I'll save a full review or going into any detail for later, but I was cleaning out an old box of stuff when some plastic utensils peeking out from under some paperwork caught my eye.
I STILL HAVE MY STAR TREK V MARSHMALLOW DISPENSER.
If you're not familiar with it, look it up...Attempting to do anything less than a full post about it would be fruitless, and like I said, I'm saving that for later. By the way, I should mention that strangely enough, I did see no. 5 in the theater. I was basically roped into going by my mother. I was about to type that at that time I wasn't even very aware of the original series, but I forgot that as a kid I watched the Filmation animated series on Nickelodeon quite a lot. I remember being sort of awed at both Iman and the depiction of god...Don't ask me who was freakier, though.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
KB Toys
Of course I couldn't be bothered to write any sort of post regarding the woeful current state of the economy unless it involves a toy store. Apparently KB Toys have filed for bankruptcy so this is most likely the end for them. I'm not really overly sad about it, because I never had much of a nostalgic connection to the store as compared with Children's Palace, and I haven't been in one for years.
The location closest to my house also had the unfortunate distinction of being the worst of the big 4 toy stores operating in the area. I've never seen or heard anything like it since, and reminds me of how well I had it as a kid. The area mall had a Kay Bee at one end and a Circus World at the other (eventually replaced by an Electronics Boutique). In fact, sometimes I can't sort out my memories of the two--I remember one of them sold the really bad 3 3/4 G.I. Joe knock-offs that were barely above bootleg toy level and made shit like The Corps and Bronze Bombers look good. THEYFIGHTFORJUSTICEANDNEVERLOSE. I think my parents liked Circus World because the prices were better. Diagonally across the street from the mall was a Children's Palace, and directly adjacent to the Children's Palace was a Toys'R'Us.
On the other hand, especially later on, it was nice that almost any mall of size had a Kay Bee/KB; though not as big as Toys'R'US, its small aisles were a welcome sanctuary for any kid weary of Sears, Lazarus, and JCPenney (of course I was always angered as a child that JCPenney had loads of toys in their Christmas catalog but nothing in the store). I should also probably harbor some resentment towards KB because I believe they bought out Toy Liquidators and made them kind of crappy.
Anyway, without further ado, some random KB memories which I'm too lazy to format into a nice cohesive paragraph right now:
My interest in Sky Commanders figures started there, as I bought a bunch of clearance figures and vehicles there with birthday money from my grandparents. My parents actually went to Toys'R'Us soon after and bought up everything I was missing except for one figure I couldn't find initially. If you're not familiar with the toys basically the gimmick is that the play environment is in midair since the toys in the line are designed to be suspended on strings and these fabric bands (think seatbelt material). Unfortunately no one told me owning every single one of the toys would create a mass of tripwires that effectively reduced the usable space of my room by 60%. I had fun cutting down all those lines.
I bought my tray-loading Sega-CD there. This was already after the top loading Sega-CD had been introduced, and I couldn't find the original design anywhere. I wanted it for two reasons--first, it looked much better with the original black rectangular model of the Genesis, and second, it came bundled with quite a lot of bonuses. Sol-Feace, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Dectective, some Sega classics 4-game disc, a CD+G compilation with Information Society and Hendrix among others (you won't believe how hypnotizing I found "Manic Depression" with all sorts of cheap scrolling graphics), and some music compilation CD that is probably the only time in history Saigon Kick and They Might Be Giants have been seen together. Most of this stuff was admittedly kind of crappy, but I never saw any of it sold seperately, and it's still more appealing to me than Sonic CD or Sewer Shark. I never really had any of the supposed problems with the tray that caused this version to be discontinued, and I can live without being able to play the Spiderman game which apparently doesn't work on the older model.
I actually went to Electronics Boutique first looking for the Sega-CD, and after I had gone to the other end of the mall and bought it at Kay Bee, went back to buy Lethal Enforcers at EB.
Bigger and better things I've missed have passed on, but still, I can't deny it was enjoyable to browse down those red-carpeted aisles, checking out the New Adventures of He-Man flight pod vehicle or those Robocop figures with the roll caps in the end-of-aisle clearance sections.
The location closest to my house also had the unfortunate distinction of being the worst of the big 4 toy stores operating in the area. I've never seen or heard anything like it since, and reminds me of how well I had it as a kid. The area mall had a Kay Bee at one end and a Circus World at the other (eventually replaced by an Electronics Boutique). In fact, sometimes I can't sort out my memories of the two--I remember one of them sold the really bad 3 3/4 G.I. Joe knock-offs that were barely above bootleg toy level and made shit like The Corps and Bronze Bombers look good. THEYFIGHTFORJUSTICEANDNEVERLOSE. I think my parents liked Circus World because the prices were better. Diagonally across the street from the mall was a Children's Palace, and directly adjacent to the Children's Palace was a Toys'R'Us.
On the other hand, especially later on, it was nice that almost any mall of size had a Kay Bee/KB; though not as big as Toys'R'US, its small aisles were a welcome sanctuary for any kid weary of Sears, Lazarus, and JCPenney (of course I was always angered as a child that JCPenney had loads of toys in their Christmas catalog but nothing in the store). I should also probably harbor some resentment towards KB because I believe they bought out Toy Liquidators and made them kind of crappy.
Anyway, without further ado, some random KB memories which I'm too lazy to format into a nice cohesive paragraph right now:
My interest in Sky Commanders figures started there, as I bought a bunch of clearance figures and vehicles there with birthday money from my grandparents. My parents actually went to Toys'R'Us soon after and bought up everything I was missing except for one figure I couldn't find initially. If you're not familiar with the toys basically the gimmick is that the play environment is in midair since the toys in the line are designed to be suspended on strings and these fabric bands (think seatbelt material). Unfortunately no one told me owning every single one of the toys would create a mass of tripwires that effectively reduced the usable space of my room by 60%. I had fun cutting down all those lines.
I bought my tray-loading Sega-CD there. This was already after the top loading Sega-CD had been introduced, and I couldn't find the original design anywhere. I wanted it for two reasons--first, it looked much better with the original black rectangular model of the Genesis, and second, it came bundled with quite a lot of bonuses. Sol-Feace, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Dectective, some Sega classics 4-game disc, a CD+G compilation with Information Society and Hendrix among others (you won't believe how hypnotizing I found "Manic Depression" with all sorts of cheap scrolling graphics), and some music compilation CD that is probably the only time in history Saigon Kick and They Might Be Giants have been seen together. Most of this stuff was admittedly kind of crappy, but I never saw any of it sold seperately, and it's still more appealing to me than Sonic CD or Sewer Shark. I never really had any of the supposed problems with the tray that caused this version to be discontinued, and I can live without being able to play the Spiderman game which apparently doesn't work on the older model.
I actually went to Electronics Boutique first looking for the Sega-CD, and after I had gone to the other end of the mall and bought it at Kay Bee, went back to buy Lethal Enforcers at EB.
Bigger and better things I've missed have passed on, but still, I can't deny it was enjoyable to browse down those red-carpeted aisles, checking out the New Adventures of He-Man flight pod vehicle or those Robocop figures with the roll caps in the end-of-aisle clearance sections.
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