[Comedian]

So when is the last day? My understanding is most of their product has not been paid for and will be returned to hasbro,Mattel and lego...etc. so do they just close up after Thursday?

[kylactus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nitelife

Well shit. I mean granted most trus suck ass but they did carry things that target and walmart wouldnt and they did have em...now theres nothing left to sate those figs. Target and walmart wont carry anything that doesnt have a media backing for the most part. I hope somehow a new store pops up...or maybe hasbro will open hasbro shops and maybe carry collector focused items. Atill its sucks cause i now will never get any of those tru sets and i sure as shit am not gonna pay scalper prices.

I think they started sucking when Bain bought them out to play there unethical underhanded corporate games. I’m sure the toy market will survive this, but it is a damn shame, jerks like this would sell there mothers of a buck.

Now I hope everyone here, regardless of your faith or personal beliefs will join me in prayer...

Oh lord, or lords, or goddess or benevolent alien overlords, please hear us, protect and help the thousands people who will be hurt by this terrible loss, and please find it in your grace and wisdom to strike everyone at Bain capital with aggressive incurable ass cancer, the kind that kills slowly in he most humiliating way, may they die in agony curled up in a shit covered lump weeping softly from the bloody sockets that use to contain there beady little eyes...amen.

[Dolemite]

They're closing their stores, but will attempt to sell a percentage of them to new ownership if there are buyers willing to take them on. If none are, then yeah...shit's done.

But realistically, if someone can acquire 100-200 or so of the stores without incurring TRU's debt along with it...I can't imagine someone not jumping at that. But I'm not even going to try and comprehend the logistics of that kind of a deal...I'm more clinging to (probably very, very false) hope that TRU will somehow magically survive in some shape or form.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kylactus

Oh lord, or lords, or goddess or benevolent alien overlords, please hear us, protect and help the thousands people who will be hurt by this terrible loss, and please find it in your grace and wisdom to strike everyone at Bain capital with aggressive incurable ass cancer, the kind that kills slowly in he most humiliating way, may they die in agony curled up in a shit covered lump weeping softly from the bloody sockets that use to contain there beady little eyes...amen.

I'm an atheist, but even I can give a hardy "amen" to that prayer!

[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Moore

Pretty much, yeah. If you look at the reports leading up to and during the bankruptcy filings, the stores themselves were actually making money. But all spare cash was being thrown at the debt payments, preventing them from doing any innovation to their stores or online ordering.

Hopefully this means with the vacancy, another store will try to take its place without having to deal with the debt that'd be involved in buying the TRU brand.

But for now, it is a sad day. There's no more toy wonderland for kids to peruse and be in awe of.

[Joe Moore]

That’s a tougher thing to do. I lived thru numerous huge corporations closing, and those spaces are all eyesores. Circuit City, HH Gregg, Borders, Phar Mor, Comp USA. I suspect the same will happen here.

[VashTS]

Toys R US will be a blank building that no one will occupy for years in some cities. Sad day all around. Major blow. Shame...it seems TRU was profitable, just that debt that was given to the chain by Bain Capital in 2005 seemed to have cemented its demise.

I made sure I took some great videos and photos at my favorite TRU for memories.

I remember that toys r us in times square and loved seeing Rallisport 2 run on all their TV screens and that big Dinosaur and that Ferris wheel I never saw working. Just pure magic...lost.

[LordMudd]

The next company that needs to go belly up is Bain Capital!


CCC.

[Harbinger]

What really sucks ass is i was nev able to nab any of their legends exclusives ( two packs aforce sets etc ) and now this will only increase the gotdamned scalpers prices. I was hoping to get 2 aforce sets and some Hydra goons....no chance of that now

[Dolemite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Moore

That’s a tougher thing to do. I lived thru numerous huge corporations closing, and those spaces are all eyesores. Circuit City, HH Gregg, Borders, Phar Mor, Comp USA. I suspect the same will happen here.

Truth. The Circuit City near me was empty for a while, but here and there a random furniture outlet or something would move in for a few months or a year and then the store would be vacant again. I'm not sure what it is now.

However, Borders - and the K-Mart it was connected to - sat vacant for literally well over a decade before a Home Depot finally demolished the old building and moved in. Until then, it was just this monolithic, nearly-empty shopping center with the only business remaining being an Office Max at the end...until that went out of business, too.

Life sure is getting generic these days.

[Jeddostotle7]

Some good news: Apparently, MGA Entertainment (the company behind Little Tikes, Bratz, and L.O.L. Surprise dolls) has put in a bid to purchase Toys R Us' Canadian arm, as well as up to 400 of TRU's US stores.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ys-r-us-canada

Maybe my sister won't have to lose her job after all (keeping my fingers crossed reeeeeally hard that, if MGA or someone else does end up buying, that the store near me where my sister works is among those 400 stores).

[MeLikeJinx]

From 2008ish - 2010ish... TRU was still awesome IMO. You had MU, Joes & Star Wars/Clone Wars all at the peak of their brands. Then you would have the odd movie toys like Indiana Jones, Prince Caspian, etc... all in 3.75" scale and all fully or almost fully articulated. And they would stock a whole bunch at a time too. It was such a good time to be 3.75" collector.

[AlanThCollector]

This is really sad news. It's unfortunate the hand they've been dealt especially since they were still a profitable company. It's a shame what questionable business decisions did to prevent ToysRUs from continuing.

I know some employees who were also just really good hardworking people who stuck their neck out for me on more than a few occassions checking the back room almost every time I asked for NECA's Alien and Predator lines as well as Bandai's Legacy Power Rangers line. They would even help me with all of my ridiculous price matching requests just so I could save an extra buck here or there. It's these people that made browsing the isle worthwhile. Even though I would often walk out of the stores empty handed it was the employees at my ToysRUs that made me really feel like a valued customer. I really hope those guys and gals, mothers and fathers, and in many cases collectors just like us are able to find work after this.

Since the stores are closing does this mean the website will go dark soon as well?

[donmeca2020]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dolemite

If you really did read through this thread then I'm surprised that you still have this outlook. This is NOT the same as when Lionel's, KB, and FAO Schwarz closed, as this is the LAST nationwide brick and mortar toy store in existence. There's a reason the stocks of major toy manufacturers such as Hasbro and Mattel are tumbling at the news.

No, it's certainly not the end of the toy industry, but this will have a HUGE impact upon it, make no mistake about it. Companies - especially smaller ones like NECA - will most likely end up making changes to their business to compensate for the huge loss in distribution and income. Prices will go up, some toy lines will be harder to come by or even be cancelled, and people - many people - will lose their jobs. But at least you won't lose sleep over it.

Plus I love how people complain that their TRU was poorly-stocked or managed and automatically assume that means that every TRU across the country was exactly the same. Personally, mine is clean, well-run, and always fully-stocked. I guess it helps that it's in a very busy shopping district and not way out in the middle of Bumblefuck, however.

Explain HOW it's not the same as other toy retailers biting the bullet? Why because there will be no stores just dedicated to toys ? You do realize walmart,target,even the disney store sells toys. How about BBTS, dorkside, entertainment earth? I could keep going but im sure you get my gist.

As far as me living as you call it "bumblefuck" i live in south florida. Im sure you heard of Ft Lauderdale and Miami. Definitely nothing compared to sticks or the midwest. My county alone there are 5 TRU locations. Out of the 5 i've been to at least 3 in my county and 1 in miami dade county. They all had poor inventory whenever you would walk into them. The local one to me which i went to literally a month ago was so disappointing i said i would try and not bother wasting my money,gas or time venturing over to that store again because it's a major letdown.

As far as Neca goes, florida stores Neca sections were less than a quarter of an aisle and some didn't even actually even carry the brand....

As far as people losing jobs. Well that's sad but there are once again numerous other retail jobs people can go and apply to. That's called life, It happens to all of us.

If people are worrying about prices going up then maybe it might be time to quit collecting for some.

[Dr Kain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tomax

you forgot FAO Schwarz.
woolworth? im surprised you know about that

We didn't have FAO Schwartz in Buffalo (at least I was never taken to one if there was).

However, my mom took me to Woolworth's every week as it was a 10 minute walk and she would buy her yarn from there. Not to mention they were my go to place for GI Joes when I was growing up. I got almost the entire Street Fighter II line from there.

There was a drug store right next to Woolworth's I went to that I would often get my Gobots from, but I can't think of its name right now.

[Dolemite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeddostotle7

Some good news: Apparently, MGA Entertainment (the company behind Little Tikes, Bratz, and L.O.L. Surprise dolls) has put in a bid to purchase Toys R Us' Canadian arm, as well as up to 400 of TRU's US stores.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ys-r-us-canada

Maybe my sister won't have to lose her job after all (keeping my fingers crossed reeeeeally hard that, if MGA or someone else does end up buying, that the store near me where my sister works is among those 400 stores).

Interesting! Let's keep our fingers and toes crossed!

[Dolemite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donmeca2020

Explain HOW it's not the same as other toy retailers biting the bullet? Why because there will be no stores just dedicated to toys ? You do realize walmart,target,even the disney store sells toys. How about BBTS, dorkside, entertainment earth? I could keep going but im sure you get my gist.

TRU was the last nationwide physical retailer dedicated to selling toys; if you don't get the ramifications of their closure and think Walmart, Target, and the like will take up the slack and the industry will not be affected in any meaningful way, I'm not going to argue with you. And I have no idea why you're bringing up websites, as that's not what we're talking about.

Quote:

As far as me living as you call it "bumblefuck"

Never said you did.

Quote:

My county alone there are 5 TRU locations. Out of the 5 i've been to at least 3 in my county and 1 in miami dade county. They all had poor inventory whenever you would walk into them. The local one to me which i went to literally a month ago was so disappointing i said i would try and not bother wasting my money,gas or time venturing over to that store again because it's a major letdown.

As far as Neca goes, florida stores Neca sections were less than a quarter of an aisle and some didn't even actually even carry the brand....

Note to self: Florida has shit TRUs. Sorry dude, the ones in NY are great.

Quote:

As far as people losing jobs. Well that's sad but there are once again numerous other retail jobs people can go and apply to. That's called life, It happens to all of us.

Empathy is a nice thing to have.

Quote:

If people are worrying about prices going up then maybe it might be time to quit collecting for some.

Eh, I can afford it.

[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Moore

That’s a tougher thing to do. I lived thru numerous huge corporations closing, and those spaces are all eyesores. Circuit City, HH Gregg, Borders, Phar Mor, Comp USA. I suspect the same will happen here.

Yeah, same here. Those ended up getting torn down mostly and rebuilt into something new.

But I am hoping that some TRUs could be rehabbed, unlike some of the others that had such designer locations and shapes, TRU has been keeping a more open windowed front design that's more open to an internal redesign. But really, only select locations may be open to that kind of redesign. Some areas may not be as open to it or it may incur some excess other costs.

Do wonder what this does to any last minute exclusives orders though. Like now with Arcee and Grotusque, what's going to happen to any overstock of those or future outlets for them?

Quote:

Originally Posted by donmeca2020

Explain HOW it's not the same as other toy retailers biting the bullet? Why because there will be no stores just dedicated to toys ? You do realize walmart,target,even the disney store sells toys. How about BBTS, dorkside, entertainment earth? I could keep going but im sure you get my gist.

As others pointed out, TRU was open to more diverse selections whereas bigger retail chains that handle more than toys typically aren't.

For example the recent Robocop movie line was pretty much only at Toys R Us. And there are other lines like that too. And the fact TRU (locally at least) had started offering an imported goods section was also a godsend. Target and Walmart aren't going to have that same kind of impulse shopping selection. Or for that matter, the 3 foot tall Godzilla again when the other Godzilla movies come out.

I don't know about you, but I'm not looking forward to having to pay shipping on Titan class city formers from transformers, or those other bigger releases like the upcoming Predaking, let alone how much shipping on a 3 foot tall godzilla would cost since I missed it the first time around. That's also not counting the hype sales from things like Pacific Rim 2 or similar movies. Toylines that other stores may not carry and will be relegated to online or overpriced specialty shops only.

Toys R Us closing is a sad day for a lot of future toyline potentials that may not have the same kind of big backing a blockbuster or long established brandname could give it. Which will make it harder to create new top-tier brand names from the ground up, and will mean further toy shelf dominance by the main big 3 of Mattel, Hasbro, and Lego.

This kind of massive shift will also mean other shifts in toy dynamics. TRU was a backbone of a lot of material to get case orders into higher numbers to allow them to get made. So we will see a gradual shift as those numbers backtrack because of the lack of general audience sales. Which means higher rarity on items, and higher prices as less are produced. General public sales are what were offsetting a lot of production costs and that's gone now for many lines without Toys R Us.

The back saddled debt was the main issue even if sales had started to climb. They had some great store moves to try and bring things to consumers they may not have gotten otherwise, and personally, I was looking forward to more of that as well.

It's thanks to TRU that GI Joe regained prominence, and even in it's last legs as a franchise, it was thanks to TRU we got some of those last packs with some neat new characters. It's thanks to TRU we got those Transformers boxsets, and exclusives, it was thanks to TRU we had gotten marvel movie 4'' still in two-packs and how well it sustained through them managed to get Target to pick up the video game ones, and the wider releases of the movie 2 packs now. Direct market sales are a niche that aren't that sustainable, it's the general market sales that made so much attainable.

[Joe Moore]

Updated with official word by Toys R Us on the closing of all stores.

Toys R Us Will Close all Of It's U.S. Stores - The Toyark - News

[Sender]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Moore

Updated with official word by Toys R Us on the closing of all stores.

Toys R Us Will Close all Of It's U.S. Stores - The Toyark - News

Sad news indeed.

I was among those who were keeping my fingers crossed with the MGA potential.

[diablogunner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyclopswc

Mark my words:

In the not too distant future, a dirty bomb; electromagnetic pulse; or just a bad computer virus will wipe out electronics as we know it, and all those "game systems" the kids are hooked on will become nothing but paper weight. Parents will be desperate for physical toys for their bratty kids, toys will become the currency of the New World Order and those of us who have a basement full of toys will RULE THE WORLD!!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Now this is what I am talking about! Muhahaha. But seriously, this sucks.

[Dolemite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Comedian

So when is the last day? My understanding is most of their product has not been paid for and will be returned to hasbro,Mattel and lego...etc. so do they just close up after Thursday?

I just read that if they do get permission to liquidate their inventory, the stores will possibly (maybe?) remain open throughout the end of the year. Of course, it's in their best interests to sell off their shit as quickly as possible to avoid paying extra rent.

Also, apparently TRU will be honoring gift cards for at least the next 30 days, so if you've got 'em, use 'em ASAP.

[donmeca2020]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dolemite

TRU was the last nationwide physical retailer dedicated to selling toys; if you don't get the ramifications of their closure and think Walmart, Target, and the like will take up the slack and the industry will not be affected in any meaningful way, I'm not going to argue with you. And I have no idea why you're bringing up websites, as that's not what we're talking about.

Never said you did.

Note to self: Florida has shit TRUs. Sorry dude, the ones in NY are great.

Empathy is a nice thing to have.

Eh, I can afford it.

Why am i bringing up websites? Because those are other places to buy what people are looking for. You said there will be no more toy stores and the world will go topsy turby.


The fact of the matter is these stores for god knows how many years have dwindled down in quality, lack of inventory, and employees who actually helped customers. This is not the same store i remember enjoying visiting with my parents and grandparents backin the late 80s and early 90s.

I tell you what Dole, i'll contact you in 6 months from now and i'll send a pic of the toys i bought at places i normally shop. Because i have a good feeling i'll continue to find marvel legends in walmart stores, Neca predators from their ebay store etc.

[Dolemite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donmeca2020

Why am i bringing up websites? Because those are other places to buy what people are looking for. You said there will be no more toy stores and the world will go topsy turby.


The fact of the matter is these stores for god knows how many years have dwindled down in quality, lack of inventory, and employees who actually helped customers. This is not the same store i remember enjoying visiting with my parents and grandparents backin the late 80s and early 90s.

I tell you what Dole, i'll contact you in 6 months from now and i'll send a pic of the toys i bought at places i normally shop. Because i have a good feeling i'll continue to find marvel legends in walmart stores, Neca predators from their ebay store etc.

Again, you're not reading. Or you are, and you're not comprehending. I mean, Snowflakian above posted an excellent rebuttal to you above that seems to have gone straaaaaight over your head as well.

Anyway, I'm not wasting any more time on lost causes. Enjoy your hobby!

P.S. It's topsy turvy, not turby.

[SpasticPlastic]

I just ordered the Ash Vs. Evil Dead Series 2 from TRU's site. 2 Ash, 2 Henrietta, and 3 Spawn. Man, am I hoping that's not the last order I ever place through them.

[Joe Moore]

Yes, the web savvy collector is going to seek out what they are looking for. What's being lost is the stumble into niche items that Toys R Us carries and most other physical retailers don't. How many non-comic shops stock NECA, Bluefin, or Mezco outside of one off items or a small feeble "Collector" endcap?

Companies like Funko, Hasbro, Mattel, LEGO, Bandai will all be fine. They have market saturation well beyond Toys R Us. They have their product in everything from Target, to CVS, and even Super Markets. But those places like Target and Walmart aren't going to open their shelves up suddenly to the lower tiered companies who aren't tied to evergreen brands or new trends in the toy world. Those companies are willing to be loss leaders in toys, knowing the average shopper who is shopping that section, is also picking up higher profit items such as clothes and household goods.

And that's where the loss of a toy-centric retail store comes into play. The collector isn't hurt. They're already shopping around. The NECA's of the toy world lose valuable foot traffic and sales to people who aren't "collectors" or seeking their items out.