This is bad news for kids. For adults. For the entire toy industry.
The fate of Toys R Us has been hanging in the balance ever since we learned last year that 180 stores around the United States were going to be permanently shutting their doors, a result of the company filing for bankruptcy as it found itself swimming in debt. More recently, we learned that ALL U.K. locations were shutting down.
And our worst fears were confirmed just last night when it was reported that, in all likelihood, all remaining U.S. stores will also be closing up shop this year. The chain, founded in 1948, is expected to “liquidate the existing inventory in all 735 remaining U.S. stores and begin an orderly wind-down of the U.S. operations.”
There is a small chance, via Washington Post, that MGA Entertainment could purchase a handful of Toys R Us’ most profitable locations and keep them running despite the overall downfall of the company (“I’m going to try to salvage as much of it as possible,” said MGA’s chief executive), but no deal has been reached at this time.
The sad death of Toys R Us will put some 30,000 employees out of work, and it’s also expected to have a significantly negative impact on the entirety of the toy industry. Yes, this impacts the world of horror toys, as one of the companies that’s going to feel the impact of Toys R Us’ death is the leading purveyor of horror toys, NECA.
If you take a trip to your local Toys R Us tonight (and we urge you to cherish that place while you can), you’ll see an entire section dedicated to “adult” collectibles, home to all kinds of horror offerings from companies like NECA, Mezco, McFarlane and Funko. Toys R Us has for several years now been pretty much the only brick-and-mortar shop where you can find a kickass array of horror toys; Freddy, Jason, Gizmo, Xenomorphs, Predators and characters from “The Walking Dead” sit side by side on their shelves.
Now here’s the problem. Those aforementioned companies don’t have much of a brick-and-mortar presence, if any at all, outside of Toys R Us, which means that sales from TRU, a massive retail chain that spreads across the entire United States, are (presumably) an integral part of their sustainability. For NECA in particular, getting their movie toys onto the shelves of Toys R Us was HUGE, needless to say, and they’re going to be dealt a pretty significant blow when the chain’s closure brings an end to their deal.
Same goes for Mezco, McFarlane Toys, and likely to a lesser degree given their mainstream popularity and presence in pretty much every store in America, Funko.
Of course, we have no real way of knowing precisely how these companies will be impacted, and we won’t know until some time down the road, but we’re looking at a seismic change in the toy industry once Toys R Us is officially no more. And on a personal, consumer level, we’re looking ahead to a future without a prominent store to browse and buy toys in. Visions of Blockbuster are dancing in our heads right about now, as the death of Toys R Us is hauntingly similar to the death of Blockbuster several years back.
For me personally, Toys R Us has remained a regular stop in my weekly travels; at 31, I’m still a “Toys R Us kid,” paying my local store a visit nearly every Friday night for the past several years as a way of making myself feel like a kid again. Those visits will be sorely missed, and my heart breaks for the many employees who will soon be out of work.
What did Toys R Us mean to you? Share your memories below.
