I don't want to grow up...

I'm a Toys R Us kid... Was the jingle that defined the late Gen Xers, the Xennials (though I prefer the Oregon Trail Generation) and elder Millennials. But mostly the children of the eighties whose experiences with the Toy Giant have been Mostly wonderful. Let's be honest here. This isn't simply the death of a company.  Much like the death of Blockbuster Video, this marks the end of a friend... A Corporate Mascot friend. Many of us waited for the Sunday newspaper just to grab the TRU fliers and gaze at the wonderful toys within. We did our homework each week, even the dreaded chores were done just to have a chance of a Sunday adventure at the most amazing place to be a kid... And I ain't talking about Chuck E. Cheese.
Let me take you back to the past... To the early 90s (1990-1992 if I recall correctly) Toys R Us arrived to Puerto Rico. It's first store opening next to the Second Largest Mall in Latin America and Puerto Rico's first Mall, Plaza Las Américas. The lot built for Toys R Us was rather large. (Babies R us was barely 20% of the store's size. Currently it's about 50% of the store. More on that later.) Once you got in through the sliding doors it was like you had died and gone to heaven. Toys as far as the eye could see. First thing that caught my attention was the Batman toys for the Batman 89 movie. I pleaded with my old man to get some, but he said: No! Don't be an idiot! Don't fall for the first toy you see! Wise words, but in retrospect, he was probably afraid that I'd ask for the Batcave. (Which probably would've been too much for a bi-weekly toy bribe from a divorced parental unit.)
Luckily for him, I wasn't into Skinny Jeans He-Man, but I was into TMNT. With $15 I returned to his place with a Casey Jones, Metalhead, and a Rat King. Casey unfortunately broke. His left hand ended up being glued in place.
Not all the trips to TRU yielded toys, but it was exciting to see the toys and the game demos... Speaking of games, I wasn't able to get many games until the NES Stuff was on clearance... Stupid "you need to beat the game to get a new one" rule. So getting games back then was a hassle. You took a piece of paper with the name of the game, price and barcode to the cashier and paid for it. Then you'd go to a small window next to the cashier, where you handed over the receipt AND THE PIECE OF PAPER to the employee, who'd bring back the game.

Going every month was exciting. To see the new toys, the displays like those from the TV ads. If you were lucky, Geoffrey the giraffe would be strolling around the store on certain key dates. Eventually, the electronics section simplified the buying process, the toys got a bit lamer... (Late 90s toys were a bit lame) until ToyBiz and McFarlane brought some life to toys.

Then in the early 2000s TRU was my final hunting grounds for ToyBiz Marvel Legends and early Hasbro figures... Then came MOTUC and my visits to TRU decreased until  2014 when I started to expand my collecting by getting random non-MOTUC items every now and then. Then after Mom's passing, I've found myself going to TRU on my free time. Baby's R Us had overtaken half the store. The amount of toys available had decreased by 75% compared to the 90s.  These past few years, Toys R Us has become a hollow shell of what it USED to be. It was kind of disappointing to constantly go and return empty handed because they hadn't restocked.

But despite all that, according to people who have gone with me to Toys R Us, they say that I get a spring in my step and that I "glow" whenever I enter. And that's what's important to me. For 15-45 minutes, I can forget about bills, work related stress, my depression, my quarter life crisis (as I creep closer to mid-life), my heartbreaks, and everything else. To feel like a kid, just for a little while. To escape the room and gloom of adult life, for a few minutes. To reconnect with the inner child that I refuse to let go of. To be at a "safe space" or a "happy place". That's what Toys R Us means to me, beyond being a simple store. It's a monument to childhood... That was mercilessly assassinated by Mitt Romney's minions.

Sure, Toys R Us was never my #1 toy hunting spot (I would've had to take a bus, while KB was at walking distance from Campus) but it holds a special place in my heart. Knowing that soon it will be no more has made me cry, literally... As in tears are flowing out of my eyes as I write this and a stabbing pang of sadness has hit my heart.


Thank you for the toys and experiences, Toys R Us!!! We will miss you!!