I had a split childhood, in that right around first grade (1980-81) my parents moved us from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Akron, Ohio.
In Milwaukee, not even a mile from our house were the big three of my childhood: Target, KMart, (literally on rival corners) and Toys R Us (two blocks down the road). But where did I buy my first Star Wars toy (an R2-D2 action figure, by the way)? Some crowded up little store called Treasure Island.
Little things I remember--seeing vinyl-caped jawas at TRU (but not getting one! When we went back, they were gone, only later returning with the big brown cloaks), rows and rows of Star Wars figures on the shelf at Target with the POP stolen off the corner (for mailing away for Boba). Getting a Turret/Probot Playset at our KMart in 1980, two years before Kenner even put it in their catalog.
Also trips to the mall. My Landspeeder came from Sears. Finding the cantina wave at KayBee, and convincing my aunt to buy them all for me. The first bunch of Empire figures (alas no Yoda...) at Kohl's.
Then we moved to Akron, and everything was different. Guys at school didn't believe me when I told them I had IG-88--no one here had seen him. the Turret/Probot playset became even more widely held in awe. Bought my first Ohio Star Wars toy--Bossk!--the morning after we arrived, at a grocery/department store called Click's that is no longer in business (today the store is a Goodwill).
There were no Targets or TRUs in Akron, and I don't remember going to KMart in those early days here either (though I'm sure they were always there.) The big player here, filling Target's spot, was a chain called Gold Circle (see JJ's post) they had Star Wars on sale all the time it seemed, and most of my later ESB and ROTJ figures came from there. Finally got Yoda (with the brown snake) and a Taun Taun (impossible finds back in Milwaukee) on my first trip there. The store I went to has changed hands quite a few times over the years, from Hills to DIY Lumber, to the freakin' Main Library while Akron refurbished our downtown site. Currently the place is vacant.
Several months later my parents discovered Zayre's. That's where I found the AT-AT driver and 2-1B to complete my set of 1981 figures. Between them and GC, I was able to keep up-to-date. Today, that Zayre's is a Value City. I've been there once in the last five years.
Taking the place of TRUs around here was Children's Palace ("a super toy store and a whole lot more"). We didn't really get to go there until later on--it was way out of the way, the only time I'd see it was when we were going to the bakery outlet store, and then I'd beg my mom to stop as we drove by. She rarely caved in (because face it, if she did, it meant she had to buy us something.) I got my first ROTJ toys there--Bib Fortuna and Weequay--and little bits and pieces more. They really helped out in the Transformers years. That store is now an RV lot.
A few years later a Children's Palace opened near our local mall, like 86 or so. A few years later, TRU came to town, opened up a store across the street, and drove them out of business. TRU remains, Children's Palace is now Value City Furniture.
At the mall you'd find a little store called "the Hobby Store" that had toys but they were really expensive. I looked, but didn't shop. There was a Rizzo's toys that closed soon after I arrived--I remember seeing an "Action Display Stand" in the ESB package for the only time there. Not much else until the nineties, when a KayBee finally opened there. But they did have a twenty-foot-tall snowman named Archie who you could tell your Christmas list to. That was cool (and the teenage girls they picked to wear the elf suits and walk you to Archie were always HOT!) This is the first year without him in the area, and I have to say, it's kinda tough on everyone.
(especially those poor unemployed teenage girls...)
In the summer we would always visit Wisconsin for a week or so, (not really Milwaukee, as family had moved to the Fond Du Lac area). It was those trips that helped me keep a full collection. Whatever didn't make it to the Akron area was invariably available in great supply in Milwaukee. I'd look forward to those trips, socking away money, and buying so much stuff that you just couldn't get here. In '85, as the line was ending, I bought my last vintage stuff, Amanaman, Barada, and the Skiff, on a trip out there.
Last year my fiancee and I visited Wisconsin together, and I spent an afternoon tracking down my old neighborhood in Milwaukee (seeing as I was all of 6 at the time we moved, I didn't exactly have a great mental map of the place). It was a blast seeing my old house again, and also seeing that the same old Target, KMart and TRU are still standing. (But tell me, why was I dissappointed when I went in the TRU and didn't find any vintage Kenner toys, only pegwarming Saga junk?)
