Toys"R"Us

Toys weЯe Us.

Geoffrey Prime, too precious for this world.

From bikes to trains to video games, Toys"R"Us (stylistically ToysЯUs in the logo) is a toy retailer chain, originally based in the United States but with branches in many other countries. According to various sources, it accounted for anywhere from 15 to 20% of major toymakers' sales. Those days are pretty much over in the US market, although their reginal branches still have a major presence some European and Asian countries.

Over the years, they carried many exclusive Transformers toys, in addition to regular mass retail releases. Many of those exclusives have been carried not only by US retailers, but also by international Toys"R"Us branches.

Japan also has its own branch of Toys"R"Us (トイザらス Toizarasu), which has its own exclusive toys from TakaraTomy, independent of the toys Hasbro provided Western Toys"R"Us stores with (well... mostly. We'll explain when we get there).

History

Originally founded by Charles P. Lazarus as Children's Supermart in 1948, the store later changed its focus entirely to toys. By 1957, Lazarus came up with the tagline "Toys"R"Us", eventually operating several additional stores under the Children's Supermart brand. Nine years later, the company was acquired by Interstate Department Stores, Inc., who already owned the toy store chain Children's Bargain Town USA, which featured the original version of Geoffrey the Giraffe as its mascot. Following the bankruptcy of Interstate Department Stores in 1974, Lazarus himself took control of the bankrupt corporation and rebranded the merged Children's Bargain Town USA/Children's Supermart company into "Toys"R"Us", which subsequently grew into the biggest toy store chain in the United States, eventually expanding into other markets around the globe to the point where the company was considered a prime example of a "category killer".^[1]

After many decades of success, Toys"R"Us failed to realize the growing importance of the internet during the 1990s, and as a result added its own online store very late in the game. Following a disastrous 1999 holiday shopping season, during which the company fell behind on shipping online customer orders, it struck a ten-year deal with Amazon, who would subsequently act as Toys"R"Us's online presence. Following a brief period of financial success that exceeded Amazon's expectations, the partnership was prematurely ended by Toys"R"Us after Amazon had allowed competing merchants to begin selling toys through the website, and following a lawsuit, Amazon paid Toys"R"Us $51 million in settlements. In 2006, Toys"R"Us reopened an independent website, but by that time, the damage had already been done.^[2]

In 2005, Toys"R"Us was bought out by venture capitalist firms including Bain Capital, and as a result, the chain was saddled with a massive debt when the cost of paying back the loan used to buy the chain was then dumped onto it, with interest. Despite rebounding sales-wise and making a profit above its nominal operating expenses, the sheer size of the debt was too much, and Toys"R"Us eventually declared bankruptcy on September 18, 2017, leading to their planned liquidation, resulting in all stores in the United States to be closed by June 29, 2018. And in the middle of all these tumultuous times, the original Toys"R"Us founder Charles Lazarus, who had parted ways with the company in 1994, died on March 24, 2018, at age 94.

Operations in other markets were also affected, though not all cases ended in all-out job losses: The United Kingdom division entered administration in February 2018, with the last remaining stores being closed on April 24 of the same year; the Australian division entered administration in May 2018, with the last remaining stores expected to close in July. The divisions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which were still profitable, were taken over by Irish family-owned toy giant Smyths in April 2018, who rebranded all stores in those three countries into "Smyths" in 2019.

Meanwhile, other regional branches have survived: for instance, Toys"R"Us declared bankruptcy in Portugal and Spain by March 2018, but was eventually purchased by the Green Swan group and it still continues to soldier on using the same branding. The Canadian division, which was also still profitable by that point, was bought out by Fairfax Financial Holdings in April 2018 (with the takeover completed in May), and similarly, they've continued operations under the original branding. Most notably, operations in Asia have also continued as usual since.

Meanwhile, the original Toys"R"Us brand in the United States is now owned by Tru Kids. They've returned to retail in 2022, opening up a few dozen stores in the US, but as of now, their presence is still only a modest fraction of what it once was.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

A Toys"R"Us store was in Times Square. All Hail Megatron #1

Commercial appearances

At a Toys"R"Us store in a Quadwal stream where toys are sentient, Snackin' Sara the Baby Alive toy informed an unboxed Optimus Prime toy about the store's Price Match guarantee, wherein if Optimus was found at a lower price at another retailer, Toys"R"Us would match their prices. The Optimus toy was confused as to the existence of another one of himself and was advised by Sara to look to his left. When he did so, both he and his doppelganger were distraught at their existence, a panic which soon spread to his entire shelf, fully populated by Optimi. Toys"R"Us Commercial

Hasbro market Toys"R"Us exclusives

Robots in Disguise (2001)

Scourge, major baddie and major pain to obtain in the US.

Toys"R"Us's first exclusives were for the 2001 Robots in Disguise toyline, and they snagged a pair of absolute doozies: a major villain character from the Robots in Disguise cartoon, and a huge toy that had been canceled the year prior that fans thought would never see the light of day.

Commemorative Series

Skywarp, with "safe" firing missiles.

Ricochet, former holy grail

"Enhanced" re-releases of classic "Generation 1" toys, the entire Commemorative Series toyline was originally intended to be exclusively available from Toys"R"Us stores. However, two toys from the later series were ultimately made available through other venues, at least for the United States market, particularly "closeout" chains, sold at a massive discount.

The "Commemorative Series" branding would pop up again in later lines; we're listing those items both here and under their respective lines so you don't have to go searching for them.

Unicron Trilogy (Armada / Energon / Cybertron)

Armada

Powerlix Cyclonus with bonus Iceberg

The chain's Armada offerings were not particularly special, but they were a great bargain: standard-issue "Super-Con" toys with a bonus pack-in Mini-Con from one of the normal retail three-packs, but sold at a cost below a Super-Con on its own!

Energon

Optimus Prime / Megatron

For Energon, once again the bulk of their exclusives were just repackaged Armada toys, and even then, two of them, the Road Wrecker/Night Attack Team and Race/Space Team packs, were also available at Walmart stores. However, there was the big draw of an Optimus Prime & Megatron two-pack using molds that had previously been exclusive to the Takara Super Link version of the line!

Cybertron

Starscream vs. Vector Prime

Cybertron content was light, being mostly "Value Packs" which were just fully-packaged normal Deluxes sold at less than the total cost of the toys bought individually. And the two-pack versions of that were another "exclusive" shared with Walmart. However, there was one truly exclusive multi-pack that provided Western fans with access to a mold previously available only by importing it from Japan, and in unique colors to boot.

Go-Bots

Yes, Toys"R"Us even got some exclusives for the Playskool Go-Bots line, done up in shiny chrome. Delightful!

Universe (2003)

The Universe offerings were limited to a single multi-pack, but it was a sizable one!

Ramjet with Thunderclash, Gunbarrel, Terradive, and Thunderwing

Alternators

The chain had an "exclusive" Alternators "Mega Alternators" assortment... which ultimately turned out to be merely shrinkwrapped combos of regular-retail single Alternators releases. The most common combinations were Smokescreen/Side Swipe and Smokescreen/Silverstreak, but Smokescreen/Windcharger, Smokescreen/Autobot Hound, and even Smokescreen/Smokescreen(!) combos have been found as well.

Titanium Series

Grimlock, War Within style

Titanium Series was Hasbro's short-lived line of mostly-die-cast-metal toys for various brands, with small "Robot Masters" mini figurines and 6-inch "Cybertron Heroes" fully-transformable toys. Most of the Toys"R"Us exclusives fall under the War Within comic styling... despite that series having ended (prematurely) years prior. And the comic license having changed hands since then to boot.

Beast Wars 10th Anniversary

For the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary line, Toys"R"Us got a repackaging of the Japanese "Beast Wars Reborn" set, featuring extensively-redecoed re-releases of the Ultra-class Optimus Primal and Megatron molds.

Optimus Primal vs Megatron

Classics

While the focal point of Classics was modern-mold reinventions of classic characters, there were a few exceptions. Classics Soundwave was a reissue of the original toy, originally slated for the Commemorative Series line (above).

Soundwave

Masterpiece

Acid Storm

The big, expensive, complex Masterpiece toys were an instant hit with collectors, and of course Toys"R"Us got in several exclusives. However, in many non-US Hasbro markets, all of the Hasbro-release Masterpiece toys were Toys"R"Us exclusives, so we won't be listing all of those here.

As some of these were sold as part of the 2010 Transformers toyline, we'll list them in those lines' sections as well. It just kinda makes sense to have them all gathered up here too.

Live-action movie toylines

With the absolute explosion of Transformers popularity due to the live-action film series, naturally a vast number of exclusives for said series were made, with Toys"R"Us getting quite a lot.

Transformers (2007)

Inferno w/ Longarm

For the 2007 Transformers toyline, most of the exclusives were redecoed "Unicron Trilogy" molds used to quickly boost the amount of "new" product in the wake of the first film's staggering success, as well as a pair of multi-packs of normal-retail-release toys.

Revenge of the Fallen

"Back Road Brawl" Mixmaster

Revenge of the Fallen's exclusives were entirely focused on multipacks, with a fair amount of new decoes and characters.

Transformers (2010)

Rampage Among the Ruins

The 2010 Transformers toyline was largely an extension of Revenge of the Fallen product, but some "Generation 1"-based stuff made its way into the line towards the back end. In the case of Toys"R"Us exclusives, this was in the form of a trio of Masterpiece toys.

Dark of the Moon

Scan Series Ironhide

The exclusives for Dark of the Moon were given the branding "Mission Earth". Many of the toys also had "Scan Series" decos, where the toys were cast in clear plastics then extensively painted, but only on the front halves of their vehicle modes, making them look like they're in mid-reformatting.

Age of Extinction

"Evolution" Optimus Prime

For Age of Extinction, the exclusives were all part of the "Evolution" theme, packing a toy of the movie character with a toy of their "G1" inspiration... in theory. There's a bit of jank going on with a couple of them.

Also at this point, the Kre-O line had functionally, if not officially, become a Toys"R"Us exclusive in the US, with the nigh-entirety of the 2014 lineup taken up by Age of Extinction-themed sets, plus an explicitly-TRU-only DVD/Kreon combo pack.

The Last Knight

Skullitron

Exclusives for The Last Knight were given the "Mission to Cybertron" branding, plus a few had the added "Premiere Edition" marking to denote more elaborate paint jobs.

Studio Series

Good luck.

The very last Toys"R"Us exclusive (in the US at least), this figure in the then-new Studio Series was the first "off-screen" figure in the line, and was kind of hard to find in the US thanks to the chain being liquidated right about the time the toy was released.

Animated

Rodimus Minor

For Transformers Animated, Toys"R"Us scored several toys that had been slated for regular retail release, but budgets kept them out of the main line. Considering who some of these characters were, this led to something of a rush to grab them.

Universe (2008)

Darkwind

The 2008 Universe offerings were mainly some pretty big-ticket items, with a few more vintage toy molds thrown in the mix.

Kre-O

Autobot Assault Devastator set: the buildable Ironhide, Gunner and yellow Devastator Kreons are exclusive to the Toys"R"Us version of the set.

Hasbro's second attempt at a LEGO-like building-brick-based toyline, there are only a couple of explicitly Toys"R"Us-exclusive Kre-O items in the line. However, by 2014, by the time the Transformers part of the line pivoted entirely to Age of Extinction (and the reveal of the G.I. Joe and Dungeons & Dragons sets), the entire Kre-O line became functionally a TRU exclusive in the US, as most other retailers had dropped it.

"Aligned" toylines (Prime / Robots in Disguise)

Prime: Beast Hunters

• Optimus Prime vs Predaking

Robots in Disguise (2015)

Warrior Megatronus

For 2015's Robots in Disguise, Toys"R"Us was the home of the "Clash of the Transformers" series, a pretty sizable subline imprint of exclusives; a mix of redecos, retools and even some wholly-new molds. The line-up was released in Australia, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, though Warrior Class Megatronus was only released in the US, and the "Decepticon Island Showdown" set was not released in Europe at all.

Titans Return

Parsec & Nautica, the only Nautica toy so far. Good luck!

With the emphasis on Titan Masters (aka Headmasters) in Titans Return, naturally these sets are loaded to the gills with tiny head-bots. Of particular note is the Arcee set, which was originally a HasCon 2017 exclusive.

Buzzworthy Bumblebee (Canada)

While the Buzzworthy Bumblebee line is exclusive to Target stores in the US, Canada does not have Targets, so all of those toys go to Toys"R"Us... and seemingly at quite a markup. We're honestly not about to list the entire line here, sorry.

Takara market Toys"R"Us exclusives

As its own entity, Toys"R"Us Japan had its own considerably different run of exclusives. Of particular note are the "USA Editions" (unchanged Hasbro-market product in nigh-unchanged Hasbro retail packaging), and the many, many, many "campaign item" promotional giveaways, typically Mini-Cons and comparably-sized toys, given as freebies with a qualifying purchase on certain dates (be it a specific toy, or just a certain yen-value of toys total)

Beast Wars series

Beast Wars

Black Lio Convoy

Takara's Beast Wars product was very light on the exclusives. In fact, most of them are actually straight-up imports of Hasbro-packaged Transmetal 2 toys released during the Beast Wars Metals portion of the line.

Beast Wars Returns

Vehicon Thrust

Released many years after the "Beast" series had run its course in Japan, 2004's Beast Wars Returns was an entirely Toys"R"Us exclusive line, featuring Beast Machines molds extensively redecoed into (usually) much more show-accurate appearances. It also included a single "USA Edition" import, a practice that had seen a lot of use in the prior few years.

Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers

As Takara took its first steps into reissuing old Transformers molds in the early 2000s, Toys"R"Us got one of the first exclusive redecoes of said reissues.

Nucleon Quest Super Convoy

Car Robots (Robots in Disguise)

The overwhelming bulk of exclusives for 2000's Car Robots was actually released after the line had properly ended, with a glut of USA Edition toys from Hasbro's 2001 Robots in Disguise version of the line.

Unicron Trilogy toylines

All right, here we go. The number of exclusives takes a big jump here.

Legends of the Microns (Armada)

Shot Ultimate Edition

With the arrival of the tiny Mini-Con toys in 2003's Legends of the Microns, Takara launched into a ton of store promotional giveaways across multiple chains, and the era of large numbers of unique exclusives began (plus even more USA Editions).

Superlink (Energon)

Throttle

With Mini-Cons taking a bit of a back seat in Superlink, Takara added exclusive Energon weapons promotional campaigns, on top of the usual multi-packs and USA Editions.

Galaxy Force (Cybertron)

Coby's Exclusive Rumble (aka "Cobybot")

The Galaxy Force exclusives pretty much followed the usual pattern. But boy, that big box set is pretty.

Smallest Transforming Transformers

Hot Rodimus, TRU packaging version

Exactly what they say on the box, Smallest Transforming Transformers are/were the smallest Transformers toys to actually transform. Both of these were promotional items given away with the purchase of other toys.

Live-action movie toylines

While the live-action film series resulted in a massive boom of exclusives in Hasbro markets, Takara's exclusive output was quite a bit smaller in scope.

Transformers (2007)

The only Toys"R"Us exclusive for the first movie wasn't even terribly "exclusive", as it was just a repackaging of the Hasbro Leader-Class Brawl, and an unchanged re-issuing of a previous regular-retail item.

Revenge (Revenge of the Fallen)

Mighty Dozer

Revenge exclusive product was positively restrained compared to the Hasbro output, with the big items being toys released at normal retail in Hasbro markets (and one a notorious shelfwarmer at that).

It is important to note that the two promotional Microns come with instructions that are simply labeled as generic "Transformers" product. But they were only given away with the purchase of Revenge product, so we're listing them here. This will be a bit of a theme going forward with many promotional Microns over the next few years, across multiple lines.

Darkside Moon (Dark of the Moon)

Darkside Optimus Prime

Again, Darkside Moon product was light, with the big draw actually being a model kit with an extra piece. Whee!

Lost Age (Age of Extinction)

Rusty Ver. Optimus Prime

Lost Age toys was heavy on the promotional Microns, though again they were not directly branded as such.

The Last Knight

Arm Gun Bumblebee

The exclusives line-up for Takara's The Last Knight was more or less the same as in the Hasbro markets, as the two companies were in the process of a "brand unification" that would see the two release much the same product in both markets.

Studio Series

As with the Hasbro line, Studio Series marked the end of Takara's run of Toys"R"Us exclusives, even though the chain still operates to this day in Japan.

Autobot Drift with Baby Dinobots
(Autobot Drift, Dinobot Sharp-T, Dinobot Pterry, Dinobot 'Tops)

Henkei! Henkei!

Skyglide

Takara's take on the Classics toyline, Henkei! Henkei! only resulted in a single promotional Micron.

Animated

Skywarp Clear Purple Ver.

United

Caliburst

The spiritual follow-up to Henkei!, United went with new versions of old characters... on molds pretty wildly not meant for those characters in the case of these two Microns.

Aligned series (Prime / Adventure)

Prime

Pure Energon B.B.

Takara went absolutely nuts with the promotional Arms Microns during Prime. The initial batches were fully-assembled and painted redecoes of past weapon-bots, but as the line kicked into gear, they shifted to the unassembled, on-sprue "model kit" style Microns that came with Takara's Prime toys. Speaking of, their big in-store exclusive even came with three extra exclusive Arms Micron kits!

Go!

Ex, the one Arms Micron available only at TRU.

For the Takara-only Transformers Go! series, Toys"R"Us got an exclusive redeco of the main new Autobot of the series, as well as a promotional Arms Micron meant to go with Go!'s new version of Autobot leader Optimus Exprime, plus a few promo Microns shared with a whole bunch of other stores.

Adventure (Robots in Disguise 2015)

Toys"R"Us Prime

Exclusives for Adventure ran the gamut of small molds. Some were originally Arms Micron kits, but this time came already-assembled.

Q-Transformers

Clear Bumblebee

Notes

• Toys"R"Us was also supposed to carry a redeco of Armada Jetfire done up as a Generation 1 Astrotrain homage that would have been released as a Universe toy named Spacewarp, together with redecos of the Armada Space Mini-Con Team. Ultimately, however, Toys"R"Us backed out of the deal, and Spacewarp was never released. While the Space Team redecos remain unreleased to this very day (Takara claims that the molds have become unusable), the planned Spacewarp deco was later used as the basis for the Collectors' Club exclusive Astrotrain redeco of Armada Jetfire, with a new head sculpt.
• Despite the closing of the US branch, multiple Toys"R"Us branches are still often used by Hasbro worldwide for distributing figures that are otherwise exclusive to some specific US retailers:
  • As of 2019, the Canadian Toys"R"Us branch has picked up the rights to the US Target exclusives, beginning with the War for Cybertron: Siege toyline.
  • In the early 2020s, the Iberian (Portugal & Spain) Toys"R"Us branch also released a few toys from the Netflix-labelled War for Cybertron Trilogy exclusives.
  • The 2024 Walmart exclusive Transformers One figures were released internationally across a few branches like Hong Kong, Singapore, and the aforementioned Iberian stores.

References

External links

• Official Toys"R"Us USA website
• Official Toys"R"Us Japan website