Back in 1985, I graduated high school and went off to higher learning like many of that age do. I packed up my trusty Commodore 64, 1541 floppy drive and whatever software I had. I never actually had a monitor for my system until about 10 years ago. Growing up I did not live near a Toys "R" Us so my selection for Commodore gear was not the best in the world. When I got to my college town, I learned there was a Toys "R" Us close by, so off I went.

Holy cow! What a selection. I was amazed at the sheer volume of stuff for the Commodore 64 they had as well as for many other systems. I can't remember what all they covered, I was just interested in the Commodore loot that I had just found. I have no idea what I may have bought that day, but I knew one thing was for certain. Toys "R" Us was now my computer store.

Below is a sample flyer from I believe around 1985 which would have been right around that time. Those were some really good prices at that time.

Now I don't remember Toys "R" Us for the toys, but as a young adult I ended up spending a good deal of money and time there. I usually looked for the cheaper software to pad out my collection. Freeware bundles were pretty decent and of course cheap and managed to kill some time when I wasn't engrossed in my studies or working the late shift at Burger King to feed my Commodore 64 hobby.

Fast forward about 5 years and it is probably 1990. I now had a job in a small town. Fortunately it was close enough to a big town that had a Toys "R" Us. I was home after work and a friend was over and we were playing with the Commodore 64 when all of a sudden there was some weird power surge that blew a bunch of stuff up including a fan, a VCR and sadly my Commodore 64. After verifying that it was just a one time thing (neighborhood had a weird power surge thing happen), we were off to the mall 10 minutes later. Where were we headed? Why to the best computer store of it's time. Toys "R" Us! We headed straight to the Commodore section. I was checking out the new fangled Commodore 64c when my buddy pointed to the 128. I looked at it and started drooling. I told him I didn't have enough money for the 128. He graciously loaned me the extra $100 and we were out the door and on the way home. Thanks Kevin!

There is no doubt that there are millions of Americans that have a giant soft spot in their hearts and in their memories of Toys "R" Us, but for this big kid it was all about the Commodore computers.

I wanna be a Toys "R" Us big kid. Thanks for the memories!