So does anyone have pics of toy aisles from the 80s?

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E-Z-B

CAGiversary!
I posted this in the Transformers thread, but wanted to see if anyone had other cool pictures of toy aisles from the 80s. Ah, these were the days...

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[quote name='draven1089']OMG, look at those awesom G.I. Joe toys. The 80's when toys were made right.[/QUOTE]

Not only were the toys made right, the aisles are clean and fully stocked!
 
[quote name='draven1089']OMG, look at those awesom G.I. Joe toys. The 80's when toys were made right.[/QUOTE]
thats funny.

i felt the 80s where when the downfall of quality toys began.
 
[quote name='itlnstln']Not only were the toys made right, the aisles are clean and fully stocked![/QUOTE]

You have no idea how right you are. Toys used to always be in stock, they had lots of them and the stores were more organized and cleaner. I cant figure out why that it is. I mean its not just nostalgia playing tricks on me or anything, I can recall like toys r us always have a ton of inventory and everything was in order. Now when I go in the same toys r us we have had forever its mostly just a bunch of crap stuck here and there with no real orginzation and most of the shelves dont have much on them.
 
[quote name='gargus']You have no idea how right you are. Toys used to always be in stock, they had lots of them and the stores were more organized and cleaner. I cant figure out why that it is. I mean its not just nostalgia playing tricks on me or anything, I can recall like toys r us always have a ton of inventory and everything was in order. Now when I go in the same toys r us we have had forever its mostly just a bunch of crap stuck here and there with no real orginzation and most of the shelves dont have much on them.[/QUOTE]
The business model changed, Walmart came in and undercut everybody. Its easy to be super clean with a ton of inventory and a large selection when your margins are fairly high.

Toy stores almost don't exist anymore, you go to department stores now. Toys R Us figured out that baby stuff was still pretty profitable and beyond the hot selling toys, they don't care. They don't even bother putting anything on the shelves in the back of my Toys R Us.
 
Those photos are bittersweet to look at. They bring back so many great memories. I remember always having my jaw hit the floor when I used to walk into Toys R Us, Toy City, KB or any other toys store in the 80's and 90's. It was a sensory overload with so much cool stuff available; GI Joe, Dino Ryders, MASK, Superpowers, Masters of the Universe, Ninja Turtles, Micromachines, Boglins. Everything was always stocked fully and stacked high up to the ceiling. Great time to be a kid.

Toy stores are just sad to look at now. You don't see shelves stocked like that now a days since a good portion of stuff gets gobbled up and put on ebay right as it comes out. One big problem I've noticed is that parents have no control over their kids anymore and let them run around undisciplined all over the stores. It's hard to keep things nice and organized when little brats are knocking stuff off the shelves and opening up things in the middle of the aisles and playing with them.
 
Oh gawd...those pics bring back memories of what the Toysrus of yore looked like.

My local TRU sucks balls. It has nice wood floors, very few shelves, with hardly any toys on it. Half the floorspace is now taken up by baby clothes and other crap i'm not interested in. It now looks like some upscale yuppie women's clothing/maternity store, not the TOY WAREHOUSE that I grew up with. Its pretty sad when I walk into a toy store, and leave with out spending a dime, because there is nothing I want to buy, or what I want to buy isn't in stock.
 
that is pretty fucking awesome...I can still remember buying Joes for $2-$3 bucks each...now they are $7-$8 and worse quality
 
Damn that looks nice. This makes me remember when Toys R Us had aisles of tickets for games instead of games themselves - that was somehow magical, to take the last ticket. I've got a golden ticket, I've got a golden ticket~
 
[quote name='dafoomie']The business model changed, Walmart came in and undercut everybody. Its easy to be super clean with a ton of inventory and a large selection when your margins are fairly high.

Toy stores almost don't exist anymore, you go to department stores now. Toys R Us figured out that baby stuff was still pretty profitable and beyond the hot selling toys, they don't care. They don't even bother putting anything on the shelves in the back of my Toys R Us.[/QUOTE]

Yeah I know, its a real shame to.

Hell I remember toys r us by me as a kid had a entire isle of nothing but toy guns of all kinds. Dont really see toy guns anymore.
 
There's not a day that goes by that I don't wish I grew up in the 80s. I look at everything that came out in the 80s and I imagine there were a lot of people going "HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THAT!@#"

Seriously, the movies, the music, the games and just the pop culture as a whole, I don't think there's a better time for anything than the 80s.
 
[quote name='Moses144']Damn that looks nice. This makes me remember when Toys R Us had aisles of tickets for games instead of games themselves - that was somehow magical, to take the last ticket. I've got a golden ticket, I've got a golden ticket~[/QUOTE]

Indeed.
I loved that part of Toys R Us when I was a kid. I loved going in and flipping up the DISPLAY CARD that was laminated to see what the game looked like. I too had gotten the LAST GOLDEN TICKET a few times. I do miss those days. So much more organization then. You can say Walmart all you want but the average person became more of a slob and more lazy. I see people literally throw stuff in the middle of aisles on the floor. It crazy.

I also remember Kiddie City. Turn that Frown Upside Down. My best memory is I used to go beg to go all the time when I was a kid cuz they had a Turbo Grafx 16 Hooked up with Bonks Adventure and the Football game. I loved going in to play Bonk for 2 hours while my parents and 2 sisters went and looked for those dumb Barbie Dolls.
 
[quote name='gargus']Yeah I know, its a real shame to.

Hell I remember toys r us by me as a kid had a entire isle of nothing but toy guns of all kinds. Dont really see toy guns anymore.[/QUOTE]
What I miss are Supersoakers, not the junk they've got now but the legit ones from the early 90s to 97/98. They had a great variety of models back in the day, too. I had a CPS 2000 until somebody over pumped it and broke the pressure chamber, those things go for 300+ now used.

They came out with an "anniversary edition" of the Super Soaker 50 a couple years ago but they go for $100 on ebay now. Wish I didn't miss that.
 
wow that was trippy i could smell the toy stores lol and the smell of the boxes. damn shame toys arent as cool as they used to be. except for those remastered classic transfrmers.
 
[quote name='itlnstln']Not only were the toys made right, the aisles are clean and fully stocked![/QUOTE]

I'm guessing you didn't frequent K-Mart very often. Those places were (and still are) absolute dumps.
 
[quote name='Survivalism']There's not a day that goes by that I don't wish I grew up in the 80s. I look at everything that came out in the 80s and I imagine there were a lot of people going "HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THAT!@#"

Seriously, the movies, the music, the games and just the pop culture as a whole, I don't think there's a better time for anything than the 80s.[/QUOTE]

That's how I feel! I was born in 78, but my sister was born in 74 so I got exposed to all the music and MTV and all the stuff I normally would have been slightly too young for. God, Saturday morning cartoons were so great at the time (basically hours of poorly animated toy commercials).

Edit: I mean, I did grow up in the 80s and it was pretty awesome.
 
So awesome. Nice pics. I remember KB Toys(in the mall), ToyChest and I think another toy store in the mall that I can't remember the name....
 
I've told people this man times. I think I grew up right in one of the greatest modern eras to be a kid. Born in the mid 80's I was around right in the sweet spot for so many things. Mainly, the thing we had that today's world is sorely lacking are the absolutely awesome action figures. What was so amazing is how the people who made the TV shows we all were hooked on also had lines of toys and games. It was brilliant, they got us from so many different avenues and we loved every second of it.

Those commercials, man they got me every time. They made the toys look so cool becasue they had those sets that you never realized you could never get! Like those city streets and buildings and lakes and all of that crap. The marketing people back then were on point haha!

You could watch Ninja Turtles in the morning, go to the store later that day, look through the 50+ different action figures for the right one and go home so happy. Then they started making the games and then the Sega Genesis and the SNES came out and it was stunning.

Every freaking trip to the store was like some epic adventure, I was always excited. Remember how on the back of the boxes they had pictures of other action figures? Every figure was $4.99 and they actually had points of articulation and came with stuff. Now days, the toys are so sorry. You got figures who can't bend their arms or legs and they go for $8. Get the eff outta here with that mess! Don't even get me started in the toy guns, and stuff. We used to be able to actually buy realistic guns. Then I guess some foolish cops started shooting kids who were playing around with these things so they started making them look all goofy and bright orange with polka dots and crap. To hell with that. Cap guns were the ish!

I think kids don't have the same passion for toys either because gaming has kind of taken over. Now, I loved games as a kid as well but most of those games seemed tailor made for me. We got games like Ninja Turtles, Mario, Sonic, Rescue Rangers. Stuff that we were already into. I don't think kids that same experience today.

Ah, here's to memories.
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i think what made the 80s so great to be a kid was the cartoons conneced to the toys. i dont think one cartoon didnt have some form of toyline and as commercial as it all was it was awesome. see a new transformer or gijoe character in the carton you could buy them a few months or weeks later. and there were so many to choose from its sad to see how its all kinda fallen off. i havent seen any toys come out in years that had me thinking whoa.
 
I had that Technodrome. I was born in '87, so I was more of a Ninja Turtles/Power Rangers kid, as opposed to G.I. Joe and whatnot.
 
Born in 84. I just missed out on Transformers, He-Man, Voltron etc. but I came up with Ninja Turtles, X-Men, Ghostbusters, GI Joe, Toy guns, Happy Meals, and a dozen other things. I was an action figure nut, I could play for hours. My friends would sleep over and we'd play all night long. The Ghostbuster house was one of the best toys I had ever received. Everything went down in there!


Ahhhh. I can still remember that new toy smell! I was an addict!

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[quote name='dafoomie']What I miss are Supersoakers, not the junk they've got now but the legit ones from the early 90s to 97/98. They had a great variety of models back in the day, too. I had a CPS 2000 until somebody over pumped it and broke the pressure chamber, those things go for 300+ now used.

They came out with an "anniversary edition" of the Super Soaker 50 a couple years ago but they go for $100 on ebay now. Wish I didn't miss that.[/QUOTE]

So that is why those kids were looking for super soakers when I was garage saleing...I still have at least 2 of mine. I also have 2 motorized all black submachine gun style water guns with extra clips.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']I'm guessing you didn't frequent K-Mart very often. Those places were (and still are) absolute dumps.[/QUOTE]

thats what gave kmarts their charm. i loved how kids would try and hide shit beind ther toys or in other sections of the store in hopes of getting it later. i found alot of great stuff that way like that MASK scott and tbob set as well as that 57 chevy car. talk about a series with cool stuff.


http://www.albertpenello.com/mask/toys.html
 
[quote name='lokizz']thats what gave kmarts their charm. i loved how kids would try and hide shit beind ther toys or in other sections of the store in hopes of getting it later. i found alot of great stuff that way like that MASK scott and tbob set as well as that 57 chevy car. talk about a series with cool stuff.


http://www.albertpenello.com/mask/toys.html[/QUOTE]


HAHA! I know, it was crazy. There was always that one thing you wanted and you had to sift through to get it. Kids would steal crap too. I remember one time when I was little I was in a grocery store and they had a little toy section. I was looking around and saw some handcuffs that were missing. I had the box in my hand and was wondering who took it. Some employee came by and looked down at me. I looked up at him and said, "Look, someone took it!" He looked back at me and was like "Yea, it was you." Then he just stared at me and walked off. Freaking jackass. He made me feel bad for nothing.
 
[quote name='Calinks']
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Had that. Also I agree with what you said in your post. I wasn't 80's though, I was 90's. Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers whaddup
 
I took my nephew into Walmart the other day to pick out a toy for his birthday. Damn, the toys section was such a letdown.

Like the pictures posted, the aisles were floor to ceiling filled with toys when I was younger. Action figures were the best. I cannot believe how weak the selection was when my nephew and I went in. (Plus, there's no way I'd pay $10 for the sorry looking action figures they had there.)

I remember my Dad traveling around with me to track down the first April O'Neal Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure. Took us about ten stores before we nabbed the last one. I played with those things for years.

What's sad is that I don't think toys will have such importance to the current (and future) children. Look at all the guys that have come in here with their own stories; these were like your lifeblood as kids. Now, I see my nephews playing with toys for a few days before they broken/forgotten. :l
 
Pre-80's = Inferior materials, electronics, marketing, etc because they lacked the know-how.

80's = Convergence of excellence.

Post-80's = Inferior materials, electronics, marketing, etc because they used/developed the cheapest shit to maximize profits.
 
Oh man, this is so awesome! Stores today suck. I still have the Ghostbusters Fire-House, they sure as hell don't make toys like that anymore.
 
[quote name='slowdive21']So that is why those kids were looking for super soakers when I was garage saleing...I still have at least 2 of mine. I also have 2 motorized all black submachine gun style water guns with extra clips.[/QUOTE]

OMG I remember having the black machine gun waterguns, with extra clips. Mine was battery powered, and looked suspiciously like the real thing. My cousin had one that looked like a black rocket launcher, plus the machine gun. We used to go all around the neighborhood and local park during the summer and shoot each other up. Nowadays I'm pretty sure if we did that someone would call the cops, who would then come and open fire on us.

Oh yeah, we also had lawn darts with metal in them. We never skewered anybody.

I knew my childhood was over when our local newspaper reported a cop had open fired and injured some kids playing lazertag in an abandoned lot. Because you know, kids in shiny lazertag vests with huge plastic guns look just like criminals wearing bullet proof vests (which was the reason the cop stated for mowing them down).
 
[quote name='Calinks']Born in 84. I just missed out on Transformers, He-Man, Voltron etc. but I came up with Ninja Turtles, X-Men, Ghostbusters, GI Joe, Toy guns, Happy Meals, and a dozen other things. [/QUOTE]

I hope this isn't going too far off topic, but since you mentioned it, and we seem to be in full on 80's nostalgia mode... What the hell happened to Happy Meals? I remember when I was a kid that the toys were almost always awesome. (Does anyone remember the Changables? The little transformer type toys that transformed into McDonalds food items... One year, they even did dino ones.) Anyway, the commercials always used to say "A new toy every Friday". It was like a ritual for me and my mom. Every Saturday, we'd stop at McDonalds while we were out running errands, and I could get the newest Happy Meal toy.

Now, it seems like the toys keep getting crappier. Transformers toys that don't even pose, let alone transform. LEGO toys that are just prebuilt nonsense. On top of that, there's no logical release schedule. It's just a game of whatever they ended up with. When you could end up getting toy #7 on the first week of release, how are you supposed to find the one you did want?

I'll post more later to talk about actual toy store aisles including my old stomping grounds, Lionel Playworld. I just wanted to get that off my chest.
 
[quote name='mitch079']Child World/Children's Palace was another great toy store I loved going to as a kid in the 80s.[/QUOTE]

This. Circuit City would to buy their old buildings when they closed. There was also a toy store named Kiddie City that was cool.

I remember going to Child World when it was closing and basically buying every sky commander at 40% off. That is when the deal hunting began!


[quote name='Spacepest']OMG I remember having the black machine gun waterguns, with extra clips. Mine was battery powered, and looked suspiciously like the real thing. My cousin had one that looked like a black rocket launcher, plus the machine gun. We used to go all around the neighborhood and local park during the summer and shoot each other up. Nowadays I'm pretty sure if we did that someone would call the cops, who would then come and open fire on us.
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Probably the same ones I have. They had a curved clip like an ak-47, and I think they came with 2 extra clips per gun. They ran on 4 AA batteries that would go in the handle. I can;t seem to find a pic of them anywhere on the internet. I'll have to look for them...


(Does anyone remember the Changables? The little transformer type toys that transformed into McDonalds food items...
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This guy?

 
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[quote name='BlueWingX']I hope this isn't going too far off topic, but since you mentioned it, and we seem to be in full on 80's nostalgia mode... What the hell happened to Happy Meals? I remember when I was a kid that the toys were almost always awesome. (Does anyone remember the Changables? The little transformer type toys that transformed into McDonalds food items... One year, they even did dino ones.) Anyway, the commercials always used to say "A new toy every Friday". It was like a ritual for me and my mom. Every Saturday, we'd stop at McDonalds while we were out running errands, and I could get the newest Happy Meal toy.

Now, it seems like the toys keep getting crappier. Transformers toys that don't even pose, let alone transform. LEGO toys that are just prebuilt nonsense. On top of that, there's no logical release schedule. It's just a game of whatever they ended up with. When you could end up getting toy #7 on the first week of release, how are you supposed to find the one you did want?

I'll post more later to talk about actual toy store aisles including my old stomping grounds, Lionel Playworld. I just wanted to get that off my chest.[/QUOTE]

One of my aunts lives in Michigan. The first time I met her (when I was 4 or 5 or so) we went to her house, and she had floor-to-ceiling McDonald's toys in her house. Everywhere.

I was fascinated. The toys were of great quality, and most of them were extremely cool. That's what got me started on collecting them.

Back at my folks house, the attic and my old room are still stuffed with boxed up McDonald's toys. I've got a large amount of full collections, and remember everyone of the sets you mentioned. They were indeed awesome.

Seems like they've been dialed back over the years. I imagine they don't go after movie/cartoon licenses as much as they used to, and I'm sure build quality has went down (all to save money). :(
 
[quote name='Spacepest']OMG I remember having the black machine gun waterguns, with extra clips. Mine was battery powered, and looked suspiciously like the real thing. My cousin had one that looked like a black rocket launcher, plus the machine gun. We used to go all around the neighborhood and local park during the summer and shoot each other up. Nowadays I'm pretty sure if we did that someone would call the cops, who would then come and open fire on us.

Oh yeah, we also had lawn darts with metal in them. We never skewered anybody.

I knew my childhood was over when our local newspaper reported a cop had open fired and injured some kids playing lazertag in an abandoned lot. Because you know, kids in shiny lazertag vests with huge plastic guns look just like criminals wearing bullet proof vests (which was the reason the cop stated for mowing them down).[/QUOTE]


i remeber that story about the kid getting killed because of his lazer tag gun i also remember those cool electric waterguns that loked like real weapons and the push to get rid of all of them. fun while it lasted but like always because of one stupid incedent or accident all us kids got screwed over.
 
[quote name='lmz00']I remember those Changeables. I also remember Burger King having way better toys than McDonald's.[/QUOTE]

are you sure about that i remember mcdonalds having awesome ass toys. they had those muppet baby toys with vehicles. those mcdonald character pull back cars. hell they even had small transformers and lego sets.
 
[quote name='mitch079']Child World/Children's Palace was another great toy store I loved going to as a kid in the 80s.[/QUOTE]
LOVED CHILDREN"s Palace
 
[quote name='lokizz']are you sure about that i remember mcdonalds having awesome ass toys. they had those muppet baby toys with vehicles. those mcdonald character pull back cars. hell they even had small transformers and lego sets.[/QUOTE]


THe muppet babies toys were sick. However, I dont think they were with the happy meals. I think they costed a little more.
 
I saw some of my old Changeables in my parents' attic, last week.
 
I remember those changeables. They must have done a re-run in the mid 90's? I have the complete set but mine look nothing like the commercial ones.
 
The shot of that wall of GI Joe, circa 1983 or 84 or so, actually made my nipples hard. GOOD JOB OP!

I should also point out that those x-men figures (Man I have a whole attic of those things carded and boxed I think....what was I thinking!? :p) are from the early to mid 90's, not the 80's.

And I will also have to say that the 80's will forever go down in Toy/Action Figure history............but how could you expect anything else, when almost every
1/2 hour cartoon was designed primarily to sell toys? :D GI Joe and Transformers were 1/2 hour commercials, interspersed with real GI Joe toy commercials. Oh those were the days...

http://home.comcast.net/~headrusch1/commercials/Centurions_DepthCharger_WEB.mpg

http://home.comcast.net/~headrusch1/commercials/GIJoe_CobraRattler_WEB.mpg

http://home.comcast.net/~headrusch1/commercials/GIJoe_CobraCommander_WEB.mpg
 
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