded world likely reflects you and your confirmation bias. Because the current generation is saving up for retirement sooner, focusing on academics harder(statistically millennials have more college degrees then the last generation 3 to 1 and 4 to 1 on trade school skills) so It's not jaded.

>>6133231
>>6133669
2. nihilism is a buzzword anymore, just used to mean "why bother" that is not nihilism
3. Again as posted in point 1 nihilism isn't really there you are just seeing it to confirm what you want to see.

>The internet on the whole has done more harm than good to humanity.
Strongly disagree, the networking is there to help people on so many levels, from doctors and scientist to be able to share data and knowledge with each other instantly has been improving the quality of life exponentially.
>let me recommend the book
Nicholas Carr is both out of touch and a fear monger with his work. Also this guy is on the board for Encyclopædia Britannica a company that has been seriuos smashed by the free market the internet has given people with knowledge to where people don't need $100 encyclopedia sets, so to say he has a bias against tech is an understatement.
> the internet has fucked over my life
I disagree. You life is what you make of it. The intent didn't ruin you, you did, take it away and you still fall to something else and blame it for your damage. You made a prison.

>And KB Toys would still be around in a brightly colored mall filled with a variety of stores selling a variety of items.
Nah it was dying way before internet shopping was 30% of the market, they just used buzzwords that it was the internet because it sound better than "people are not the consumer whores from our youth"

>>6131352
I didn't like kb toys as much as I liked the discovery channel store

>>6133636
Some stores could have been bought and kept the name.
Hollywood video has been closed down for almost a decade but there are dozens of stores in the US that kept the name even though they are locally owned.

>>6133634
>you sound like The New York Times in 1904 when the Telephone was mainstream tech
was that the article that claim phones made conversion so impersonal and that it would lead to people never leaving their homes? I thought that was later in history.

>>6133691
Our shit little town only had a KB's, we were lucky to even have that. It was a one story mall, at that.

>>6131388
I've been looking for this toy for years and I will kill someone to get it.

>>6133727

OP here, yeah those figures are sick. My favorite memory of kb toys is getting the full set of 6 there actually. I had bought the first wave of 3 one night, (saved my middle school lunch money) and one of the workers there was this guy in his twenties. he could tell my mind was blown to find medabot stuff so he gave me a headsup to come back in a week because they would get the second wave in.

Hope you manage to find one anon. Ive been thinking of making a custom or two since they never made a third wave.

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>tfw you realize all of these youngfags will never get to experience an 80's TRU

I actually feel sorry for you millennials.

>>6133669
>>6133685
You would greatly benefit from spellcheck and some better grammar, my friend, but these are good posts. Thank you for laying down the truth so I didn't have to.

>>6133710
Our shit little town only had a K-Mart.

We had to drive 100 miles to the next, bigger, town that had a one-story mall with a KayBee.

>>6133817

I want to see more vintage toy shelves/isles.

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>>6133817
fuck man those pictures always kill me for the sheer amount of toys on racks

>>6132212
2007 was a big turn around on this site as well. That's about the time that normies and casuals started gaining computer proficiency and we had the Summer of the Bro. So many newfags, everywhere. What a terrible time.

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>>6133856
I'd personally love to see one of these pictures with Inhumanoids, as that is my biggest TRU aisle memory.

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>>6133856
still looks like that in the Philippines

>>6133871
But those are shitty toys.

>>6133895
Take it up with Hasbro. You can't stock what doesn't exist.

PlayCo Toys > Kay-Bee

>>6131538
>seemed hellbent on cramming as much inventory into the store as possible. It didn't faze me as a kid, but I noticed how cramped the aisles were as I got older.

This thread is making me super nostalgic but I really did enjoy the chaos at times the KB toys had with stock just overflowing the shelves and the bins filled with clearance figures.

So many lines of figures all just weaving in and out of each other, it was fun just to go through them and find something you never even knew existed. Walmart is the only store /toy/ related I can go beyond the internet and it's so sparse and limited and I just stopped going.

>>6133817

If I could go back in time, I wouldn't kill Hitler...I'd just buy a bunch of old toys I can't afford to buy now in mint condition...

>>6132028
>90s
>Last strong legs of malls, like this thread, KB toys, arcades, discovery zone etc.
>Playing outside with friends
>Getting up early/staying up late to catch something on tv
>Last era of payphones, newspapers, and magazines still getting solid use
>Movie/game rental stores
>Early internet being magic

If I did ever go back I would go "How the fuck did I ever live with this" but it still hurts that the majority of things I enjoyed back then are gone for good and only exist in my memories.

>>6133869
Its not only impressive that so many Joes are in stock, but that somebody neatly stocked the same figures together so you don't have to flip through the rack knocking shit all over the floor.

Is anybody taking pics of modern stores? I'd feel like a creep.

>>6133856
>>6133869
My guess as to why stores don't do this anymore is because of how fast toys have to move now. It used to be it was okay to have the same toy sitting on shelves for several years cause companies really only put out one wave of figures a year. Anymore they have to keep up with the latest trend and the manufactures constant pushing of new toys.

>>6132784
What other shit did you guys do?

Just proof that when given the answer to sadness, people won't do it because they're not ready, not because the solution won't work.

>>6133449

>>6133871
i miss your malls that would have like 3 great toy stores that were heavily stocked. and magoo's pizza.

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>Tower Records
>Sam Goody
>Suncoast
>EB Games/old Gamestop
>the WB Store

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>tfw my city still has multiple thriving record and book stores
Living with hipsters isn't ideal but it has it's perks.

>>6132299
You should do a youtube video going through those bags, it would be one he'll of a nostalgia trip.

>>6133817
>>6133856
>>6133869
>>6133871
This anon >>6134266 sorta made me think. DO any of you guys take photos of modern-day stores? Do you think 20 years from now we'd look back at those photos and reminisce about the long-lost year of 2017? Who knows, maybe the toy situation will be even more dire by then. Maybe toys will be relegated to like, a single endcap and nothing more.

>>6134594
People are consumer whores and fetish worshiping creatures (and I mean that in the nicest way). It will be a long time before toys will be reduced to such a small section. However, we are seeing an evolution to where it's becoming more a collector thing. Vinyl toys are getting more room at Walmart/Target and many TRUs have signs that would imply what we saw as the boys section is now more a collectors area. Honestly what we will likely see in future generations is confusion that toys was what kids use to do for fun "back in the day". Hell, I'm are already seeing that we students in HS where they toys are a hobby for some and the idea any kid plays with toys past 4 years old is rather strange. So I think 20 years from now young adults will be talking about how back in the 1900s kids just had plastic toys to play with.

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>>6132058
I'm not sure how to accept this.

On one hand, nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

On the other hand, people are spending more and more time isolated, not making any actual contact with other people except those they circlejerk happily with. Not to start shit with anything political, but go look at how accepting various european populations were with refugees before they actually got them wandering the streets in their local places (and speaking as a citizen of a city that got a shitload of refugees from various shitholes/warzones: wtf, the ones that came here never acted like the ones europe is crying about).
So it makes the newer generation far more naive and just look ignorant.

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>>6133669
>That's been said about books, TV and video games. Every new tech is seen as some brain killer.
But they are right.
Memorizing stories used to be a thing before books. Memorization in general (even education) was a thing until the 1900s, where they wanted people to be more creative and rational.
However, the amount of information and ease of being able to look it up INSTEAD of recalling it by memory is a step backwards in terms of brain development. So even things like contact lists, buddies lists, bookmarks, spell checking, etc etc is detrimental.
>said about TVs, Books, video games and trains. Yes trains.
Again, this is also true. And we've become even MORE sedentary by shopping online, instead of going to physical stores.
>Our health and weight issues that are nearly 40 years long
Sure, but it didn't actually become a thing until the past decade or so. Transfats, sugars, etc were much more common and LEGAL decades before without seeing those high increases in fatty fat fatso stats that are so common today.
>That was around in the past too, shutins and all that are not that uncommon in the history books
Sure, but the internet has actually given them a way to actually do shit without ever leaving their mom's BF's basement. They even pretend that socializing online is healthy.
To pretend that people haven't become more asocial is just plain ignorant when so many people are being called addicts toward the internet. We're just replacing too many things with the internet.

>>6134648
You don't want to bring Memorization here because that is a mess of a topic. For every source that said it help there are dozens that say it hurts long term function because you are basically pumping and dumping information without need.
>become even MORE sedentary by shopping online, instead of going to physical stores
I'm not sure that's a great example, most people that use store shopping as a means of social life tend to be broken and alone already.
>but it didn't actually become a thing until the past decade or so.
Disagree if you read up on the obesity epidemic you'll discover it's a term that has been used since the 80s and is a global issue, showing no signs of abating, as well as the cause of this epidemic remains unclear.
>Transfats, sugars, etc were much more common and LEGAL decades before without seeing those high increases in fatty fat fatso stats that are so common today.
speculation at best anon since we see a climb starting as early as the late 1950s. Also think what you are trying to arguing that people just sprung up obese in a decades time? You have any idea how scientifically impossible that is?
>Sure, but the internet has actually given them a way to actually do shit
You do understand that they would still live with their mom a losers without the internet yes? It was video games, before that TV before that books. A shut in happens regardless of tech.
>They even pretend that socializing online is healthy
No different than pretending socializing is bad such as what many shut in writers believed like Poe.
>To pretend that people haven't become more asocial is just plain ignorant
I disagree and to say it has happen reflects more of your ignorance of the world. Parents are taking their kids out to activities more than their parents before them, schools are funding more after school programs then ever before in the history of the US. What you are falling victim to is a mix of confirmation bias and projection.

>>6134621
>On the other hand, people are spending more and more time isolated
This is never really confirmed because most news that claims this either have awful sources or it's "experts claim" that is the equivalent of "the guys that agree with us"
>not making any actual contact with other people except those they circlejerk happily with.
That is nothing new, a lot of people usually just network with small groups with like interest. I'm conservative sand in my youth so were my friends, that was not some fluke so much as people never like to agree to disagree.
> but go look at how accepting various european populations were with refugees before they actually got them wandering the streets in their local places
That gets messy when you look at cultures abroad, there was a time in US history conservatives wanted immigrants illegal or no and liberals saw them as vermin coming to drain the country. We flip a century later and it reflects more of human agendas.
>So it makes the newer generation far more naive and just look ignorant
The newer generation always looks ignorant to the old just like the older generations look ignorant to the young. Both sides think they have it better when neither understand it's the same pile of shit.

>>6134648
To point number 14 of your pic: Workers not working and misusing time at work is nothing fucking new

My mall recently shut down their FYE. Now that's left is Spencer's, Gamestop, a gimped arcade, and a Regal Cinemas. However, they recently added a new candy store, a Party City, and a BAM.

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>>6134660
>you are basically pumping and dumping information without understanding it
fixt 4 u
And i don't disagree, but i think modern education is probably the best way of learning things (so far). However, the internet is still shit in killing our abilities in recall and actually is making us not need to understand what we're copying and pasting from our tablets.
>I'm not sure that's a great example, most people that use store shopping as a means of social life tend to be broken and alone already.
It's a great example, because it allows some people to just give up. Why leave your room to buy your latest Figma figure online and then bitch to the circlejerk when someone says something negative about it?
>a global issue
Like you said, it's a first world problem and if you look over at who uses the internet the most and who's getting the most fatso.... lots of correlations. Like you said, it was always climbing, but there's a sharper increase, and that has hit all age groups alike. If it was an eventual thing, it wouldn't have climbed like it did and certainly not within the decade where regulations made unhealthier stuff illegal.
> A shut in happens regardless of tech.
As said, it makes it easier for them to become shut ins and gives people who were in the margins to just fall out too. Even people who aren't shut ins spend less time socializing like humans innately socialize like, which does have negatively affect us.
>No different than pretending socializing is bad such as what many shut in writers believed like Poe.
Again, you're attributing rare/uncommon instances with something that is becoming more and more common.
>I disagree and to say it has happen reflects more of your ignorance of the world.
Nah dude, you're just ignoring the stats of how people socialize now. Using facebooks, IMs, messaging, etc instead of using their voice or/and face to face contact.
>misusing time at work is nothing fucking new
Again, sure, but it's more common today

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>>6134666
>This is never really confirmed because most news that claims this either have awful sources or it's "experts claim" that is the equivalent of "the guys that agree with us"
Hey, it takes a while to actually come up with solid stats on anything. Initial studies and research can be iffy, but when so many of them point toward a certain thing, like spending more and more time away from actual socializing, it's pointing toward a likely truth.
>That is nothing new
Again, commonality is prevailing when it's so much easier to create your groups based on what you enjoy circlejerking over.
>The newer generation always looks ignorant to the old just like the older generations look ignorant to the young.
I don't disagree, because there are so many things we learn thanks to progress, but i was talking about the naivety of people based on their ability to socialize.
>Both sides think they have it better when neither understand it's the same pile of shit
Pffft, are you telling me that a foul mouth kid on PSN is shitting on immigrants is better off shut in in his room instead of playing at a local arcade next to some immigrant beating his ass with M. Zangief?
Did you even grow up in the era when you had to socialize with other people to play the newest games? Muchless go to malls and other public areas to do things as simple as buy a magazine or book, where you had to go outside of your safezone?

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>all this nostalgia

Fuck yeah. I remember being a kid in the late 90's and early 2000's, we lived in a very rural middle of nowhere area (Dante, VA), and we would always travel to the mall in Bristol, VA (back when it was still around) to get the best stuff.

You had KB Toys (ironically right next to Spencer's) which had awesome stuff. I remember a lot of good toys from there. Digimon, Sailor Moon, Thomas the Tank Engine (hell, toy trains in general were awesome when I was a kid), Army men, Ninja and Western play sets, and various other toys that were awesome.

You also had a Tilt Arcade which was fuckin' awesome and had a lot of cool games, with FYE across from it. I got some cool anime from there, even bought my first hentai from the FYE in Bristol (the best part was that I was 15 at the time and the clerk didn't card me).

B. Dalton Books was there (great selection of manga and RPG books back in the day), and even the fucking Dollar Tree at Bristol Mall was good.

Shame it all closed down. Ironically, the Tilt Arcade was the last childhood store to close down, in early 2015, long after the other stores from my childhood had closed. In late 2015, the entire mall closed down completely and is still up for auction, last I heard.

The Kingsport Mall in Kingsport, Tennessee is still good. No toy store or bookstores, but they still have an arcade, an FYE, and a decent Gamestop.

Damn, nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

Pic related

Would you rate a vibrator a briquedo?

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>>6134732
>you will never get away with buying hentai as a young teenage hillbilly ever again

Fuck my life.

This may just be the nostalgia talking, but I do agree that 2007-2009 was when pop culture jumped the shark. (ironically, the experience of buying hentai when I was 13 happened in 2007)

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>this entire thread

Pointer,
Next to comment and gay

>>6134691
I think the last comment summarizes the deadlock of the conversation.
>sure, but it's more common today
How do you know that? And if proven otherwise what will you do? Accept it or arm another excuse? It's clear you will believe what you want to believe.
>>6134704
To summarize, I'm 36 married 13 years with two kids and have work at my Granddads comic store for the last 18 years of my life 7 of which has been actually running it. That kid shitting on immigrants? He will do that no matter what even irl, he's just not going to kill his social standings but he will still keep think that. It's been like that, people freak out over the Nov.8th election even though this isn't the first time an upset like that has happen in history and the source is the same, people think what they want to think, and they don't broadcast it if there is fear of rebuke.
>>6134746
Horrifying true. More so that they see it as a lost that the world isn't consumer whores of old.

>>6134607
I dont see any girls in the Neca aisle at TRU

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>>6134800

>>6134799
Come visit the north US west cost. Lot of girls in OR and WA into that kinda shit.

>>6134800
>>6134803
Sheesh it's hard to believe he was put up as candidate in the 08 elections

>>6134819
yeah and despite admitting he didn't care about 47% of the population, he still came close to winning. Conservatives put their fake god and their ideals above the people, like they did this year. They're basically a bigger threat to society than ISIS could even come close to being.

>>6134822
>fake god

Okay chump. Keep your edge to yourself.

It's cute when people come into these threads conditioned to scream "IT'S JUST NOSTALGIA!" and posting old quotes about "those damn kids" while totally ignoring that some thing genuinely were better in the old days. Especially in regards to our current society.

Stop trying to sound smart and work towards actually being smart.

>>6134862
If things were so much better back in the day we should just revoke gay rights and marriage

>>6134862
Fuck off to reddit, le wrong generation-fag.

>>6134865
We should.

>>6134865
actually gay rights weren't revoked and all that till the Clinton administration. Before 1993 gays could marry no issue.

>>6134865
We should, the government shouldn't be wasting time with that private institution. Want to make sure your property is protected when "married"? Make your own fucking contract you lazy piece of shit.

>>6134823
how is that edgy?
If you actually believe the stuff in religion, and not just doing it out of culture or familial habit, you're crazy.

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>>6134994
You sir, are a godless communist. Go back to North Korea, you SJW pig.

>>6134732
I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers the Bristol Mall.

Though for such a rural and relatively low population, the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee and Virginia had a mall in every city it seemed. Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City each had a mall despite all three of them being in close proximity to each other. I mean, Tri-Cities isn't exactly middle of nowhere, but it's nowhere near as big as Knoxville, Roanoke, or the other major metropolitan areas of Eastern Tennessee and the Western third of Virginia.

I think one of the things that killed the Bristol Mall was the oversaturation of the market combined with the general decline of malls in the late 2000's and 2010's.

>>6134743
>able to buy hentai as a teenager and get away with it

How did your parents react when they found out? I'm sure they'd be pissed if they knew back then.

>>6131352
I miss that shop. I loved the stands that'd display electronic toys outside the entrance like the yapping dogs and that penguin you that'd line up to go up and down a slide. They had some pretty cool candy too.

They really had a cooler, somewhat obscure selection than toys r us. I used to get my sailor Moon and card capture Sakura dolls there.

>>6134732

Oh shit. I just got hit by the nostalgia train. My mall, however, had Aladdin's Castle (so many weekends playing DDR), Walden Books, and a Sun Coast. These shops really made the height of my weeb days.

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Remember that fantasy shop that sold pewter wizards and dragons, crystal balls, knives and swords? I've got one of their old display cases. It says Rawcliffe Miniatures on the back.

>>6135181
I remember that there was a cool fantasy/tabletop gaming shop in the Johnson City mall back in the very early 2000's, which was cool (the rest of the mall was utter shit compared to Bristol and Kingsport)

>>6134497
>sam goody

I miss that store something fierce. That and later FYE would fuel my music taste as far as my physical collection, and they also had video game consoles set up and I could hang out in there, they also had tons of toys and hard to find weebshit.

It's the kind of place I'd MURDER to work at today, but they're sadly obsolete.

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>>6135181
Are those Vinyl Flintstones?

>>6134994
>If you actually believe the stuff in religion, and not just doing it out of culture or familial habit, you're crazy.

Sounds like you're an easily offended asshole, to me.

>>6135537
I remember figures just like that in shape coming from boxes of Pebbles in the 80s. However, i don't remember them coming in a large number vinyl toy style 'colorways' (just purple) so I am going to guess these are recasts for the vinyl collector market.

>>6135181
Yo what the hell is that huge bird skeleton on the top left, shit is cash.

>>6135547
Not anon but it's the same skelly bird they sold at Target on Halloween

>>6135531
>dream is to work slave wage retail
I see no upside to why you want to suffer dealing with customers and get paid nothing for it.

>>6134800
>>6134803
KB Toys' was once owned by Big Lots? Things suddenly begin to make more sense.Thank you for posting this.

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>>6135552
As someone who works retail, this.
It's not like in the movies at all. It's a thankless, soulless job.

>>6135552
Do you not know how relaxed that store was?

You're probably right that it would be nuts now, but the store wouldn't exist (and doesnt) now because of digital music/digital movies/etc

I'm sort of saying if it was the exact setting as it used to be, I'd love working there.

>>6135559
That's still really low hanging fruit. You could get skills as an electrician. Make several times more. Have it just as relax and deal with little of the public

>>6135557

The people you work with can really change how that goes. I worked at TRU for 8 years. The company is shit, but I worked with some really good people. Of course that began to change near the end as people started to leave, having been beaten down so much by TRU's uppers...

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>>6135537
>>6135546
>collectable vinyl recasts
LOL, no. I cant imagine there being a current market for Flintstone erasers.

Those are various one-of-a-kind rubber test pulls from the actual company that made them in the late 80's. My gf's Grandfather ran the company, so it's a neat family heirloom.

>>6135600
>a current market for Flintstone erasers.
You'd be surprised. Nostalgia makes people pay a lot of money for things and there's a rather strong market for 80s Japanese Keshi erasers.

Really cool story tho anon. I had the Fred and Dino from those boxes.

>>6134822
Like Carlin said, think how dumb the average person is and realize that half of the population is even dumber. That's America in a nut shell.

>>6135621
lol, don't pretend the average guy in Yuurup or Asia is any smarter.
I don't get the Americans are dumb meme at all.
Like you do know our universities are considered some of the best in the world, right?

>>6134822
Wake me when the GOP start beheading people, until then stay mad Democuck.

>>6135624
It's not that they are dumb.
It's that they blindly follow and make laws to enforce others don't do "what they we wouldn't"

>>6135638
That's every country. Some more than the US.
For example China's traffic fatalities are twice as much per unit inspite of them having fewer cars.

>>6135624
The meme comes from the power base.

>>6135624
I didn't say Europeans or Asians were smart. I said Americans are stupid. There's a difference.

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>>6133854

>>6135665
Americans are no more stupid than any other nationality.

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>>6133871

>comparing a 3 foot section to a 80 foot isle

I know you're jealous that you didn't get to experience the golden age of toy stores but at least try to say something that makes sense anon.

>>6135624
>I don't get the Americans are dumb meme at all.
>Like you do know our universities are considered some of the best in the world, right?

Also, cuckservatives exhibit serious cognitive dissonance thinking they're smart while they hate schools. The dumber conservatives get, the more of a case they make for dismantling our education system. And the more that education system is dismantled, the dumber conservatives will get. It's a vicious circle.

>>6135675
Again, it's not a comparison.

>>6132331
you don't need to go through the pain of med school to be an xray tech, probably just one of those vocational training centers
>it's that its becoming more frequent
probably less frequently in medicine now (at least primary care) since the money and prestige wore off some time ago. even passionate people are turned away from the field because of the shit you have to put up with, like patient quotas and 10 minute consults.

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>>6134789
>How do you know that?
Have you looked at the graphs I've shown you?
Spending more time on social media, more time online shopping, more time internet gaming, etc, etc. 99.99999% of that is alone time. This percentage is made up, but even looking at this message board is something you're unlikely to do when your friends/family/etc are hanging around you socializing. It's basic common sense.
>He will do that no matter what even irl
Unless that immigrant is being a shit, it's unlikely the kid would still be a ranting asshole or at least be sympathetic. Exposure leads to less hostility or you get used to them... unless they're actual shits, which most shouldn't be, because the vast majority of people behave in public. Online? Assholes everywhere.
>It's been like that, people freak out over the Nov.8th
Sure, but if you look at the places that vote for anti-immigration and other anti-foreigner things, it's coming from places that are less likely to have multi-cultural ethnicities. The less exposure you have to someone real, the more you can make up whatever shit you want about them. Guess how easy that is to do when you spend so much time on the internet and surround yourself with like minded people to circlejerk with, even if you live in a city with a diverse population?

I'm sure you as a retailer worker will have so many experiences of hating on certain people or everyone in general, but that's just how it is in retail. You get to see how conniving people can get, despite most of these people being decent else-times.

>>6135689
The dirty little secret nobody wants to hear is that many "smart" people'a business plans are increasingly dependent on dumber and dumber customers. They don't want you to ask what's in your food, where your phone came from, how that investment really works, etc. Just trust and obey. Every time a conservative "believes" in the magic of the free market, which requires INFORMED participants to function (completely contradictory to unthinking obedience), it's as dumb as believing in the magic of the Easter bunny.

Great, now when I think of my favorite childhood toy store, I'll be reminded of the whiny fags in this thread who blame society for the reason they can't go outside anymore.

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>>6131352
Wandered onto this board by accident, saw this thread. Now I'm sad, screw you anon, and screw you /toy/. I wasn't looking for these feels today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x09iOt7WMI

>>6135712
>Have you looked at the graphs I've shown you?
I have they are sensationalized and poor, most of those studies has less then a 1500 count group which is about the same as saying you ask a small town what they thought.
>I'm sure you as a retailer worker will have so many experiences of hating on certain people or everyone in general
not on my end but more on the flip, a lot of people want something to hate that isn't them.
>despite most of these people being decent else-times
Bluntly you see how honest people are from the retail end, you see how quickly they judge and hate, you get to see how charged they get at something as simple as another gender walking into the store and as a clerk you are playing bar tender and get to listen to them share what their life and many times it breaks down the same: they are a mess and it's something of the world that made them that mess, they need that illusion that they could have had a better life if born early when the reality is they would have turn out the same just with different vices killing them.
>>6135976
It's just one anon and he could be just playing an extreme devils advocate. I'm at least assuming as much sense most of his charts are first hits on google images for his topics.

>>6135996
>green friday
The store (not a toy store) I worked at a couple years ago called it 'Green Friday' and I thought it was just political correct renaming.

>Those cramped aisles
fuck I just had flashbacks of waiting -FOREVER- for women to get out of the way of the action figure aisle.

>metal Tonka trucks
Mine was one of the few weapons I had against my older sister.

>playstation
>nintendo 64
>1993
They got the date wrong here

I just remembered that KB was where I pre-ordered FFVII. I think the normal pre-order bonus for FF7 was just some printed map but what I got from KB was a T-Shirt with Cloud on it that I wore for years until it fell apart.

>>6136013
The Toy Story toys are a red flag as well.

>>6136022
Saw that as well, plus the green box star wars items. I think its around 1997-1999.

>>6136038
green box star wars toys were 1995.
It's a safe bet it's 96 where they are campaigning as hard as they are about the N64.

>>6136013
Yeah, I was pretty confused with the date when I saw the Buzz Lightyear toy and the GB display. Man, I loved that display. I forgot that they had game demos too.

>>6136045
I dunno. The n64 didnt need a push in 96 when it released. Couldnt find one until around march of 97 when i got mine. They later had big pushes because ps1 was blowing them out.

Also 96 star wars was mostly red boxes or the shadows of the empire boxes to tie into the n64 game. Green packages were starting to show up but were scarce in 96.

>>6131572

Looks like a Comics -n- Stuff

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>>6131389
How's that Oval Office, Mitt?

>>6136062
You got it backwards. They were saying they were going to have them in on green Monday like there was a scarcity for the store.
Also:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Power_of_the_Force_(1995)

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>>6131572
>>6133561
Not that poster, but I know it. Close, Slummerville. Going there is like an alcoholic walking into a discount liquor store for me.

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>>6131572
>>6136113
Actually, looking for photos of the place, I found this somewhat related one from a liquor store a couple subway stops down.

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>>6136118
aha. here's one that not too, but small as hell. had it on low res on my old phone for some reason.

>>6134348
We learned early on that running a night shift Christmas seasonal restocking crew was like running a pirate ship. They were shifty and could mutiny real quick and that would fuck everything. So we had a policy of bringing several six packs but absolutely everything had to be gone by opening. Andnothing could smell like alcohol at all. Then every 800-1300 piece truck that needed to be totally unloaded and stocked by 9am was actually completed.

The manager lived across the street from the mall so we typically went over there to go get trashed. There were a few times when we had a large party and around dawn one of the assistants would go wake up a few random people to go open or take care of the morning truck.

>>6133871
Is that a new Trypticon?

>>6135181
Yea Gwinnette Place had one of those. Collective fantasy shit and swords. All insanely expensive.

The same mall even had a Wizards of the coast store in it.

>>6135557
>>6135559
It's not a career by any means.

But as a first job or college job, music stores, toy stores or Spencers was pretty great at the time for an edgy teen.

Loads better than some gas station or a fast food place.

>>6136011
>I have they are sensationalized and poor
Like i said, theres a lot of studies out there that point toward people socializing less and less because of the internet being one of their main ways to socialize. Here's one with a couple hundred thousand being surveyed
https://www.heri.ucla.edu/monographs/TheAmericanFreshman2014.pdf
> a lot of people want something to hate that isn't them.
Duh? But that's the point. If you don't view who is actually in your community because you spend less time in your community, guess who's going to be part of "not us?"
>they need that illusion that they could have had a better life if born early when the reality is they would have turn out the same just with different vices killing them
I don't disagree, but this is something i personally don't see a lot of. Why? Because most kids are ignorant of the past.
However, there IS a high correlation with people not socializing like they should be. There is a high correlation with our brains not working as they should be because of everything being done for us.
It's like doing research now vs research back in the day. You used to have to communicate with a bunch of different people, use many modes of transportation and planning to get most things done. These are lost skills because everything is much easier to do today. The one with personal interaction IS a very important loss though, because it's is an innately human thing to do and lack of it has negative repercussions.

Every little thing matters. Like that thing about weight and how the internet makes us more sedentary. You were right that trains conditioned us do less exercising, then cars, and now even something as simple as walking in a mall. It positively affects our weight/BMI.
Everything adds up, same as social media taking over how friends are made and kept

>>6136011
>has less then a 1500 count group which is about the same as saying you ask a small town what they thought.

So long as sample selection is as random as possible 1500 is more than large enough of a sample size.

Once you go past a certain sample size the increase in accuracy is almost 0 and approaches 0 as N is increased.

So any issue of systematic error with the sample wouldn't be with the size, but the composition. I'm not trying to be an asshole but take a class on political science/sociology scope and methods. And if you already have, you should have paid better attention the first two weeks.

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>the good ol days
+ Toys were plentiful and filled shelves

-they were all 5poa gimmicky shit

>>6136288
>-they were all 5poa gimmicky shit
Toys in western retailers still are mostly 5poa gimmicky shit to this day.

>>6136288
>>6136297 is kinda right, we're moving back in that direction in some ways. And also, back in the "good ol days," I was perfectly happy with gimmicky 5poa shit, so I don't see a downside. Back then it was mostly about coming up with stories for them to act out and how cool a toy looked, not how I could contort it into every possible pose under the sun.

>>6131741
whats stopping you from telling them about puppy mills? Is it a store thing? I'd think spreading the info to the kind of idiots that go to a mall pet store would be good.

>>6136379
one of my local malls had a FREE SPEECH ZONE put in a dozen yards or so away from the pet store.
Such ronery chicks, because it's always chicks.

Another mall had other free speech zones and it also had chicks trying to get me to sign stuff about animals. I forget what it was about, but i said I'm okay with whatever practice they were speaking against.

Always meh chicks too. Never any cuties.

>>6134518
Wait, are you me in Troy, NY?

>>6136106
The video is from 97, the previous year they show at the beginning is from 96.

>>6133856
Stop killing my heart.

Remember when the stores had everything you wanted and you did not have to fight wit the hoarders for a figure?

>>6131741
>>6131768
This is really the best video I can find of that period of time for toys r us. It can be hard to see due to the camera angles and fast movements, but you can definitely see how different the aisles were set up.

Video games did not take up anywhere as much space as they do now, thanks to the card system. Take a card from the shelf and then take it to check out.

Not sure how many toys R us's were like mine but here we go. majority of the store was essentialy 3 big sections of aisles. I recall the middle aisles being much lower set then the two on the sides. Pretty sure the sides were mostly girl stuff, and baby stuff as well as stuff like sports and board games as well as other kid stuff that wasn't strictly toys. Middle Aisle I recall being mostly what was new and popular at the time. Jurrassic Park 2 had a large amount of space in the middle when it came out. Also when Pokemon came out they started to dedicate a big chunk of the middle aisle to video games.

The section I remember most fondly was the action section. Tucked away in the back right corner of the store, next to the bikes and power rides. This was where all the action figures and stuff sat. Most of the big franchises had their own shelving unit dedicated just to them.Jurassic Park IIRC was on the opposite side of the rack as Star Wars, which had an entire Aisle dedicated solely to that as opposed to a shelving unit.

When Gunbdam came out, they took up a lot of real estate. all the pegs covered in MSIA Gundam figures, while the lower shelves loaded with the model kits.

It was around the time the Gundam craze was dying down that the store underwent changes to the setup more like how it is today with boy stuff having a rather smaller section in the middle and the franchises getting space cut back and having to share room.

I would say around 2004 was around that time.

sorry for the wall of nostalgia

>>6136779
>This is really the best video I can find of that period of time for toys r us. It can be hard to see due to the camera angles and fast movements, but you can definitely see how different the aisles were set up.

forgot to post the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ_aY9U9o9w

>>6136779
>all the pegs covered in MSIA Gundam figures

I miss those days. Id get paid and go hit tru, grab a new gundam figure or two. They use to have a shelf of nothing but ww2 figures I would buy from time to time as well. DBZ had its own shelf, gi joe reissues had a shelf. Whatever marvel movie of the time had a big section and any figure you wanted was easy enough to find.

Now tru is more or less baby clothes, 3 aisles of boys toys, 3 aisle of girls toys, a section of legos and random assotments, and a video game section. You have to battle scalpers, army buolders, repackers, and the damn store staff to find anything good these days.

>>6136807
even Walmart had so many Gundam MSIA. and it felt to me like every month the selection was different. I never felt like I went there and walked away in a "welp same 15 different figures as last month'. I always had to dig through those pegs to make sure I knew exactly what was on the shelf for that visit.

>>6132086
>>6132220
I do think that perfect little spot for growing up was late 80s-early 90s. Cartoon Network was brand new then, and it mostly played tons of old syndicated stuff. This meant we grew up with a lot of the same entertainment people born in previous decades enjoyed.

A good number of toy lines in the 80s, mostly toddler age, saw releases of toys from the 60s such as Little People.

TLDR: I just feel like being born in the late 80s allowed one the perfect time period where you were exposed to a wide range of culture from the previous generations and your own current generation.

>>6136901
>and it mostly played tons of old syndicated stuff.
Which was mostly shit-tier Hanna Barbera garbage (except Johnny Quest, which was actually ok)

Despite the nostalgia of people born circa 1970-75 stuff like Herculoids and Space Ghost was shit and Wacky Races type stuff was despite a cool design or gag or two rather lame.

>>6136779
>When Gunbdam came out, they took up a lot of real estate. all the pegs covered in MSIA Gundam figures, while the lower shelves loaded with the model kits.
>It was around the time the Gundam craze was dying down that the store underwent changes to the setup more like how it is today with boy stuff having a rather smaller section in the middle and the franchises getting space cut back and having to share room.

These memories are on point, I recall it exactly like this.

>>6136781
FUUUUUUCK I always wanted to win this. Nickelodeon ran this contest for years. At least as early as the late 80s.

>>6136870
>even Walmart had so many Gundam MSIA. and it felt to me like every month the selection was different.

This was also true. Gundam stuff was coming into Walmart monthly at one point.

>this thread is dead

Just like KB :(

>>6137026
Hanna, plus the old looney tunes. That was the primary thing I was thinking of to be honest. That and stuff like Johnny Quest. Heck the remake of Johnny Quest allowed me and the man who was to become my now father to bond.

>>6133561
>>6136113
Slummerville is correct but they did have a store in Arlington as well for a while.

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>>6136288
>they were all 5poa gimmicky shit
Not all.

OP again, reading all of these tangents you guys went on has been hilarious. I appreciate all the good stories you guys posted.