JediDefender.com Forums
Community => Watto's Junk Yard => Topic started by: Lady Jaye on December 2, 2004, 12:00 AM
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This is asked to those of us that were lucky enough to be around and old enough to collect the toy lines of the 80's.
My question is this, do you remember the stores you would get your figures and ships at?? What were they named??? Do they still exist??? And what fond memories, if any, do you have of shopping with your parents????
I'm just curious as to what others remember of thier childhood. I know I still remember a lot of the stores that I got my figures at. And for several of my toy lines, I can give you an exact store of where I got them from, can anyone else??? The main point is to talk about the memories of the good ole days. So the more stories the better!!!
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The only stores I remember buying GIJoes at were TRU, Kmart, KB Toys and Sears. The only store out of the list that got out of the toy business was Sears.
Some of the memoirs that I have of buying stuff was going into a sears one day and find a Star Wars Strom Trooper and buying it ... for a Corba Trooper. My most precious memories were those days where my grandmother would take me out to let me pick out my birthday present at the mall. I'm not sure what I got from her since the last time we did this I was 6 but I think it was the GIJoe F-14 Tomcat Airplane (which I still have in beat up condition). This was the last thing my grandmother bought me for my birthday since she was killed a couple of weeks later.
Now that I think of it I did buy some other stuff from other companies that are now out of business, so I don't remeber they names.
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well in Canada we had
sears
zellers (may soon become target)
k-mart (no longer in Canada)
eatons (no longer in Canada)
the bay (higher end zellers, will also become American I think)
wool-co (I am not sure if the speeling is correct, again no longer in Canada)
thats about all I can remember, I also smoked a ton of pot inthe late 80's to mid 90's so I am a little "cloudy" 8)
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My most precious memories were those days where my grandmother would take me out to let me pick out my birthday present at the mall. I'm not sure what I got from her since the last time we did this I was 6 but I think it was the GIJoe F-14 Tomcat Airplane (which I still have in beat up condition). This was the last thing my grandmother bought me for my birthday since she was killed a couple of weeks later.
Oh God that's sad to hear, I'm so sorry. But it is nice that you have those memories of your grandma taking you to get toys. That's the main point of this thread, to bring back good memories of a time long since past.
If I may ask, what happened?? And please feel free to PM me if you want!!
Meone of my vivid memories from when my mom took me to Sears. And from behind a glass case, they kept them their, I picked out the most unique of the Transformer Jets, Starscream!!!! Ever since then he has become one of my favorite characters. Forget the fact that a lil while later the cartoon premiered and he was as devious as his tech spec said!!!
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Hell yeah, I remember my various Star Wars toy outlets back then quite vividly still. I can still see myself thumbing through the 12-backs at Tustin Toys. That's where it all started for me. But just a few more blocks up the street was Gemco, and they had a ****load of SW too, so I hit them up frequently as well. By the time Empire had rolled around, the main show in town was Toy City (kinda like TRU now), just a few more blocks up the same main street. It unfortunately pretty much knocked my local Tustin Toys outta commission in the early 80's, but as long as they kept pimpin' me the SW goods, I was willing to overlook that.
I'm 90% sure that Mervyn's was even a pretty big player for the latter two flicks. If not Mervyn's, then the same building our current Mervyn's was originally in. I remember spending hours in the back corner of that store, just staring at all the new Star Wars stuff they always had.
And then, of course, there was the annual Sears Wishbook catalog. Oh yeah. Hit that sucker up bigtime every year. It was the highlight of the year when that thing showed up at our house. Again, a lot more staring at the new stuff therein. Picked up the cardboard Cantina and Bespin "playsets" out of that thing. Neither of which unfortunately made it through to later years, for whatever reason. Unless they're just stashed away somewhere good, that I've yet to uncover. Oddly enough, as much stuff as we ordered out of the Sears catalog, I don't remember shopping at actual Sears stores so much. They likely had SW too, if I had to guess...
I think that pretty much covers it for me. All of the modern day players weren't really a factor in my youthful vintage toy hunts. I think TRU and Target were just starting to show up around the ROTJ era, or maybe a year or two later. Not sure. I do know that my favorite Gemco became a Target right around '85/86, and I remember that pissed me off bad.
Boy, how things have changed. Good times toy hunting in those vintage days. And yes, I (myself) did a lot of my own toy hunting back then. Whether it was walking or biking, my buddies and I always found a way to make our way to a toy store or two every week. Those and arcades. But don't get me started on those... ;)
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Let's see. The main places I remember going to were Child World and Sears. There was also a toy chain called Toy & Sports Warehouse. Add in the old big box stores like Bradlees and Caldors. Also, there was Service Merchandise. And then later on came Kaybee and Toys R Us.
Child World was basically the TRU of it's day. Definitely my old favorite. I remember getting my vintage Yoda there quite vividly.
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I'm 90% sure that Mervyn's was even a pretty big player for the latter two flicks. If not Mervyn's, then the same building our current Mervyn's was originally in. I remember spending hours in the back corner of that store, just staring at all the new Star Wars stuff they always had.
Yea, it was Mervyns. I remember while my mom was shopping, I was in thier toy dept, like always. But when we started shopping there, I was already into Transformers or GI JOE. I still remember getting Shipwreck and Blowtorch and Mervyns on one trip. Oh and on one of my fixations, I had to get a Batman and Robin from the Super Powers line. I never got Robin, but that day I got Batman and Superman, the big two!!! For some reason Mervyns didn't have Robin??? Oh on yet another Mervyns outing I got Darkseid!!! A very cool figure, and big compared to the rest of the Super Powers line!!! I have more stories for differnet lines and different stores but will save for later!!!
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I can't answer this question as pretty much all of my money was devoted to beer by the time the eighties rolled around.
Disco was dead, so was Jon Bonham.
AC/DC recovered marvelously in spite of the loss of Bon Scott.
Then a flock of seagulls or some other **** came along and ruined it all :P
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So how did you get into Star Wars figures, I thought it was mainly the kids who grew up in the 80's and beyond that fuel this nostalgia madness we call toy collecting???
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If you haven't already noticed, Brent's wierd like that. Always some bizarro exception to the rule. Remember that "story" he wrote the other day?
Like I said, wierd... :-\
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Sears was where all the good stuff was! Man, did I love going there. And to top it off, my mom worked in the toy department - it was like having your own lab for a crack addict.
The day I will never forget is when I finally saved enough allowance to buy the AT-AT - I remember us waiting outside in the car to pick her up from work and she picked up my AT-AT that I had ordered through the catalogue. Man, was that the highlite of my childhood as I ripped into that box!
Oh, and stormtripper, don't forget Consumers Distributing. It was a chain based primarily on catalogue sales. Many days spent looking through those catalogues, along with the Sears wishbook of course! 8)
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Oh man, I can't believe no one has listed Zayre's yet. In my neighborhood, Zayre's was the place to go for all your shopping needs and they had a mondo huge toy section. It's where a large number of my Star Wars and Transformers toys as a kid came from. I can still recall the layout of the toy section too, in fact on those rare occassions I have dreams involving buying toys, it's Zayre's toy section I'm always in, weird eh?
Other stores where my toys were bought in the 80's include of course TRU, Walgreens, Venture, as well as an old school independently owned department store called Charles where all the action figures were behind a locked glass case, and a mom and pop toy store called Cut Rate. Ahh the memories I have of these stores, an entire aisle at Walgreens filled to the brim with GI Joes back in 82 and 83, front entrance displays for the new ROTJ line at TRU, missing out on the TIE Interceptor at Cut Rate cause I wanted some damn Starcom toys. Those were the days.....
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Mostly KMart and TRU.
I remember buying a Shipwreck figure at Service Merchandise and some M.A.S.K. toys at Eckerd Drugs...
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Target and K-Mart, mostly. A little bit of KB, though I only remember the end of the vintage line and the glorious 3/$1 sales.
I did get the GI Joe Devilfish and MOTU Evil-Lyn at Menard's of all places.
I remember saving up my allowance to get Castle Greyskull at Ardan's. Still have it, only the elevator and trap door don't work anymore. But everything else is still there, except that wacky cardboard stuff.
I mostly got my stuff on Christmas and birthdays. Vivid memories of MOTU figures and R2-D2 cakes.
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Back in the day I recall going to:
-Ben Franklin... A small chain of odd retail stores who kinda had a specialty for craft things (thread, fabric, yarn, etc.) but who also had a general collection of other stuff too. Got many a G.I. Joe there, and Ben Franklin stores were like fly ****. There was one in almost every small town (yup, small towns in the boonies). One was even right on the top of the hill in my dinky little town, and another 10 minutes away in Apollo up the river. Weird stores, and they just all disappeared (the last of them) maybe 8 or 10 years ago. Not all that long, considering.
-G.C. Murphy, 5&10... These too were like fly ****, and common in small towns. I remember the one in Vandergrift PA (the building still there), had hard-wood floors and was 2 floors actually. An upper and lower that had different things on each level. I got Airborne, Gung-Ho, and Snowjob at that 5&10. There was one in Natrona Heights as well, and one in downtown New Kensington which is a ghost town now.
The one in New Kensington had a privately owned chocolate company called Herman's too. Herman's was the BEST chocolate ever, and I haven't had any that rivaled it. their nonparels were unmatched to this day.
-Fisher Big Wheel... Where every one of these were, a Big Lots now stands, but Big Lots sucks sack compared to them because Fisher Big Wheel had "new" toy lines, updated stock, and were simply great. Pricier as I recall, and really not classier by any means, but they were pretty cool stores.
We had one of these at one of the other plazas at the top of the hill. Big Lots, unfortunately, now occupies it.
-Hills... Hills was THE place that I went with my mom to shop every other week when she cashed my dad's check from the mill. We'd usually hit some other places because she had to do her two weeks of shopping on one day (back when we only had one car and Dad took it to work, but mom dropped him off at work on shopping day).
Hills was perfect. Always had tons of toys, prices were the best, and it was always my favorite bi-weekly stop. Hills was bought up by Ames, and Ames quickly went out of business. Hills is another store that, not that long ago, was still in business. :(
-Gold Circle... Gold Circle was a store sort of like Penney's in the Pittsburgh area. Had a good toy selection, and it's where I got my Rancor on clearance. :)
I remember one of the VERY rare times my father set foot in a store (any store) was going to Gold Circle for something (I forget) and as he drug my mother and I throuh the store (mach speed, no looking around at anything, straight to what he wanted), we passed a bin BRIMMING with BRAND NEW G.I. Joes. This is back before the net of course, and I was a little kid, so seeing BRAND NEW Joes just made me go ape ****. I begged, but my father never let me get anything anywhere we went... I was whispering my pleas to my mother. She finally stepped in, and I'll never forget it. She said that they were new figures, and that Cole (my brother who was sort of the favorite) would like one since they're new, and that got me a green light to get one too. I got Flint that day, and Cole got Snake Eyes v.2 with Timber.
Twas a grand day. Shortly after, we went and got the rest of the Joes... :P Mom sure was/is good to us.
-Gee Bee... There's a mall, which is run down and hardly used, but it's actually only about 20 minutes from my house in Natrona Heights. The Heights, like New Kensington, are getting bad. The mall's at the one far end though where it's still a wooded area, but the mall just never "took off". It's strange really.
Gee Bee was like the anchor store, which is like having a piece of styrofoam for an anchor.
It was a weird store, like Hills, or any other department store, but they had WEIRD toys. Stuff that is rare today, you'd have found at Gee Bee. They carried Playmobil (remember that? Target has it now, but when I was young PMB was a rarity in the toy aisle, and it still is today somewhat). They also had a bubble gum machine that had the oddest junk you'd ever find. Trinkets from decades ago, seriously.
I swear to god, I got a smoking monkey from it one day. These things are meant to be lit on fire, and smoke/blow smoke rings. Not a toy, at least even by the safety standards of my childhood, and yet I got one of these things. Wish I still had it... I have made a nice collection since though. :)
-K-Mart... K-Mart showed up in one of the other plazas on the top of the hill from me in 1982. To be exact, it was the EXACT time G.I. Joe ARAH began because my very first Joe (Flash) came from there. My mother came home from KM's grand opening and said she had something for me she knew I'd love.
On that day, my love of Star Wars was pretty much over from a toy standpoint (till 89 or so), and basically I was hooked on Joes then. They were the dominant toy of my childhood, and I can safely say I had everything except foreign things, the FLAGG, and exclusives... Up till the late 80's early 90's anyway.
KM is still there, and now is the only decent retail store in quite some distance. Nearest Wal-Mart is 25 minutes away at least.
-Then there's trips to the mall....
You guys who have seen the original Dawn of the Dead will know the mall that was my once, maybe twice a year jaunt... As a child I remember feeling like the drive was unbearable, but you stuck it out (or passed out in the back seat) because this was the ONLY place with a Children's Palace!!!!!
Yes, old Children's Palace. Got many a Joe there as well. Now it's a car dealer, and I realize the trip there (when I'm driving) takes me all of like 40 - 45 minutes.
The mall's completely different from when I was young. When I was young it was basically just like you see in Dawn of the Dead. I ate the brown Derby, I shopped at Penney's, the Ice rink was there but now a food court is in its place, etc., etc... It's bigger, they've got more stores.
There was also a mall that's now gone near Greensburg PA, and it's been replaced by Westmoreland Mall which is just outside Greensburg, and is bigger. There's a TOys R Us there too. Where the old mall (GreenGate Mall, which had an ice rink too, and a HUGE fountain) was there's a SUper Wal-Mart going in, and a Target is across from it about.
Beyond that, I rarely went anywhere else...
I didn't go to Pittsburgh hardly ever till I was 12 or so when my grandmother was dying and I went with my mother to take her to the hospital a lot. My own health was/is bad so I was at hospitals a lot around that age for myself. That forces you into the Oakland area of the city (Where Pitt, CMU, and other universities are).
Dunno why I decided to remember all these things... I've had this "Where'd you shop" talk with my friends several times though, and my buddy Dan always laughed at how our friend Tyson and myself can finish each other's thoughts/sentences about these stores. He was just as into Joes and shopping at the same stores at the same times with the same habits/thoughts about them as me, and we laugh about that a lot.
I can remember every G.I. Joe I got, when I got it, where, and the specifics surrounding the moment.
I can't remember cost accounting equations and problem formats, but I remember all that other junk. :)
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-Ben Franklin... A small chain of odd retail stores who kinda had a specialty for craft things (thread, fabric, yarn, etc.) but who also had a general collection of other stuff too. Got many a G.I. Joe there, and Ben Franklin stores were like fly ****. There was one in almost every small town (yup, small towns in the boonies). One was even right on the top of the hill in my dinky little town, and another 10 minutes away in Apollo up the river. Weird stores, and they just all disappeared (the last of them) maybe 8 or 10 years ago. Not all that long, considering.
Yep, Ben Franklin 5 & 10. Remember buying an assload of GIJoes from there. As with many other smaller stores, Wal-Mart put them out of business.
Some other stores not already mentioned:
Jamesway - think along the lines of Bradlees, Caldor, Ames, etc. And like them, has now gone the way of the dodo.
But like others already mentioned, Sears was the place for Star Wars, either through its Wishbook or their toy section. Great place.
It seemed TRU was the place to go for GIJoe, even moreso than BF 5&10. Every year for my birthday my grandparents would pick me up, take me out to lunch and then take me shopping wherever I wanted. Since this always seemed to happen a few days (usually the following weekend) after my actual birthday, I always had an assload - or what seemed like an assload - of money on me. I think the best trip was when I got the Cobra Hydrofoil, Night Raven, a bunch of smaller vehicles and the Joes and Cobras to drive them all. I remember the white and grey camoflague Storm Shadoe being one of them. Great trip.
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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?)
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In addition to Gemco, Sears, JCPenney's and even Ben Franklin, I also remember frequenting Long's Drugstores and Ardan's for my Star Wars fix in the late 70s and early 80s.
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If you haven't already noticed, Brent's wierd like that. Always some bizarro exception to the rule. Remember that "story" he wrote the other day?
Like I said, wierd... :-\
Maybe we can get Berry to install a spell check option on here. You have a job, right Matt?
I'm weird dammit, not wierd. Get it right :-*
As to the Lady's question, briefly, I started collecting Star Wars in 95 as a joke during grad school. I have a penchant for irritating those in authority and my graduate supervisor was no difference. I thought it would be funny to give him an Obi-Wan figure I saw in a store when I was looking for other stuff. I got myself a Vader figure to complete the visual, toy based analogy. I never expected the proper, British fellow to get the joke, but he did.
From there, I decided to get the original 12 or so orange carded figures. I'd always been a Star Wars fan, it just got momentarily interrupted by sports, beer, women. Think of the reaction of the guys on That 70's Show to Star Wars and you've got my age category figured out. It was really, really cool, but there were other things to do.
I had Mego toys, vintage 12" GI Joe and Captain Action toys. Stormtripper mentioned many of the stores we used to go to: Sears, Eaton's, The Bay. No real other toys stores at the time, just major Canadian chain stores. If we went to the US it would be Sears and JC Penney's. But those were the toys I really pined for, that and hot wheels. Probably a few other space toys too of the time: Billy Blast Off, Major Matt Mason, stuff like that. Good stuff to sell on ebay ;)
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Children's Palace was the big one around here as far as Toys R' Us type super stores
Most of my toy buying was done in Target. Target started here and has slowly spread its wings across the country.
I also remember buying figures at JC Penny
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Holy, 80's. I can go back further than that but... :'(
Ah the days, most mentioned here by my fellow Canuckleheads, Sears, Eaton's, The Bay, Woolco, Woodwards, Consumer Distributing & this place call The Metropolitan, we called it the Met for short.
Ah man, the toy lines back then, I remember seeing the toys in the Sears Christmas Wish Catalog & the Consumers Catalog.
Racks of toys, GI Joe, Mego's, Kenner, Mattel...the list goes on.
When we went to the Met, as soon as you got off the bus you went straight into the store & downstairs into toy heaven. I can still picture the isles full of toys. 8) Even toys that were just bubble wrapped on cards. I really remember the Sixfinger toy gun from the 60's.
(http://tulsatvmemories.com/imag2002/sixfinger.jpg)
At Woodwards, there was a model kit of the Pink Panther car I wanted, went right to the model area & grabbed one. The shelfs were full & it was only $5. I asked my parents if I could get it & I was short some coin so the little boy I was cried Please & they said no, $5. was too much. Course $5. back then was like $50. to your parents.
Went back there a few weeks later & I never saw that kit again. :'(
There was even the IDA drug store that carried toys, from Space 1999 to Star Wars. Ah, the memories.
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Ooh! Consumers Distributing, Woolco and the Met. I totally forgot about those. Embarassing about Woolco, because all of ours turned into Walmarts and that's actually where I bought my very first Star Wars figure.
Great story Dale, I remember all of those memories myself. Taking the bus downtown to go to the toy sections. Going to Eaton's first, walking to The Met, then over to The Bay, where we always had lunch. Toys all over the place. The glory days of no shrink wrap and no plastic tombs of death. GI Joe stuff was always the best. But as you indicated, a lot of it was pretty expensive at the time. I always wanted the space capsule but never got it :'( Basically I wanted all the toys that Eric Foreman had in his room ;)
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Funny thing Brent, The Met, Eatons, Sears & Woodwards were all within walking distance downtown.
I remember going into Woodwards taking the escalator to the I think it was the 5th floor maybe the 4th, so long ago, get to the floor hang a right then a left & bingo toys. Isles of toys. Boxed, pegged, bins you name it.
Then Met was were I got my James Bond brief case MISB. Had it for yrs. until my Mom cleaned my closet out when I was at basic training for Air Cadets for the summer! :o Thanks Mom! :'(
The there was the kids dream toy every boy wanted, the Johnny Seven OMA (One Man Army) from Topper. Oh yeah baby, time to get my friends & have some fun. ;D
Sadly the OMA landed up getting tossed out in time. :'(
RIP Johhny Seven, you brought me some good times! ;D
(http://users.rcn.com/ed.ma.ultranet/dr6.jpeg)
I was into alot of the spy/action stuff from the TV & movie era from the 60's & 70's. The Man From Uncle, I Spy, The Avengers, Mission Impossible, James Bond, Danger Man & Get Smart.
Other toy lines from the 60's were Lost In Space, Land Of The Giants, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea.
The 70's there were toys from The Six Million Dollar Man & Bionic Woman, M*A*S*H, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, & Space 1999 just to name a few.
If I could turn back time, yeah you & me all! ;)
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Sheesh... maybe we should start a "Question for those that grew up in the stone age" thread for you two Canadians. :P
I did most of my figure/toy buying at 3 locations.
1 - Target
2 - Children's Palace
3 - Ben Franklin
A few things came from Sear's Catalog Outlet store, as well as the occasionaly Woolworths, K-Mart, or Zayre Shoppers City.
Strange to think that they are almost all gone the way of the DoDo now... :'(
Jeff
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Sheesh... maybe we should start a "Question for those that grew up in the stone age" thread for you two Canadians. :P
Jeff
Why I auta (http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/frech/h035.gif) :-* :P
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Sheesh... maybe we should start a "Question for those that grew up in the stone age" thread for you two Canadians. :P
I did most of my figure/toy buying at 3 locations.
1 - Target
2 - Children's Palace
3 - Ben Franklin
A few things came from Sear's Catalog Outlet store, as well as the occasionaly Woolworths, K-Mart, or Zayre Shoppers City.
Strange to think that they are almost all gone the way of the DoDo now... :'(
Jeff
D'oh, I forgot Ben Franklin...the only store in my home town that carried toys. Otherwise it was a 30 minute trip to the Target in Coon Rapids. This was after we moved to the sticks from Robbinsdale and the nice proximity of Crystal Target and Brookdale
BTW, I almost said the Canucks should have said "Question for those that grew up in the 50's" but I held my tongue, glad to see not everyone did
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D'oh, I forgot Ben Franklin...the only store in my home town that carried toys. Otherwise it was a 30 minute trip to the Target in Coon Rapids. This was after we moved to the sticks from Robbinsdale and the nice proximity of Crystal Target and Brookdale
A trip to Children's Palace in Rosedale was a once every other month affair. A trip to Target happened every other week as my Mom and Grandma needed to resupply their households, but BNen Franklin was just a bike ride away to the local"mall" if you can call a Grocery Store, Snyders, Ben Franklin, Hair Salon, and Pet Store a "mall".
There were many times I sat in the aisle at Ben Franklin wondering if I should buy a particular figure or not. Buying it now meant that I had the figure I wanted immediately, but waiting until a trip to Target might save me a $0.50-$1.00 BUT they might not have the figure I wanted. Decisions, decisions. :-\
I know I grabbed Storm Shadow (v1) at Ben Franklin, I didn't care that he was almost $1 more there than Target, because I had to have that Ninja something fierce! Same went for RotJ Jedi Luke and Endor Han, both picked up at Ben because I couldn't wait!
Jeff
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I could never ever find Storm Shadow OR Snake Eyes and was happy to buy them both at the local Hardware Store...man did that make my day.
I can still remember buying He-Man and Robotech and bundles of GI Joes from Ben Franklin though. Even that was with mom or dad because it was "across the river" Like I somehow would manage to dump myself in the river on my bike from the bridge ::)
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Gosh I can't remember what stores I went to back in the 80's, considering I was only born in '84. What I can remember is being in K-Mart around '87 and seeing the tail end of what was left of Return of the Jedi. I sure wish I'd bought all of those speeder bikes and Jabba's dias'!
>:(
Around '88 or '89, at a mom-and-pop shop, I passed up a chance to buy a Vader case full of loose Star Wars figures... $20 sounded like a lot of money back then. It's really sickening to think back on it, but at least I picked up a tin ESB lunchbox for a couple of bucks.
Let me ask this, maybe someone will have a similar experience...
One thing I vaguely remember is my mom buying me GI Joe's at a gas station... The figures were kept behind the counter along with the cigaretts - I always figured they were some sort of mail-away deal with the gas station. Does anyone remember a gas station offering exclusive GI Joe's?
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Down in the bay area of California, I'd find myself making frequent trips on my bike to Payless, where I would pick up my Star Wars and later GI Joe figures. I'd also go there to buy an atari game about once a month with whatever money I had saved up from chores and washing dishes at my family's restaurant. As most people over 10 probably know, they later became Rite Aid.
This was also usually my one stop shop for He-Man toys and vehicles.
I got several of my bigger toys (He Man's Castle, Metroplex, etc, etc) from the now long gone "Gemco" stores.
Mervyns was the place for Transformers, though when I was about 10-11 we got our first Target which replaced that as "the" hot spot for toys and more importantly, video games. My parents got me the GI JOE Defiant at Target. Still the best toy I ever received at Christmas.
Sears was the place for Legos, and Star Wars figures I'd circle in the big Christmas Catalog. I believe my X-wing fighter came from Sears.
Last but not least, Toys R Us. I grew up in a city called Vallejo, so the nearest one was a little over 20 miles away. This proved to be a big obstacle, and I wouldn't get to go there that much. When I did though, it was like the Mecca of toys. You never saw anything like the toys you saw there.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. ;D 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. :)
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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?
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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. :)
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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
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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
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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. :)
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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.
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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...
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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.
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Zellers
The Bay (R.I.P)
Woolco
K-Mart
Consumer's Distributing
Tops 'N' Toys
Toys 'N' Wheels
The last two were a great chain of small, mall type stores, they often had warehouse finds on clearance, like Mego STTMP Klingon ships for 25 cents and magnetic 12" Robin figures for $1.75 :o. Both shut down after Toys 'R' Us invaded- bastards!
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Tops 'N' Toys
Toys 'N' Wheels
The last two were a great chain of small, mall type stores, they often had warehouse finds on clearance, like Mego STTMP Klingon ships for 25 cents and magnetic 12" Robin figures for $1.75 :o. Both shut down after Toys 'R' Us invaded- bastards!
OMG, how could I forget those 2 stores. :-[ Thanks for the memory jog. :)
Tops 'N' Toys, I remember when they had there clearence sale. The sale started at midnight & 2 of my friends & I were going to check them out. Needless to say we went at 10 am the next day. I picked up an Estes Maxi Brute X-Wing for $5. 8)
They had empty boxes for the die cast Space 1999 ships. I thought why would they have empty boxes, people must have taken the ships out of the boxes, never bought any. Wish I did now. :'(
Toys 'N' Wheels, oh yeah, got lots of Star Trek stuff for cheap there.
There was another kind of store here, I will have to ask my brother what the name was. They were almost like Consumer's Distributing but you did not have to fill out any order slips. The stuff was on the shelfs. Picked up a Mego Star Trek walkie talkies for $3. ;D
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Ahh Best Products, what an awesome catalog store. Of course the adults came for the jewlery and electronics, but us kids came for the toys!!! And what a selection they had!!! By the time I found about Best, I was involved with Transformers. The ones I do remember getting there were Skids, Grapple, and Sideswipe.
My biggest memory of that store was going to it with a friend before his dad would take us to Showbiz pizza every Thurdays. Why thursday, I guess so the parents could go out on Friday??? But that was an awesome lil ritual. Best and then an evening of food, game, and entertainment!!! ;D
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Oh yeah...LaBelle's which was later bought by Best, they had toys too
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Ahh Best Products, what an awesome catalog store.
Then you'll appreciate this story......the first Year the MOBAT was in the Catalog I got my dad to take me there before one of his 2 week trips out of town, needless to say there were none on the shelves. So he (being an adult and knowing these things) filled out a form at the catalog counter, took it to the cashier who took our money and put the order in the "tube"and we waited.....
Five minutes later down from the second floor on the metal roller slide came.....MOBAT. Oh my goodness. If it was only that easy these days.
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The 80's...Good times! :)
Most of my vintage collection came from Zayre. I can remember looking forward to the Sunday paper to see if SW figures were on sale. ($2.88 or less each, I think) There was an elderly neighbor that I did house & yard work for that would go every Sunday morning with my list in her hand to shop for my SW figs. My paycheck was SW toys, and I was never allowed to take anything home until I had earned it.
The Sears wishbook was another source of excitement. Can remember going to Sears (with same elderly friend) when the orders arrived, and the hours of playtime that followed. And I did chores for everything I got, unless there was a birthday or Christmas.
Kmart every once in a while. They did not have the same great selection that Zayres did, or the lower price. That was within bike riding distance, so I could make that trip on my own.
My friend Bernice was the only way I ever had a SW collection back then, my Mom rarely bought me anything SW. (She did get me some of the bigger stuff, like the ATAT, Death Star playset, and Millenium Falcon.) Mom never quite understood my obsession with action figures. ::)
My interest in SW collecting faded a year after ROTJ (1984) when I became involved with Kung Fu training, and moved away from home. I was 15 by then, it was time for being a teenager.
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There was another kind of store here, I will have to ask my brother what the name was. They were almost like Consumer's Distributing but you did not have to fill out any order slips. The stuff was on the shelfs. Picked up a Mego Star Trek walkie talkies for $3. ;D
Asked my brother & he came up with Saveco. Anyone up here remember this store?
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Only store i can recall that i went to was K-mart, way back in '84. That was when i got the jabba playset for 3.00, also remember seeing the figs on clearance for .88 a piece. Sadly, I didnt get any of them. :(
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Ahh Best Products, what an awesome catalog store.
Then you'll appreciate this story......the first Year the MOBAT was in the Catalog I got my dad to take me there before one of his 2 week trips out of town, needless to say there were none on the shelves. So he (being an adult and knowing these things) filled out a form at the catalog counter, took it to the cashier who took our money and put the order in the "tube"and we waited.....
Five minutes later down from the second floor on the metal roller slide came.....MOBAT. Oh my goodness. If it was only that easy these days.
That is a good story.
Oh Logray if all of us only knew. Then we would have gotten at least a couple of Storm Shadows Snake Eyes v 2, Baradas, Amanamans, and other late but limited figures!!! Oh well, at least we have most of our memories!!!!
Speaking of Barada I remember the night I got him. Of course ROTJ was well out of threatres, and were in the mall on a Friday night. I looked in Toy Box, which I don't think anyone has mentioned yet, and saw a big metal bin with all these new Star Wars figures I had never seen before, and they all had coins!!!!! I flipped out!!! I was digging and digging and I finally found the one I wanted, Barada!!! Oh man was I happy, he was one of the coolest looking aliens and had a coin to boot!!!
Of course it was a time in which I got 20 bucks a week, and so I had money to burn, went and got a Mad Magazine as well!!! Hey I was a well read kid!!! ;D