D&D and Toy R' Us • Collecting General • The Acaeum

The Acaeum Forums • Collecting General

D&D and Toy R' Us
	Page 1 of 1

Author

robertsconley
Prolific Collector

Posts: 205
Joined: Oct 25, 2006
Last Visit: Jun 16, 2026

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:33 pm

Doesn't anybody have any data on how well D&D sold at Toy R' US, when it finally disappeared and why?

I

JasonZavoda
Long-Winded Collector
JG Valuation Board

Posts: 3823
Joined: Jul 12, 2007
Last Visit: Dec 17, 2021

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:51 pm

robertsconley wrote:Doesn't anybody have any data on how well D&D sold at Toy R' US, when it finally disappeared and why?

I

They used to sell D&D at JCPennys and KB Toy and Hobby too. I don't know how it did but I remember the fantastic liqaudation deals. The .66c module liqaudation sale at Toy's R Us and the 1.99 boxed set liquadation sale at KB. Everything shrinkwrapped.

nerelas
Active Collector

Posts: 23
Joined: Jul 24, 2008
Last Visit: Jan 24, 2009

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:31 pm

Yeah, I remember those sales too. There was one Kaybee in a mall near my grandparents' house that was actually closing its doors, and they had everything D&D/AD&D for 75% off. I remember that they still had a good amount of OD&D stuff in stock, and I was really interested in picking up as much as possible. Unfortunately, being 11 years old, I had no money on me. The grandparents were enthusiastic about the discounts and willing to treat, but as soon as they saw the cover of Eldritch Wizardry my hopes were dashed.

I think I ended up with some Star Wars figures or some other BS <sigh>. At $1 or $2 each, I could be making huge profits selling those books on eBay now. What I wouldn't do for a time machine..

Charles G.
Active Collector

Posts: 78
Joined: Sep 02, 2004
Last Visit: Oct 10, 2019
Location: Los Angeles

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:45 pm

nerelas wrote:Yeah, I remember those sales too. There was one Kaybee in a mall near my grandparents' house that was actually closing its doors, and they had everything D&D/AD&D for 75% off. I remember that they still had a good amount of OD&D stuff in stock, and I was really interested in picking up as much as possible. Unfortunately, being 11 years old, I had no money on me. The grandparents were enthusiastic about the discounts and willing to treat, but as soon as they saw the cover of Eldritch Wizardry my hopes were dashed.

I think I ended up with some Star Wars figures or some other BS <sigh>. At $1 or $2 each, I could be making huge profits selling those books on eBay now. What I wouldn't do for a time machine..

Not only that, but the original Deities & Demigods with the Cthulhu & Melnibonean mythos were going for something like $3.99 or maybe $2.99 if I recall correctly...

ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!

robertsconley
Prolific Collector

Posts: 205
Joined: Oct 25, 2006
Last Visit: Jun 16, 2026

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:02 pm

So was this sale before or after the release of 2nd edition?

TheMilford
Prolific Collector

Posts: 721
Joined: Aug 28, 2007
Last Visit: Dec 31, 2021
Location: Brooklyn

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:19 pm

I remember sometime right around 2E, maybe just before, KayBee and other Toy stores liquidating modules.

I picked up a bunch of early Gamma World modules and the screen as well as SF stuff, MarvelRPG stuff and some D&D modules... mostly B, DA and X series stuff.

grodog
Grandstanding Collector

Posts: 5923
Joined: Nov 16, 2002
Last Visit: Jul 31, 2026
Location: Wichita, KS, USA

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:40 pm

Well-before. 2nd edition launched sometime in 1989, and by then I was in college: the KB Toy & Hobby sales were definitely before then. I remember lots and lots of marked down FFs at the KB in the Cherry Hill Mall (in South Jersey), and I picked up some GW scenarios, and likely some D&D modules I didn't have at the time, too. I think I still have one or two of those in shrink. Hmmm. Have to check.

Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
Greyhawk, grodog Style

Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
https://www.facebook.com/BlackBladePublishing/

TheMilford
Prolific Collector

Posts: 721
Joined: Aug 28, 2007
Last Visit: Dec 31, 2021
Location: Brooklyn

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:46 pm

It was after 1986 at the very earliest since that's when the mall with the KayBee opened.

Prolly 1987-1988...

robertsconley
Prolific Collector

Posts: 205
Joined: Oct 25, 2006
Last Visit: Jun 16, 2026

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:30 am

So was the likely cause? TSR flooding the market with too much product or interest in D&D imploded.

TheMilford
Prolific Collector

Posts: 721
Joined: Aug 28, 2007
Last Visit: Dec 31, 2021
Location: Brooklyn

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:26 pm

Could have been a distributor liquidating and not so much TSR per se.

I remember it was mostly non-D&D stuff. Although now that I think about it I think this is where I picked up my the following: Dungeon Master's Design Kit, DA3, WG6, C6, M2, M3, N2, and C4

But mostly is was Star Frontiers, Marvel SH, Top Secret and Gamma World modules and screens. I actually picked up the MSH boxed set this way.

They were always over with the coloring books. I still to this day when I'm in a toy store or dollar store I take a quick dig through the kids coloring books... you never know.

Kingofpain89
Long-Winded Collector

Posts: 4756
Joined: Oct 31, 2004
Last Visit: May 02, 2025
Location: Caddo Mills, TX

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:48 pm

robertsconley wrote:So was the likely cause? TSR flooding the market with too much product or interest in D&D imploded.

Could have been both. That is exactly what happened with the video game industry in the early 80's. Manufacturers like Atari were pumping out tons of crappy games and eventually people stopped buying them because they sucked. Stores had no choice but to drop the prices considerably and still people werent buying them. I rememeber still seeing Atari cartriges in toy stores in the early 90's for a buck apiece.

You heard what happened with all the unsold copies of Atari's E.T. The Extraterrestrial cartridge? They buried them in an undisclosed location somewhere near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Maybe there are thousands of shrinkwrapped Dragonlance modules buried somewhere in Wisconsin? :wink:

You don't like your job, you don't strike. You go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way. - Homer Simpson

g026r
Verbose Collector

Posts: 1324
Joined: May 28, 2007
Last Visit: Aug 27, 2011
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 1:04 pm

Kingofpain89 wrote:You heard what happened with all the unsold copies of Atari's E.T. The Extraterrestrial cartridge? They buried them in an undisclosed location somewhere near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Along with the piss-poor port of Pac-Man, as I recall. They also smashed them and then filled the hole with concrete in order to discourage scavagers.

"Reader, Carthegena was of the mind, that unto thoſe Three Things, which the Ancients held Impoſſible, there ſhould be added this Fourth ; To find a Book Printed without Errata's."

TheMilford
Prolific Collector

Posts: 721
Joined: Aug 28, 2007
Last Visit: Dec 31, 2021
Location: Brooklyn

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 1:07 pm

I must have spent ALL of my allowance on TSR and Atari stuff from 1985-1990... I remember Toy Works used to have TONS of Atari carts and Joysticks on clearance. I have so much Atari stuff it's stupid

In 1992 or so Dave Sutherland told me that the Mailorder Hobby Shop would throw out returns on discontinued modules. He said he would save some of them if they were in good shape, especially the ones he worked on.

There must have been something going at the time. I know that you are taxed on "sale-able" inventory, so it would stand to reason that unless the stuff was moving that it would be cheaper for TSR to pulp the stuff instead of paying taxes on it.

Plaag
Long-Winded Collector
Subweb Admin
JG Valuation Board

Posts: 4597
Joined: Nov 08, 2002
Last Visit: Aug 05, 2026
Location: Land of 10,000 ponds

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:13 pm

Kingofpain89 wrote:
Could have been both. That is exactly what happened with the video game industry in the early 80's. Manufacturers like Atari were pumping out tons of crappy games and eventually people stopped buying them because they sucked. Stores had no choice but to drop the prices considerably and still people werent buying them. I rememeber still seeing Atari cartriges in toy stores in the early 90's for a buck apiece.

You heard what happened with all the unsold copies of Atari's E.T. The Extraterrestrial cartridge? They buried them in an undisclosed location somewhere near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Maybe there are thousands of shrinkwrapped Dragonlance modules buried somewhere in Wisconsin?

Nope not that I've found, though there is a ton of old glass bottles. And I had that ET game

Pretty damn easy. The Indiana Jones game was the tough one.

ShaneG.

I reject your reality and substitute my own

Contrarian
Prolific Collector
Acaeum Donor

Posts: 161
Joined: Apr 21, 2006
Last Visit: Sep 10, 2025
Location: N42Â° 15.41' W83Â° 37.32'

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 11:06 pm

My DMG still has the $7.99 price tag from a Circus World clearance sale on it. That would have been around 1985.

Anyway, I think (some) KB Toys kept selling D&D longer than you guys realize. I picked up some of the AD&D Mystara boxed sets (with audio CDs) at a KB Toys in Michigan that was clearing out its TSR products in the mid-1990s. Those sets weren't even published until 1994.

But (so far as I could see) that store was only stocking boxed sets. I suspect that was part of the problem with TSR products and non-game stores: The physical form factor of most many gaming products meant they didn't work will with standard store fixtures. (I'm pretty sure Toys R Us and Circus World both used custom TSR fixtures for their gaming sections.) Chain retail stores hate that. Custom fixtures raise labor costs.

JasonZavoda
Long-Winded Collector
JG Valuation Board

Posts: 3823
Joined: Jul 12, 2007
Last Visit: Dec 17, 2021

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 11:28 pm

Contrarian wrote:My DMG still has the $7.99 price tag from a Circus World clearance sale on it. That would have been around 1985.

Anyway, I think (some) KB Toys kept selling D&D longer than you guys realize. I picked up some of the AD&D Mystara boxed sets (with audio CDs) at a KB Toys in Michigan that was clearing out its TSR products in the mid-1990s. Those sets weren't even published until 1994.

But (so far as I could see) that store was only stocking boxed sets. I suspect that was part of the problem with TSR products and non-game stores: The physical form factor of most many gaming products meant they didn't work will with standard store fixtures. (I'm pretty sure Toys R Us and Circus World both used custom TSR fixtures for their gaming sections.) Chain retail stores hate that. Custom fixtures raise labor costs.

I think I mentioned earlier that KB closed some wharehouses in the '90s and liqaudated a ton of TSR items (a bunch of non-TSR as well). They had a flood of boxed sets at one point.

The Acaeum Forums • Collecting General

Page 1 of 1