I do remember the Toys for Joy stores in Upstate New York, though I had no idea there were so many at any time. My sister was a clerk at one for a while. When I moved to Rensselaer in 1991, the toy store was closed or closing; the Joy Department Store held on for just a little bit longer.
I also remember the Lionel Kiddie City on Erie Boulevard in Dewitt, NY, outside Syracuse -- it was round, with a roof that looked like a child's top (when there were such things, of course). It served for a while in the late '80s as one of the bigger locations of the Record Theater chain. It may still be standing, but I haven't been out that way in a long while -- it was certainly a unique building. (Unfortunately, Google's Street View doesn't quite reach that portion of Erie Boulevard!)
Toy Chains
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- Brian Lutz
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Re: Toy Chains
Back when I lived in New Mexico, there was a Lionel Playworld store in Albuquerque that we went to on occasion in the mid-to-late Eighties to early Nineties (I remember my parents buying NES games there, and I remember seeing sales brochures for the new NeoGeo system when it cost $600 to buy the system and the games were $200 apiece. If I had to provide a date range, I'd have to guess it opened sometime between 1986-1987, and I recall being there ar various times up until about 1992. I remember that the store was actually fairly large and somewhat warehouselike in overall appearance. I can't be entirely sure, but I seem to recall they had some sort of cartoon kangaroo as their mascot (Geoffrey ripoff anyone?)
The Sledgehammer - Version 2.0 - Seattle Area Malls, Retail History, and other random things.
Re: Toy Chains
The other names the Lionel Toy Stores operated under were:buckhead wrote:I remember Lionel Leisure City operation first...later rechristened Lionel Play World. I think the latter name may have represented scaled down stores.dth1971 wrote:Who remembers these former toy store chains that once rivaled Toys R Us?:
Child World
Children's Palace
Lionel Kiddie City
(Lionel) Play World
Also: For mallies there was Circus World, Toy Box, K & K Toys, Toys By Rizzi, and Playland Toys ...
<<Edited by moderator to consolidate multiple similar threads. Please do not start new toy chain threads.>>
There were also Toy Liquidators and Toyland stores that I remember.
- Lionel Kiddie City (Philadelphia, PA area)
- Lionel Play Town (Philadelphia, PA area)
- Lionel Playworld (outside the Philadelphia, PA area)
Re: Toy Chains
The Lionel Toy Store kangaroo mascot has been around since the late 1960's.Brian Lutz wrote:Back when I lived in New Mexico, there was a Lionel Playworld store in Albuquerque that we went to on occasion in the mid-to-late Eighties to early Nineties (I remember my parents buying NES games there, and I remember seeing sales brochures for the new NeoGeo system when it cost $600 to buy the system and the games were $200 apiece. If I had to provide a date range, I'd have to guess it opened sometime between 1986-1987, and I recall being there ar various times up until about 1992. I remember that the store was actually fairly large and somewhat warehouselike in overall appearance. I can't be entirely sure, but I seem to recall they had some sort of cartoon kangaroo as their mascot (Geoffrey ripoff anyone?)