My local KB Toys...R.I.P. 4-18-04

[Goodwill Hunter]

Happened to go by my local KB Toys today, and saw a big LAST DAY sign in the window...seems like it's been going out of business for months now. Went inside, and instead of a % off, everything $9.99 and less was 4 for a dollar, items $10.00 and over were 2 for a buck. Had I wanted to, I could have walked out with armloads of 50 cent PS1 RF cables, 25 cent Genesis Desert Strikes, and 25 cent Game.com Fighters Megamixes.

Instead, I picked up a mix of Game.com titles that had some trade promise like Centipede, Tiger Casino, Arcade Classics, the Internet pack, and some others, along with an Earthworm Jim and Gollum action figure. 3 bucks for the lot...not bad. In my younger days, I would have backed up the van and cleaned out the place, but now I just have too much junk already. I'm sure what's left will soon be headed to another KB about to close...oh well.

Goodbye KB Toys...sometimes you didn't suck too bad...

Rich

[Darth Vader]

There are also 2 closing in the Green Bay area and another closed a few years ago in the downtown mall. I miss getting brand new genesis systems there for $15! :D

Danny

[calthaer]

Anyone remember what the link is to their list of store closings?

[Richter]

http://www.kbtinfo.com/GOBStoreList012804.pdf

[Funkenstein]

I actually have a fond memory of the dump. When the PS2 was new and all but impossible to find I scoured the city looking for one to no avail. Dissapointedly leaving the sold-out EB in my local mall, I sat down on a bench outside the Kay Bee and thought long and hard about where I might be able to get myself one. It literally took me about 3 minutes to realize I was sitting outside a frickin' Kay Bee. So I went in and asked the girl behind the counter "Do you have any PS2's?" Her only reply was to point her index finger to the heavens. On a shelf above her head were at least 20 or 25 PS2's sitting there pretty as a picture.

So there you go.

"Kay Bee: So sucky, people don't think to even look there for PS2's before they shell $400 out to some dirtbag in a mall parking lot."

[Big Shady]

Oh man, I definitely would have walked out of there with a boat-load of stuff ebayed those suckers :)

[Funkenstein]

If I wasn't ridiculously poor at the time I would have. I ate Ramen and didn't buy anything for a month to save up for a PS2. If I had some serious money to invest at the time, I'm sure I could have made a few grand off ebay. It might have been before Christmas too...

[DigitalSpace]

We have two in the Portland, OR area that are closing and two that have closed already. (Along with two or three that aren't closing). I happened to be at Lloyd Center their last day. There was almost nothing. All of the aisles empty and closed off, and a small bin out in the front. One of the employees there told someone that the rest of their stuff had been shipped to another closing store. The stuff in the bin looked like it had been sitting in a box in the back for the last few years. It consisted of 10 or 15 loose Genesis titles (all sports titles, mostly college football, some basketball, and 1 or 2 baseball) for $3-5 each. There were a lot of new third party N64 RF switches for $10, some third party Dreamcast stuff, and I even found a loose manual for a Game Gear Berenstein Bears game. The rest of the box consisted of toy jewelry sets that looked like something you'd find at Dollar Tree, and a couple opened Wild Wild West figurines. Nothing interesting, so I passed it up. However, the store had a few Playstation, Gamecube and Xbox signs still up on the walls. I should have asked if anybody had claimed those already. :frustrated:

I should go over to the Gateway store sometime this week and see if they're still open and what they still have. Last time I was over there, near the end of March, everything was 40%-60% off and they had a lot of PSX, PS2, GC, and GBA stuff left. There were some third party N64 and DC accessories too. Nothing older than that, though.

[Funkenstein]

Are there any national chains besides EB, Gamestop and the increasingly defunct KB that sell the older stuff? 'Bout two years ago there was this completely shitty Toys 'R' Us that used to sell Sega Genesis games new and sealed, though the selection was lacking. The only two I bothered to buy were Mortal Kombat II and Contra: Hard Corps.

[DigitalSpace]

Are there any national chains besides EB, Gamestop and the increasingly defunct KB that sell the older stuff? 'Bout two years ago there was this completely shitty Toys 'R' Us that used to sell Sega Genesis games new and sealed, though the selection was lacking. The only two I bothered to buy were Mortal Kombat II and Contra: Hard Corps.

There's Gamecrazy (located at select Hollywood Video locations next to the store, and at some malls as well), and Gamerush (located at select Blockbuster video locations in the southeast).

To find Gamecrazy locations near you, go to http://www.gamecrazy.com and type in your zip code. For Gamerush locations, go to http://www.gamerush.com and click "info" on the main page and then "store locations".

Hope that helps.

[GunPanther]

It's a shame.

After nearly 20 years in operation, the Serramonte Mall's KB Toy Store in Daly City, California, finally shut it's doors about two weeks ago.

They made haste to replace the store lot and have already filled it:

A women's clothing shop called "Nina's".

geez.... it's bad enough that there are already dozens of female fashion stores in that mall. Now there's no more toy store. :(

That place was ransacked during it's final closing days. Nothing was left. Just crappy WWF figures in extrememly mangled packages as well as hundreds of RF switch units for different game systems. x_x







:2gunfire: GunPanther :snipersmile:

[Funkenstein]

Damn, both are only in the next state over. Thanks for the info though.

By the way, dun dun DUN dun DUN dun dun DUN dun DUN DUN... Do the mario!!!

[DigitalSpace]

It's a shame.

After nearly 20 years in operation, the Serramonte Mall's KB Toy Store in Daly City, California, finally shut it's doors about two weeks ago.

They made haste to replace the store lot and have already filled it:

A women's clothing shop called "Nina's".

geez.... it's bad enough that there are already dozens of female fashion stores in that mall. Now there's no more toy store. :(

Come to think of it, I was at Lloyd Center (Portland, OR) the other day, and I didn't check to see if the space KB was in was occupied yet. Oh well, at least the mall still has a Toys 'R Us.


dun dun DUN dun DUN dun dun DUN dun DUN DUN... Do the mario!!!

You're the first one to say anything about my sig. I remember "Do the Mario!" way too well. LOL

[Funkenstein]

I'm the first person to reference "Do the Mario" since you've joined? Wow, that's actually kind of surprising. I have the opening and closing songs on mp3 and drive my freinds insane with them on a regular basis. The best thing about "Do the Mario" is the fact that at the end of the little dance Lou Albano does he trips, and they left it in the final print, so it's at the end of every single show.


You should totally start calling everyone paisannos.

[DigitalSpace]

I'm the first person to reference "Do the Mario" since you've joined? Wow, that's actually kind of surprising. I have the opening and closing songs on mp3 and drive my freinds insane with them on a regular basis. The best thing about "Do the Mario" is the fact that at the end of the little dance Lou Albano does he trips, and they left it in the final print, so it's at the end of every single show.


You should totally start calling everyone paisannos.

Well, I've only had this sig since the beginning of the month. Like a lot of regulars here, I change my sig on a regular basis. But yeah, I've had this sig for two weeks and you're the first.

That trip was funny. Speaking of dances, the guy in your avatar seems to be doing one of his own. (I didn't play Punch-Out that much back in the day, so I apologize for not knowing the guy's name).

I've got to download that song someday. I haven't seen the actual show in years. Back in the mid 90's I had a tape with two episodes on them (one had Rowdy Roddy Piper as a guest star) but one day my stepdad accidentally taped over it. I don't know how he thought that was a blank tape. Here's hope I find one at a thrift or something in the future.

[josekortez]

I worked at KB Toys part-time for two years, but I stopped two years ago when I started grad school. I made a lot of good friends there. When I go back home, I always try to stop in and see them. One of my former managers lost his job when he moved to one of the outlet stores. I really need to call that guy. We actually became good friends, so I'm not sure where he ended up.

Also, while I worked for KB, I scored my PlayStation and N64/GameCube light-up signs and a broken kiosk Dreamcast (system only) with a copy of Toy Commander inside it. Working there was pretty cool.

[Funkenstein]

The summer after I graduated from high school ('99) I found out that one of my local channels played the Super Show every weekday morning at 8 am, and then another episode at 8:30. That was the most thoroughly entertaining hour of the day. My favorite episode was the one where Captain Lou Albano made an appearance, and Mario had to suddenly leave the room right away. I guess they didn't have the bucks for a split screen effect or something. Good luck getting those songs, I don't think they're very hard to find.

My avatar's King Hippo by the way. His deal was to wait until he opened his mouth, then punch him in the face, his pants would fall down, then start hitting that bandage on his stomach while he was trying to pull his pants up, (that sounds kinda wrong when you actually type it out) and when his life was gone he would do that little dance to the back of the ring and fall down. He never got up.

If you ever watched Captain N: The Game Master, he was one of the villians. Except for some reason he wore a broken crown, had gigantic sagging man-boobs and was a pale blue color. It's almost like they're trying to portray him as King Hippo's reanimated corpse, which is really disturbing for a kid's show.