Question for the those that grew up in the 80's!!!!

[Jesse James]

D'oh,

In all my rambling, I forgot Penney's and Sears as well.  Both had toy Departments, though as I recall, Sears only had one at X-Mas and their catalogue.  Doesn't seem like many remember shopping at Penneys for Toys though.

JCP, where I actually did my management externship, had a kick ass toy aisle in the one corner, and they had weird toys you couldn't find elsewhere either.  Sorta expensive though as I recall, but they were the ONLY place I saw Micro Collection.  Got my Bespin and Hoth sets there.  They also had the Dungeons and Dragons figures (poseable and the pre-posed pre-painted things) as I recall.

Very little otherwise though...  Catalogue had more.

Sears Catalogue had all the weird junk that I was told was a waste of money...  Sears Cantina, the Cobra base, etc...  In reality, they sort of were because cardboard didn't handle play well, but my older brother did get a Cantina because I recall the blue Snaggletooth.

I remember getting MASH figures at Sears Stores (another odd, uncommon toy) that I used as the doctors and civilians that Cobra would kidnap and G.I. Joe would have to save.    I had Winchester, Hot Lips, and Hawkeye.

I wanted the trucks, but every jeep or ambulance was broken in its box.  The playset looked cool too. 

Did anyone here collect STARCOM:  The U.S. Space Force?  This was a mid-80's toy, but not one I see many people into.  I have a pretty complete U.S. collection, but none of the foreign vehicles.  I loved STARCOM though.  There's a single site dedicated to them. 

http://www.nemesisworld.com/starcom/

I loved these things.  They're still some of the most creative toys in history if you ask me, and a great cartoon as well.

[Nicklab]

Jeez, I can't believe I forgot Ben Franklin?!  It was right next door to the movie theater downtown.  The movie theater where I saw Star Wars for the first time!  I remember getting my iron-on shirt for The Empire Strikes Back there.

[Lady Jaye]

Ahh the good ole days when department stores still had Toy sections!!! I still remember the now defunct Montgomery Wards and thier fabulous toy section!!!! I was like only 5 or 6, but looking at what seemed to me huge pegs of Masters of the Universe, Star Wars, and by that time GI JOE!!!! I was a in kid heaven!!!! All around me nothing but toys. And then on the top shelf, the 12 inchers. Ooooh there were glorious!!! I think at that time Wards had the greatest set up.

[C]

I grew up in a city called Vallejo

you go to marine world a lot? i spent a lot of time there, before they destroyed it with rollercoasters.

i got my stuff from Payless Drugs as well, which was eventually swallowed by Thrifty and later Rite Aid. i miss Payless, especially at Xmas time. they had a good song at Xmas...

TRU was also a good spot, Gemco (which became Target around here), Sears, JC Penneys (especially around Xmas time - i still have old Xmas catalogs from the 80s). That's about all I can remember, though I suppose I went to K*B as well.

[JoshEEE]

you go to marine world a lot? i spent a lot of time there, before they destroyed it with rollercoasters.

Yes indeed.
My grandpa bought my family charter memberships the first year and we renewed them every year until I was in junior high or so. After that, I sort of lost interest in seeing the same shows all the time I guess. Then in high school I moved up to WA.

I haven't been back since the rides were put in, but my sisters still live in Fairfield and threaten to take me there every time I visit. One of these days, I'd actually like to see how the place has changed.

Did you ever go in the winter when they made the fake snow hill you could sled down?  Man...that was great.

[C]

i long for the days when it was marine world africa usa. if you have any smidgen of happy memories there, i highly suggest you not even drive down 80, let alone set foot there again. it's horrible. they were losing money so six flags bought them and literally slapped a bunch of roller coasters on where the parking lot used to be. you can still see handicapped parking spots underneath the coasters, which just have chain-link fences around them. it's horrible. most of the old stuff is still there, but it's completely lost its charm with the whole six flags **** they put up everywhere.

i highly suggest NOT going there again. and no, i never did the snow thing, but i always wanted to. oh well.

sorry to derail the thread. ummm... old stores from the 80's, yep, i remember those. oh yeah.

[Ben]

Oh yeah, Ben Franklin. There was one about ten minutes from my house, during my childhood. I remember getting a Chewbacca on the 2nd Jedi card there. My aunt bought it for me. I'm still trying to find a decent Chewie on that card, because that's the only clear memory of the packaging. I do wish the VOTC Chewie was on that card. But I'm sure I'm the minority of that one.

On that same day that I got the Chewie, my cousin gave me a bunch of his stuff that he grew out of-- TIE Pilot, Darth Vader( I had a few of these), and some others I can't remember. I even got a Skywarp Transformer, which I ended up breaking the windshield off of in a week, not to mention losing the wings and missiles.

Man, those were great times.

[CorranHorn]

I still remember the now defunct Montgomery Wards and thier fabulous toy section!!!!

I completely forgot about what was commonly referred to as Monkey Wards. I have two fond and crystal clear memories of getting SW toys at Wards. One was getting an ESB C-3PO (the original version) and just loving the cardback. The SW/ESB C-3PO cardback is still one of my favorites today, kinda ironic that the VOTC version comes with such a crappy figure. The other memory is getting the Darth Vader Carrying Case at the downtown chicago store with my grandma. She picked me up from my house and we took the train downtown. Along for the ride were my Imperial Commander and AT-AT Driver going on a top secret mission for the Empire. Ahh the good old days....

I STILL can't believe no one else has mentioned Zayre's! Am I the only one who remembers or even knows about this store chain?

[Jesse James]

Zayres wasn't out this way...  Actually, neither was Target, Wal-Mart's relatively "new", Target even more so, and Toys R Us was another store unknown to my region till Children's Palace closed shop and TRU basically put a store up everywhere there was a CP.

Very weird...  Almost every store we had is gone, other than K-Mart, Sears, and Penney's...  Some other high-end dept. stores like Kauffman's or the Bon Ton.    Kinda sad when you think about it.

Monkey Wards I forgot too Jason.  Though their toy area was not up to par with other stores I felt, and it like Penney's was overpriced.

Our local Penney's, where I worked, is closing shop actually, because a new mall is opening on the freeway into Pittsburgh that runs out my direction.  That's pretty sweet news in a way because everyone's banking on where Penney's (and the closed Monkey Wars still stands), is going to turn into hopefully a Wal-Mart or Target...  It'd be nice since we have NOTHING in my area...  Not that that is my area, but it's at least only 15 minutes away as opposed to 25. 

[Jeff]

The one we went to was in West Saint Paul.  It was like a Supermarket AND A department store mixed into one...  In fact, there is a Cub Foods on Robert Street in the spot where Zayre used to be.

I think they were bought out by another grocer chain (Ames?) and either closed up or changed over.

It didn't last too long into the 80s though.  The only reason I remember it was because the restrooms were located on sort of an upper lever/catwalk thing along the front wall.  You went up a set of stairs, past the employee break room.  There was a railing and from up there you could overlook the whole store. 

Well, one time as my mom was using the facilities, I was left waiting outside with Grandma.  I stuck my head out to get a closer view and... yep.  Head stuck between the bars of the railing.  The whole store got a great view of this kid with his head stuck in the railing from down below on the store floor...

Jeff

[Scott]

Ooh ooh, I just remembered Holiday which was a similar set up.  They later got rid of the toys and brought in boat loads of sporting goods which they then sold off to Gander Mountain.  There was a Holiday over in Plymouth that we'd go and buy toys at, similar to Zayre I guess

[Jedi Idej]

The mainstays were Jeffrey's Toys (??) in a shopping mall and TRU. I hit K-mart, Long's Drugs, Gemco, and Consumers Distributing a few times.

Rarely did I get driven to a store when I wanted to look for toys. Most of my visits required foot power, mostly by myself, sometimes with a cousin. TRU was over 1-1/2 miles away, uphill... both direction. It was a long walk. A few times I even cut through the freeway near the offramp, figuring I could shave off a few minutes from my walk.

I didn't get too many toys in the 80s -- vegetating in front of the tv was less taxing on my body. 

[Muftak]

I STILL can't believe no one else has mentioned Zayre's! Am I the only one who remembers or even knows about this store chain?

<ahem>

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.

I mean, I know I'm long-winded on the topic, but you could give it a little glance.

[Paul]

Ok in no particular order the places I got toys in the 80's and a single memory from each even though I have a catalog of memories from each store...

Target (where I got my X Wing Luke with 2 blaster pistols in the package)

K Mart (where I got my First Star Wars figures LUKE, Han and Darth)

Wal Mart (back when they were brown) (got Zartan and the swamp skier, I don't recall ever buying Star Wars there until 1995)

Toys R Us (I called TRU everyday for 3 weeks straight and got my first AT AT Driver there)

Circus World Toys (big chain)( I got most of the 1986-1989 Joes here)

Toys N More (mom and pop shop and my first "job") Bought my 2nd USS Flagg with my 25% employee discount.)

J.C. Penny's (My grandparents shopped directly from the Christmas catalog so mulitpack figues were under the tree every year)

Sears (I took music lessons next to a Sears and got my first of 2 Cantinas with Blue Snaggletooth's for learning a new song that my grandfather had loved called"Faded Love")

Montgomery Wards (more catalog), but they had a store in Downtown Fort Worth that had the coolest Christmas section ever, but that is a 1970s story)

Woolworths (Got my Dewback there)

Dillard's/Sanger Harris (they had toys at Christmas, I got my first Return of the Jedi figures there, even though I had decided to grow up and stop collecting toys)

KB Toys (I was just cruising through looking for squirt guns when I saw the GI Joe 1985 Cobra EELS and Footloose and got back into Joes, see above for why I was not collecting)

BEST (this place ROCKED...I got the MOBAT, Storm Shadow, Snow Speeder and Battle Damage Xwing)  they have gone out of business since.

Mott's Five and Dime (GI Joe RAM Cycle and Snow Job)

Skaggs Alpha Beta (now Albertson's) (it is a Grocery store but I got my Luke in Hoth and a Bespin Guard there at a time I couldn't find them anywhere...oh and my first Jawa too, cloth cape)

Winn-Dixie (Grocery Store, got Princess Leia and Chewbacca, I was able to get two because I told my grandmother that I didn't want Chewbacca to be lonely so she caved and got me the Leia and to this day likes to tell that story..she shared it with my daughter recently and now my own words are used against me in the Care Bear/Pony/Hello Kitty/Princess aisles)

GIBSON's...kinda like Wal-Mart before WM was cool...(the first R2-D2)


Basically I was a spoiled kid who got too much allowance or too much birthday $ and was allowed to spend it on toys when we went to town.  And I just realized some of this happened in the 70's so sorry to get off base...

[CorranHorn]

I STILL can't believe no one else has mentioned Zayre's! Am I the only one who remembers or even knows about this store chain?

<ahem>

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.

I mean, I know I'm long-winded on the topic, but you could give it a little glance.

Muftak/Nakatu: I SWEAR I looked and totally did not see you guys mention Zayre. I'm going blind clearly. At your Zayre's were the toy sections always in the farthest corner of the store, literally hidden away from everything else? There were 3 that as a kid I'd been to and the toy sections would always be way in the back farthest from the entrance. I mean it was so far back, I'd be winded from running to the toy section.