Austin, Patrick, Rob and Danielle discuss the sad news that is the end of Toys R Us, the store that has always held a special place in our gaming childhoods. We also discuss recent news about Luigi's bulge. It's a very special Friday episode of Waypoint Radio!
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I can totally relate to Rob with the early, encouraged, unsupervised exposure, but only with books. I was in third grade on a family beach trip and my mom tossed me my first Stephen King. I think I ended up doing a book report on some Stephen King while at my Catholic middle school, and eventually in eighth grade there, one on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which was a trip.
Also, it goes Mario Nipples, Luigi Bulge, and then Toad Taint, soā¦ look forward to that.
Toys R Us isnāt officially dead in Canada yet (itās on the brink though), butā¦
I think the best memory I have of Toys R Us was going to a huge one (to me) on Christmas Eve to buy a Nintendo 64. I was I think 7 years old at the time and my siblings and I saved up our money (which was truthfully probably only $150-$200 at the time. The oldest of us was 14) and got the console, Mario Kart 64, and a controller for each of us. The rest was kind of our combined christmas present and, even though my cousins (who we were visiting for Christmas) didnāt have a TV that could take a composite input and we had to grab an RF switch on boxing day, it was still a very excited Christmas for all of us.
Other than that, I didnāt really go to Toys R Us that much. We didnāt have one in town and when we visited somewhere that did, my parents determined we had better things to do. Once I went to university, I had access to one, but never felt the need to go outside of the odd game deal (buy two, get one free 3DS games was always a good time). Honestly, I think the most I went to Toys R Us was during the height of the amiibo craze, which peaked at me standing outside of one at 3:30 a.m. to get the Lucina and Robin amiibos.
I went to my childhood Toys 'R Us for the last time in 2012, about a year before Iād started working at the mall adjacent to it, both of which fell into shambles around that time. Unfortunately the 2008 recession hit that area of town so hard that most business either shuttered or movedā¦ I used to go to that Toys 'R Us (and that mall) with my grandparents so often, but theyāre both gone now, and Iām kind of glad I didnāt get the front row seat to the Toys āR Usā failure like I did when I worked at the mall in its final months.
I vividly remember going to the Toys R Us a lot growing up as we didnāt have a GameStop or EB Games until I was 12 or 13. I spent a lot of time in the video game corner looking at GameBoy and GBA games just to burn time while my mom was at the salon right next door. About three years ago, my mom even took my younger cousin on a Toys R Us āshopping spreeā for his birthday. Which reminds me that I never got the chance to compete for the shopping sprees offered in up in all the Nick GAS sports like Legends of the Hidden Temple and GUTS. I still have been going there every year on Black Friday because they had great deals on amiibo and games. Iāll miss Toys R Us for sure!
