Quick Hits: It's Been Fun Toys R Us

On 06/29/2018 at 01:29 PM by goaztecs

Growing up we didn’t have a local Toys R Us. Being in a small town the nearest one was an hour and a half away and the only time I got close to going to it was when my folks would decide to hit the Price Club and spent the day out in the neighboring city. I would usually get a small toy and a balloon. As I got older I had some family who lived in Orange County and they were down the street from Toys R Us. My aunt would give us kids a limit of $5, which for me was a ton because I could either get two GI Joe’s (one dollar over wasn’t too bad) or one of the smaller GI Joe vehicles. This was our little fun time before we headed back home.

I think the valley finally got a Toys R Us when I was in high school, and by this point I really wasn’t into buying toys but it was in college that I started up first with video games and then buying Lego. It didn’t hurt that I had friends who were super into toys and we would always make trips out to the store and then when the first wave of Lego Star Wars hit it was over. I would always make a trip every couple of weeks just to see what they had in the Lego section, the action figure section, and then end my trip in the blocked off electronic section. I found a ton of games on the cheap, a bunch of clearance items (I still have the McFarlane LeBron/Carmello rookie boxed set somewhere) but it was always fun to have that nostalgia of walking into the store and having to go through that maze before getting to the actual aisles of toys.

My local store closed a couple of months ago. It’s sad because I would walk around the store before I had to shop for groceries, or do any adult stuff. For those couple of minutes it was fun to look around and see things I would have killed for as a kid, and maybe picking up some random Lego minifigures or Hot Wheels on the way out because maybe it brought me back to when I had $5 limit, and funny thing is each time I would buy something small as an adult it would usually be around $5. Well we had fun Toys R Us, thanks for the memories!

Chris Watches…

Big Brother - CBS: It is back and once again I’m debating on if I should spend the $5/month for CBS All Access to get the live feeds, and maybe check out the other content they offer. Anyways it looks like it could be a good show, the theme is ok, but the first punishments suck. Let’s recap: the two people who finished last in their events got a punishment where they have to do it until the first eviction. Kaylee has to wear this rainbow getup with a pinwheel necklace. Whenever the arrow spins she has to stay in the room she’s currently in. I said as it starts spinning make a run for the toilet because if they have to suffer, the houseguests have to suffer. Anyways the other punishment is whenever a sound goes off Sam has to go to the diary room, and then control a robot. This punishment is a lot harder because who wants to talk to a mobile computer screen with a camera? At least with the other punishment you can still bond with the rest of the house. I feel bad for Sam because she’s already feeling out of place and this just adds to the stress.

Chris Other Random’s

l I haven’t picked up my current book in almost a week. I need to continue with my reading just to get away from always watching tv.

l I’m still using Spotify and I do like the service but I think some of the playlists are just filler. I usually stick with the theme playlists and on Friday I checkout all the new releases. I really like the Teyana Taylor EP and when I looked online to buy the physical copy there isn’t one. I guess this is the future of music. Physical copies are being phased out for streaming or digital copies. I’ll probably buy the EP later on today on iTunes.

l I tried to download a game while sitting in the waiting room yesterday and why doesn’t my iPhone let me use my data plan to download bigger files? It’s crazy. I shouldn’t have to move the internal clock up a week so it tricks the phone, it should let me download it if I want to.

l This showed up on my Instagram feed and I need to add this to the collection

$180 is steep epecially considering I think we got my original Voltron for $80.

Pickups

Games

Ok so I tried to stay away from Steam Sale but I went back to look around, and see what’s available in the under $10 section for racing and well I picked up some games, and spent around $10

A little Top Down racing

Some racing games from mobile. I want to see how using an actual controller feels compared to turning my iPad and swiping.

A casual game where you glide through obstacles

Ok this game

Is based on this toy

How do you not buy it for a $3?

On the freebie mobile side I downloaded this because I needed something casual for the phone

Yep more feeding Pokemon and watching them battle each other.

Alright Pixlpeeps I am off to run some errands, or maybe eat breakfast. We shall see. Anyways have a good weekend!

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris

Super Step Contributing Writer

06/29/2018 at 05:55 PM

I wish I could have stepped foot in toys r us before it closed.

goaztecs

06/30/2018 at 11:38 PM

The last month or so it was kind of sad. As the store emptied more and more of it was closed off.

KnightDriver

06/29/2018 at 10:14 PM

I am still not a big online purchaser. I'm only interested if I can see the product first. That another brick-and-mortar store that sells video games is gone means less buying for me. Oh and my retro store also closed shop last month. There goes my old games purchases.

06/30/2018 at 11:42 PM

I wasn't either but being able to just hit a couple of buttons and have the game be available to download is a plus, especially if the physical copy costs more than digital.

I used to buy a ton of older games from Thrifts but since reseller guy it is rare to see any games on the shelves. At this point, if I find anything cool I'll grab it but it looks like a lot of people see the hobby as something to make money off of. I can't blame them but at the same time it forces a lot of folks like myself who don't have a local game store that isn't GameStop to look online.

07/04/2018 at 03:47 PM

I was at Gamestop the other day with a friend and honestly couldn't find anything I thought was a good deal. Everything seems horridly overpriced to me. I must've seen too many crazy sales on Xbox Live now.

Cary Woodham

06/30/2018 at 08:58 AM

When I was a little kid, I never set foot inside a Toys R Us because the closest one was too far away. But I saw commercials for them all the time and thought it looked like a cool store. Sometimes they'd advertise costumed characters like Barbie would appear at a certain store. One time they said Donkey Kong would be there, and at first I wanted to go so bad until I figured it was probably some guy in a generic gorilla suit and I decided it wasn't worth the trip after all. When I was in middle school and high school and started to go to malls more, I would go to Toys R Us to get NES and SNES games sometimes. Before they closed down, there were tons of Toys R Us stores around now.

06/30/2018 at 11:45 PM

Man I used to love those commercials. That's what exposed me to the store and wanting to check it out. I never knew about the characters showing up but I know the store here would do Lego builds, and Disney Infinity trade events which I thought would be cool if I was a kid. Man I remember we got Eternal Champions from the Toys R Us as well as a couple of other Genesis games by bringing up the little papers with the price on it.

mothman

07/01/2018 at 12:46 PM

Toys R Us is still going in Canada but they have a really crap selection of games.

They did have 7 SNES minis in there yesterday. Didn't bother with that one. I bought a NES mini at EB instead. It was the last one they had.

07/10/2018 at 02:08 PM

Yeah the local Toys R Us before it closed had a subpar selection of games. Sometimes I could find something in their little Budget Friendly section.

Congrats on the NES Mini. I think I only saw one or two in stores around here. Folks here either really miss the NES or wanted to make a quick buck on eBay.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

07/01/2018 at 04:54 PM

we had a semi-local Toys R Us we went to occasionally when I was a kid. I have very distinct memories of how it was set up and walking through there. Mostly we went to a Kaybee toys that was in the mall though to get video games and action figures. But it is sad to see the store go.

07/10/2018 at 02:11 PM

Oh man Kay Bee had some good memories too. I bought my Atari Jaguar at one for $25 (long after it's lifespan). They always had crazy sales, and because of them I have a ton of Lego Stormtrooper minifigures.

PixlBit