Tag: toys

Like everything else I write about here, I am more inclined to describe the memories I have attached to whatever I’m talking about, rather than give a history lesson. I just have a lot of big feelings about random things lately, especially stuff I grew up with. Recently, my local mall closed, and it really hit me like a ton of bricks. I started thinking about all the stuff I grew up with that no longer exists, and how malls (and to a lesser extent mall culture) are one of the last holdouts from my childhood. 

As a kid in the 80’s and 90’s, malls were a magical place to be. I remember walking around people watching, bouncing from store to store looking for that perfect thing to spend my money on. As teenagers, the local malls were a central hub for us to meet, grab a bite to eat, and then plan out the night. As an adult, they are becoming a fading memory of what once was. 

Much of my formative years were spent in a small town in Northern California. We didn’t have many big box stores around the area, but there was a pretty rad mall. It was semi-famous at the time because a few episodes of America’s Funniest People were filmed there for some reason. I didn’t care about any of that though. When I was there, it was for Kay-Bee Toys (Rebranded as “KB” in the late 90s). Well, that and the arcade, of course. 

The best way I can describe KB Toys is that it’s the retail equivalent of one of those weird, syndicated shows that you would watch at odd hours of the day on random channels. They were entertaining and quirky, even had some good actors, but just never made it to those primetime slots. And that’s how KB’s was. Fun, quirky, even had some really good stuff to buy, but always had that “mall store” feal to it. In fact, the second you entered a mall you could actually hear KB’s. No matter where you were, you could hear the faint echoes of little barking dogs doing backflips, plastic balls with raccoon tails connected to them rolling around that distinct mall tile floor, and my all time favorite, the penguins that walk up the steps and go down the slide. I hate to say it, but it’s definitely one of those things you would have to experience to fully understand.

Inside was a masterful blend of old stuff, new stuff, and stuff that was absolutely bizarre. With the internet being in the palms of our hands at all times these days, it’s really easy to find even the most obscure things. However, thirty-five years ago that wasn’t the case. Much of what KB’s had to offer was a novelty to see back then. For example, I used to buy a lot of weird knock-off Power Rangers figures called Sonic Rangers. Each figure had the same accessories, and they were all from the same mold, but the eyes lit up and that’s all it took to captivate me. Man, I wish I still had those! 

That was half the fun of KB’s though. You were never 100% sure what kind of oddball things you would find with each visit. For example, as a kid I remember there was always a large inventory of Robocop figures. As an adult that lived in a different part of the country, I once stumbled on to those same exact figures. They must have had thousands of cases of those figures scattered around various warehouses or something. There were also these awesome Terminator hand things, with a Wolverine claw that would attach to it. They were a big hit once we figured out they could give the middle finger. Once KB’s closed down I never saw those again. 

During my teenage years, the video game section is where you would mostly find me. Like everything else in the store, you never knew what you would find. In the early 2000’s I stumbled on to a bargain bin filled with NES games. I distinctly remember picking up Metroid, Legend of Zelda, and Star Tropics. Some other notable finds were a heavily discounted Atari Jaguar with a dozen or so games, a Virtual Boy, and a Sega CD. Sadly, I sold all of those at a single garage sale so I could buy Resident Evil for the PS1. OOF! 

Unfortunately, KB Toys shut its doors in 2009. Another victim of Bain Capital buying up a business just to transfer debt and force a bankruptcy. A similar fate that Toys R Us faced less than a decade later. The fact that I am getting old is really starting to set in as I see more and more of what I grew up with slowly disappear. Circuit City, Suncoast Video, Funcoland, Radio Shack, KMart, etc. All staples of my childhood, all gone. Like I said, my local mall shut down in January and is set to be demolished this summer. They are putting Costco there. And the local Toys R Us, well that’s a car dealership now. Who knows though, maybe I will have nostalgia for Costco and car dealerships one day too?