Lionel Kiddie City [Archive] - Retrogaming Roundtable

lspear76

10-19-2007, 01:11 PM

Does anybody remember this toy/game store? The last time my brother and I were there, we bought Blades of Steel for the NES.

The only other time I can remember going there was when my brother tried to hook up the steering wheel accessory to the Colecovision system. He nearly got electrocuted and both the system and steering wheel were broken. We took the system back to Kiddie City and got a new one. The wheel -- I don't remember.

If there's anyone in the Lehigh Valley, PA on here (Allentown - Bethlehem - Easton) does anyone remember WHERE Kiddie City was here? We have a Toys R Us in Whitehall, and I remember Kiddie City being not so far away from it.

I don't know where to look to find out where exactly it was!

DreamTR

10-19-2007, 01:52 PM

That's the twin to Lionel Play World...we used to have those in Miami, tons of great NES games!

Bojay1997

10-19-2007, 02:18 PM

We used to have a place in San Diego called Mini City and another place called PlayCo which were essentially the same type of chain hobby/toy stores. They had little sections for video games, D&D, rocketry, models, action figures, toys, etc...Always had a great selection of stuff until both chains went out of business. Makes me sad that there aren't really any places like that anymore.

MrRoboto19XX

10-19-2007, 02:19 PM

Ah yes, Kiddie City, there used to be one near my secondary mall in Hannover PA. From what I remember, I always thought it was a notch above Toys R Us.

They had a Kangaroo for a mascot, if memory serves me right.

Push Upstairs

10-19-2007, 02:40 PM

All I remember going to was Lionel Play World to beg for toys, but I know those went away in like 1990 or somewhere around there.

Jimmy Yakapucci

10-19-2007, 02:43 PM

Frica89

10-19-2007, 03:42 PM

I live in Philly, there used to one on Cottman Avenue. I think it's a pet store now, like Petsmart or something. But yeah, that place kicked ass.

rarebucky

10-19-2007, 05:18 PM

They were big a Turbo supporter too...I still have one of the Turbo Express displays they gave me at the store. I even have a few sealed Genny games with Lionel stickers still on them. Cool!

Daria

10-19-2007, 09:50 PM

That's the twin to Lionel Play World...we used to have those in Miami, tons of great NES games!

Oh! I remember Play World... I used to go there with my mom to buy Timber Tops (Sylvan Families). I was really disapointed went they closed down.

fcw3

10-19-2007, 10:55 PM

There was one in Lancaster, PA on the Lititz Pike at the Lancaster Shopping Center. I think it is a craft store now (Michael's?)

FRED

kingpong

10-19-2007, 10:57 PM

I used to shop at that store as well.

I shopped at the Hanover PA store regularly as well. What are the odds of 3 DPers shopping at the same toy store 25 years ago? Also went to the Frederick MD store from time to time.

Before it was Kiddie City it was Toy Town. I know I have a number of boxes with Kiddie City price tags on them, not sure if I have anything with the Toy Town tags. Right now on eBay there is a roll of their Red Tag Special stickers - that's pretty tempting.

agent57

10-21-2007, 09:18 PM

Ah, I used to love this store. I used to go to both the Allentown, PA and King of Prussia, PA stores and always thought that they were better than Toy's-R-Us. The stores in my area always had BINS full of 2600 and 8-bit stuff at good prices, I bought tons of stuff there back in the day...

agent57

10-21-2007, 09:22 PM

Melf

10-21-2007, 10:39 PM

I got both my Master System and Genesis at Play World. Ahh, the memories...

Sniderman

10-21-2007, 10:54 PM

At one time, my town had:

Kiddy City
Children's Palace
K-B Toys
Toys R Us

Those were the glory days. Want a new game? Hit all four and buy the cheapest. Coupon out for one? Take it to one of the other three and demand a price match. Awesome days those. Only Toys R Us is still open now.

Push Upstairs

10-22-2007, 02:42 AM

Kay B was here, then left, then it returned only to close up again.

It's former place of residence is now a hair salon.

I miss Walden Software more than anything though. Always cool to browse there.

lspear76

10-22-2007, 07:47 AM

Oh yeah, the one in Allentown was next to the Levitt's furniture store (which I think is still there) on Macarthur Road...I think there's a Pier 1 store near there now. If you're coming into Allentown on 145 from Walnutport, it was on your right not far after you pass the Don Pablo's restaurant. Many happy times in that store!

Thanks Agent! I live right off of Macarthur Road these days, so it's good to have a frame of reference as to where it was. When we lived in Easton, driving to Whitehall to get to Toys R Us and Kiddie City was a huge deal. We returned a Colecovision system there, and bought some NES games. I'm not sure when it closed, because later on in 86 or 87 I think we went to Toys R Us exclusively. Thank you so much for answering my question.

lspear76

10-22-2007, 07:50 AM

Kay Bee Toy Store was great back in the day. It was our #1 place for getting new games -- we shopped at Kay Bee at the Palmer Park Mall, Lehigh Valley Mall, and PBurg Mall. Back in the day it was great -- you had no idea what games were coming out, and when you went to the store all the games were behind the cashier... you asked to look at each game and made you choice that way. LOL. At least we did. One week we went there to look at some Sega Master System games and could not decide what we wanted -- Zillion II, or some other games. We wanted Rocky and they were sold out. So we called Toys R Us and drove up there at night on a school night to get it. What a great memory.

Jimmy Yakapucci

10-22-2007, 12:19 PM

At one of our semi-local malls, whoops, they are upscale so they call them Towne Centers, they used to have a Babbage's upstairs and an Electronics Boutique downstairs. Buying a game used to be deciding whether to use the coupon at EB or get punches on the preferred customer card at Babbage's. Another mall that I occasionally go to has an Electronics Boutique on one level and an EB Games on the other and the stores are right over each other. Why, who knows?

JY

Xexyz

10-22-2007, 12:34 PM

I remember Kiddy City. There used to be one located a mile away from my house in a strip mall across the street from McDonalds and Wendys, in Cicero NY. My first big purchase from that place was a Gameboy with Tetris back in the summer of 91. $129.99 of my own money. Too bad I was only 8 didn't know what a Turbographx-16 (or even Genesis for that matter) was back then...

I know the chain lasted at least until 92-93, because the store near me had an SNES demo station with Super Mario World running on it at one point.

Was this an East Coast only chain? I notice everyone talking about it in this topic residing in PA at the time.

Jimmy Yakapucci

10-22-2007, 02:00 PM

Shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia:

After the sale of its train product lines, Lionel Corporation became a holding company that specialized in toy stores. By the early 1980s, Lionel operated some 150 stores[8], under the names Lionel Kiddie City, Lionel Playworld, Lionel Toy Warehouse, and Lionel Toy Town. For a time it was the second-largest toy store chain in the United States. Lionel ran into financial trouble during the early 1980s recession and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 1982. After reducing itself in size to 55 stores, it emerged from bankruptcy in September 1985.

By 1991, the chain grew to 100 stores and was the fourth-largest toy retailer in the country, but once again ran into trouble due to a combination of factors. In 1989 the Robert I. Toussie L.P., a partnership of several retail executives, attempted to buy the company. Lionel resisted, and the fight drained the company of cash. Meanwhile, non-specialty discount stores expanded their toy sections and undercut the prices of specialty toy chains.[9] Additionally, Lionel found it difficult to compete on price with the larger Toys R Us, and the chain attempted to expand too rapidly in a weakened economy.[10] After several successive unprofitable quarters, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 14, 1991. In 1992 Lionel attempted to reverse its fortunes by merging with the bankrupt Child World, the United States' #3 toy retailer, but was unable to secure financing.[11] By February 1993 Lionel had closed all but 29 stores in six states, concentrating on the markets of Philadelphia, Central New Jersey, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, and South Florida.[12] Unable reach an agreement for reorganization with its creditors, on June 2, 1993, Lionel announced its intention to liquidate all of its stores and go out of business[2].

Full history of Lionel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Corp.

JY

agent57

10-22-2007, 06:42 PM

Thanks Agent! I live right off of Macarthur Road these days, so it's good to have a frame of reference as to where it was. When we lived in Easton, driving to Whitehall to get to Toys R Us and Kiddie City was a huge deal. We returned a Colecovision system there, and bought some NES games. I'm not sure when it closed, because later on in 86 or 87 I think we went to Toys R Us exclusively. Thank you so much for answering my question.

Glad to be of service! I think the place finally closed in '89, as I recall.

Also, do you remember the Clover store in the Whitehall Mall, right next door to Toy's-R-Us? (This was back when that mall had stores inside and was not just a strip mall). Clover stores were also another excellent place to get Atari stuff, they had a HUGE 8-bit section back then. Hills, Micro Warehouse, Silo, and Best were also other great places to shop for Atari in the valley...and ALL of these are gone now. Man, the Valley really changed since those days, and not for the better I might add.

lspear76

10-22-2007, 07:10 PM

Glad to be of service! I think the place finally closed in '89, as I recall.

Also, do you remember the Clover store in the Whitehall Mall, right next door to Toy's-R-Us? (This was back when that mall had stores inside and was not just a strip mall). Clover stores were also another excellent place to get Atari stuff, they had a HUGE 8-bit section back then. Hills, Micro Warehouse, Silo, and Best were also other great places to shop for Atari in the valley...and ALL of these are gone now. Man, the Valley really changed since those days, and not for the better I might add.

I do not remember Clover inside the Whitehall Mall, but I do remember the Whitehall Mall being a lot better, I believe they even had an Electronics Boutique in there. Now it's nothing.

I DO remember a Clover right next to the Palmer Park Mall in Easton, PA. It was a huge store at the end of the mall, they had a great videogame section. My friend bought many Sega Saturn games in 95 or 96 for cheap prices when Clover closed in the mid 90's. My family used to shop at Clover all the time.

boatofcar

10-23-2007, 03:35 AM

I miss Walden Software more than anything though. Always cool to browse there.

I was under the impression that Walden Software just changed its name to Babbages...am I mistaken?

Push Upstairs

10-23-2007, 03:44 PM

A quick look on Wiki shows that Walden Software didn't become Babbage's or fold into Software Etc. or Electronics Boutique.

I could have swore the one here turned into an EB, but they are owned by two different companies.