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Last time I was in there (Christmas shopping last year) I spotted a couple of Polar Lights Ecto-1 kits on the shelves with the diecast stuff.  About fifteen years ago, they had aisle displays of kits at Christmas time, but they haven't had kits in a "normal" place on the shelves in nearly twenty years.  I remember when they cleared out the remaining kits back then, I bought a bunch of AMT Pro Shop '57 Chevies, $3.33 apiece.  They had the pro street and "basic" (no photoetch) versions, but I snagged the Pro Shop kits and resold them over the next year or two and fairly well with them.  I might still have one or two of them stashed from that deal.

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Heard that last night. Can remember in the 70's when they were one of the 'go to' places for models. The big one down the street from Disneyland had an entire aisle for models. Just the model cars were the full height shelves probably around 12 feet long. I was working at Hobby City model shop during some of the time and could find some things at Toy's R Us for cheaper then the wholesale price we paid. Then somewhere around early 80's they dropped them all, except for occasional holiday sales. Did grab a couple of those Pro Shop Chevies when they had them and also they had the AMT large scale FI SBC that I picked up one. Sold it off sort of regret that now. Oh well, got too many as it is.

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Anyone remember Child World?  They were THE toy store for kits in the late Seventies/early Eighties...they'd even have Jo-Han stuff every so often.  The toy selection was good too...that was my go-to place for Christmas shopping for my nieces...

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I worked the holiday season for them at my local store in 2013 and the problems were evident even back then. Our particular store didn't carry model kits, only diecasts. However, I recall seeing some of the Revell Build and Play Mustangs and Jeeps in other stores. That was about all I saw in the way of model kits. 

The Lego brand is what has reigned supreme at Toys'R'Us for a while now. 

Edited by av405
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Anyone remember Child World?  They were THE toy store for kits in the late Seventies/early Eighties...they'd even have Jo-Han stuff every so often.  The toy selection was good too...that was my go-to place for Christmas shopping for my nieces...

I do - I used to buy lots of toys and models there. Then Woolworth in Boston had a very nice selection of models and paints around the same timeframe.

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Child World had an awesome selection of models back in the early 70's. The original Ertl International truck kits sold for $4.99, AMT and MPC car kits were $1.79 everyday.

I remember Child World.  Seems the locations were absorbed by Toys R Us.

When I first got involved in models about 30 years ago,  right after Christmas Child World put all of their model kits on clearance.  They were like $2 each, so I went store to store and literally put the shopping cart under the shelf and just pushed all the models into it.  

Ancient Trivia -  my signature model, my 1953 Ford  "Pyrites Padler" camper was one of those Child World close out kits.

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This thread is a flood of nostalgia!  Toys R Us in the Los Angeles area had models up thru the mid-90s, IIRC.  I remember coming home from Saudi Arabia on vacation circa 1991, hitting the Burbank store, and buying the just-released AMT ECTO-1 '59 Caddy ambulance. Also the '41 Plymouth coupe, which hadn't been re-issued for a long time.

Two other long-gone California chains were plastic-kit gold mines: K-B Toys and PlayCo.  At one time, every big shopping mall seemed to have a K-B Toys. Even better, K-B had 2 huge outlet stores near me where they dumped OOP kits cheap. One at the old Samson Tire plant outlet mall in Firestone, and another up in Ventura at an outlet mall. The mall stores kept old models on the shelf forever, and would negotiate if the shrink-wrap had been removed.

There was a PlayCo in walking distance of my house, which was dangerous.  I remember them running a 50% off sale on Testors kits one time. Including all the Fujimi Ferraris etc. and all the 1/35 (ex-Italeri) military kits.  I may have filled up 2 shopping carts at that sale...

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I remember first shopping at Kay-Bee (K-B?) Toys and TRU in NE Ohio almost 30 years ago...in the malls in the Akron-Canton area..there was another chain toy store then that I remember--Child World or a similar name in the Belden Village Mall area of Canton specifically.   Though I don't recall ever getting models at them, it was all die cast...over the last 25 years living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Colorado, Arizona and now back in NE Ohio, I still occasionally went to local TRU, always looking for die cast..

Edited by Rob Hall
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