…and the cities were barren of purveyors of playthings. The people were sore afflicted, and great was the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
This call of distress has been brought to you by the fact that there is a toy store in Fall River, MA, Tony’s Toys, where I would like to browse. [I would like to purchase ZC Girls Janice there, actually.] However, public transit does not extend to Fall River, and I feel ridiculous purchasing something from this store and having it shipped from so close [yet so far away].
In the past 10 years, opportunities to buy toys have really dwindled around Boston metro. There used to be an FAO Schwartz in the middle of Boston, but that closed in 2002, I think. There used to be a Toys R Us by Alewife in Cambridge, but I think it might be closed. After years of financial hardship, Kaybee Toys is going out of business, which means that its location in the Cambridgeside Galleria is closing. At this rate, there are no major toy-focused retailers in the area!
One can purchase one’s toys from mega department stores such as Walmart or Target, but the selection there tends to be haphazard and disorganized. One can also purchase one’s toys from comic shops, but their selection tends to be small and marked up. One can also purchase one’s toys from small independent retailers — I really like Henry Bear’s Park, especially since they started carrying Iwako erasers — but small, independent retailers shun fashion dolls and action figures.
I get a lot of my toys online now.
2 Comments
Speaking of toys, you want this scuba pack or not? xD Just let me know, so i can pass it on to someone else if you don’t.
Crapadoodle. :/ I know exactly what you mean as we are losing our two KayBee’s and that leaves us with one really poorly managed and probably about to go out at any second Toys R Us. Target and WallyWorld are unreliable at best. *sigh* Anything of actual quality or value (like Re-Ment, etc.) no one even carries around here. (Capitol Region NY). Or has heard of, for that matter. Mention Dragon or Hot Toys even at “specialty hobby shops” (I use the quotes for sarcasm as this generally refers to “we have everything you need to make a model car, plane, or train–and nothing else >:/ ) and you will get a blank stare. For a collector/customizer, it’s a real problem. 🙁
There are a couple of good shops down NYC way but that’s a hike–Tokyo Toy and Mars NY in Edgewater, NJ, but they are a hike, cool as they are.