[GeraldE61]

Hi, I'm Gerald and I'm middle aged. Whew, I finally got that out, that's step one.

Was wandering around the grocery store this AM, picking up this and that, and I remembered that as a kid, 1967 on, when the family would go grocery shopping, my brother and I would run to the toy section and look at the HWs and other diecast. I think most of my early diecast came from that same store. We didn't have a toy store back then in this town.

Where did you find them as a youngster.

 

[robmcin]

Prospect Variety Store, they had EVERYTHING!!

Also Hobbytown in downtown Peoria, I would take the bus down and wander up and down the narrow dusty aisles looking at slots and trains and diecast cars, make my selection then go over to my grandma's office and wait for her to get off work to give me a ride home.

Also Bergner's downtown.. the whole 5th floor was a toy department (remeber those? before TRU?) especially at Christmas when they would really stock up

Thakns for the memories

 

[wawaallen]

K Mart, Rose's and of course Sears.....remember when Sears had the Toy Box at Christmas? :wave:

 

[jasydad]

Woolworth's and McCrory's. I found every one of the original Hotwheels at McCrory's, and of course took them home, ripped them open, and smashed them into the walls and each other.

 

[ParkRNDL]

Most vivid memories are TRU, when they had normal aisles instead of the goofy setup they have now. I remember I loved getting Tomy Pocket Cars there... and they also had Zymlex or Zee or some other off brand that had some cool models. Also, way back in some hazy memory, I seem to recall getting a Matchbox Superfast Iso Grifo in one of the old-style cardboard boxes at Mays department store...

--rick

 

[SiNutt]

JJ Newberrys and the hobby shop across the street in downtown Kennett Square, PA circa 1970...(Now I am racking my old, tired brain trying to remember the name of that hobby shop)

It was Mancill's Hobby Shop...it came to me about 5 hours later...the former owner still lives in my hometown...wonder if he's got any good stuff stashed in his basement? [wheels begin to turn in his head]

 

[zeb41]

Meijer and Kmart stores.

 

[MGroothuis]

I used to get them at G.L. Perry in Niles in Eastgate shopping center. I remember looking throught the Matchbox cars, barely tall enough to reach the shelf. They were still in the individual boxes then. Nothing left of Eastgate now. Amazing how fast a small shopping strip can evaporate.

 

[micyou03]

I was a kid in the 70s. I don't remember getting them. I just remember having them (Hot Wheels) and smashing the with a hammer or blowing them up with firecrackers. Maybe my parents just picked them up for me. I remember going out to buy slot cars.

 

[modsquad]

I found diecast at many stores as a kid whenever my mother would drag us along shopping. Kress, Grants, Zody's, Gemco, Newberry's among others. I recall buying Topper Johnny Lightning cars at Grants for .29c each. I remember a large bin filled with nothing but Toppers; Vultures, Smugglers, Tripple Threats, GTO's, Jags and Condors. Hundreds of them in all the Topper colors...(if HG Wells and his time machine were real, I'd be a millionare!).

However most of what I found was at a TG&Y store that was close enough that I could walk to (the letters of the name of this store indicating the three Jewish owners but I always said it stood for T0-GYP-YOU).

The store was built in 1972 (part of a Vons Shopping Center).

This store was along the same lines as a WoolWorths or Newberry's. Typical dimestores with just about everything. They had 4 isles of toys, one of which was all diecast. They carried Hot Wheels (including Zowies and tons of Sizzlers), Matchbox and more Playart FastWheels than I can ever recall.

Infact the Playart section was bigger than the HotWheels. They had every (now hard to find) Playart car made. I recall going on "candy runs" for a friend of mine who lived close (he would rob 20.00 from his fathers wallet everday) and he would have me buy 10.00 worth of RainBlow bubblegum and with the other 10.00 I got to keep. I had a gigantic collection of Playarts and Sizzlers I aquired this way.
The 150+ Sizzlers I lost in a house remodel (they are somewhere in the floorboards of my folks houese) and the Playart cars (literally hundreds of them, all early style hub wheels, many with spectraflame paint cars)...I destroyed with lighter fluid and fire crackers.

Bittersweet memories. If I had only known...

:wave:

 

[owl]

Kmart, Zayre, and the Ben Franklin 5 & Dime.

 

[MissouriMike]

Roberts Leather Goods was a western store smelling of saddles and tack, boots, etc, but behind the counter they had some of those wire racks that held the Matchbox cars in their boxes, dispenser-style. Daytons Hobby Shop had the rotating display of Matchbox cars in the vinyl tower, so you could just point and ask for cars by number. Daytons was cool because they had a giant (caution: childhood memory exaggeration!) slot car track that we would race cars on.

Daytons is still in downtown Emporia, but the slot car track and the vintage Matchbox are long gone.

Mike

 

[Wyatt]

K-Mart, TG&Y, Woolworths, Woolco, Gayfers(Pocket Cars), Zayre, & K&B(I think that was the name).

 

[GeraldE61]

Anyone remember TRU's Previous name? I have a Tootsietoy with it on it.

 

[BFK]

I remember getting them when I was a kid at Two-Guys and Jamesway stores

 

[Mark Hosaflook]

Ben Franklin's five and dime, G. L. Perry's, SS Kreske (K Mart) and McCombs on Portage Ave.

There was this punk kid in Niles always trying to corner the MI scene. One day my buds and I rolled him around in the rocks and made him put on a dress. It was at the Eastgate center. We always wondered what happened to him?

 

[StreetFreak]

The place I got mine was at the ONLY hobby toy store in our town and the cars were the "original" matchbox made in England. Either the other X brands had not come out yet, or the Matchbox numbered cars is what really interested me. The cars were setup in a case that I believe were numbered 1-50. You would tell them which number you wanted and they would pull out a boxed one from behind the counter. The worst thing as a kid was to have the guy tell you that they were out of that number! The cost ran from $0.50 to somewheres around $2.75 depending on if it was 1:64 or 1:43 scale and how detailed it was. It seemed like back then that there weren't many cars, but mostly trucks, buses, and various types of bulldozers or tractors.

I bet that most of those cars that I saved my allowance up to buy are still buried in sandboxes around the country that my Dad build for us, at each house we lived in! LOL

 

[owl]

There was this punk kid in Niles always trying to corner the MI scene. One day my buds and I rolled him around in the rocks and made him put on a dress. It was at the Eastgate center. We always wondered what happened to him?

He now collects long range high-powered rifles, tapes pictures of shaved monkeys to his dresser mirror, and still wears the latest trends in women's fashions....

And he has a list of enemies...

:freak:

 

[robmcin]

Yea, but he won't show up at TRU if somebody is waiting for him there!!!

 

[MGroothuis]

pictures of shaved monkeys to his dresser mirror

They don't need to be shaved.