r/ToysRus

Forever a Toys R Us Kid. Born in 2007. Registered at Babies R Us when born. Original nursery babies r us furniture. Walked around the isles as a kid, taking in all the magic.

So, I've gotten around nostalgia lately, watching abandoned videos and such. College is so freaking stressful , and I just want to just let it all out and be a kid again. Being an adult is hard. I was wondering how my favorite store is doing. I found out that there's a TRU an hour from me. Well, okay.

I took the journey up there. My childhood Tru closed when I was 11 in 2018. I remember very vividly crying at the store closing signs and the empty store. My store was one of those white and rainbow stores, opened in 1995. The store actually stood abandoned for 2 years, the sign was still up and all that! But, it was demolished and was turned into some fast food restaurants.

I got there and immediately saw my favorite giraffe. ITS BEEN 8 YEARS GEOFFREY!!! I took some pictures with him of course, then I bought a lego set I liked and took some pictures of the store itself. It's just a small Macy's one. Nothing real special..

I came on here to share my experience of going to my favorite store after 8 years. I hope y'all like it thank you for reading. I included a picture of my Geoffrey plush and old gift card from my collection as well.

This photo is really iconic - it's in a lot of TRU videos and I've been on a little quest to discover more about it.

Allegedly it was built in the car park of a White Front department store - a chain owned by Interstate Stores (TRU's parent at the time) - and had the address of 21220 Hawthorne Boulevard.

It had a life of around a decade, opening in 1968 and shuttering in 1983 when Toys 'R' Us moved to a recently abandoned Treasury Department Store up the road, where the chain remained until its permanent shuttering in 2018. Some time between then and 1994 the building was demolished, as the earliest satellite photos I can find of it on Google Earth Pro show the site as completely flat.

A few years before closure, it featured at the end of an ad with Artie Johnson as a detective examining Toys 'R' Us's selection of products, likely produced around the mid-1970s and played until at least 1981, seen in image 2. (Here it is if anyone wants to watch it: https://youtu.be/m1NdzQIY_0w?si=1RV_fCGxzCvp-BAv )

(On the topic of the 70s TRU spots, the location of the store that Geoffrey and his family dance in front of in a lot of those ads is another personal white whale of mine, but that's besides the point)

If anyone has any more pictures or info about this store I'd love to see or hear them.

He was the Geoffrey I grew up when I was young. In fact, some countries did have '99 Geoffrey in the 2000s (even though realistic Geoffrey was used), and he is also seen in very early phases of modern Toys "R" Us posters in mid 2007.

Hate to be a giveaway guy but according to the trivia, Modern Geoffrey is 9.5 years old!

It was like a time ride!

Ok so yesterday I went to my local five below,, and I only saw sanrio mystery toys.

(I never buy them because I get very disappointed if I don’t get pompom lol)

But today I went to a five below in New Jersey!
There were so much Sanrio stuff, I only managed to find this pompompurin plush.

I’ve seen other people have it before, but I could never see it myself. Or maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough 🥲

But now I have one, so cute!!!! I like this ice cream theme, now they’ve got me wondering if there’s an ice cream themed pompompurin.. 🤐 definitely on the lookout

Both images stores have closed :(