More Children's Palace/Child World goodness

I got some more cool pics from former CW/CP guru, Bernard









Bernard also sent along a Child World video from youtube



Some other CW/CP videos

Children's Palace and Child World toy stores revisited

Had some new Children's Palace and Child World items to share. So lets take another look at my all-time favorite toy store.

New to my collection:

A Children's Palace & Child World Ertl toy truck, in the box



Close up of the trailer


An old Child World toy truck by Majorette, on the card


An old Children's Palace toy truck by Majorette


A double page CP/CW video game ad from Marvel's Robocop II adaptation


Peter Panda puffy stickers


Some CW/CP items graciously sent in by readers

From Bernard, a former Child World employee was nice enough to take pics of some of the memorabilia he had saved.







From Brandon, an excellent shot of the old style CP store sign.


From around the web: (i.e. photos are not mine, I'm just sharing what I've found)

A Peter Panda board game


An old store pic


Former store locations around the US










So, so, so close...
In my constant search to find a photo of the old Omaha Children's Palace location, I found this great old pic of the store prior, to CP. The spot was occupied by a Handy Dan (long defunct Hardware store chain)


A must read
Here's a excerpt from a reader of the original Children's Palace post
http://geektarded.blogspot.com/2007/06/lets-go-shopping-childrens-palace.html

"Dr. Geektarded, I had the pleasure of helping to open the store in Omaha. Unfortunately, this is the only time I have ever visited your fine city. I was involved with over 20 store openings.

I also remember when they filmed "The Color of Money". We were excited that Children's Palace (CP) would be in a major movie. I recall that CP was paid $25,000 for a day of shooting for the scenes. This equated to one days average sales for that location. The "customers" in the scenes were filled in by store personnel and their families. I still watch the movie on occasion.

Dr. you ask what happened to all of the clearance items? Well, we sold them! (obviously) But here is the rest of the story: The reason why CP had so many "old" items was their "pack-away system". We would store all boxed merchandise above the area in the actual aisles of the store. All pegged items (i.e matchbox, hot wheels, seasonal) would be boxed up and stored in the warehouse. Here is where the issue happened. As the store sold down items like Matchbox cars, we would get another few cases in on our truck so we would fill the shelves with this product. The overstock Matchbox cars in the pack-aways stayed in the warehouse, never seeing the light of day. This inefficient way of stock balancing was one of the many factors to the demise of CP. Ideally, today's retailers have eliminated the back stock all together as to not tie up these dollars. I recall meeting a Matchbox collector who asked to see any unopened cases in the warehouse. He was like a kid in a candy store as he looked through the 5+ year old cases.

During the closeout procedures, we had incremental markdowns that were sent down by corporate for 10 weeks. (i.e. 10% off, 20% off) It was in the last few days that we went from 70% off to 90% off retail prices. We continuously pulled the old pack-aways out of the back room as merchandise sold down. WOW.... all of these old items came out!!! Old Mego figures (like the Spiderman you have pictured. I bought a case of 6 for 50 cents each!)Michael Jackson dolls, Starting lineup, and so on... I bought several items... but I couldn't buy them all. I still have these items MOC. I only had one child then (age 1) and boxed them up. Now, I see these items on EBAY so I never let my kids play with them. (Shame on me)

The last hour of the last day, my liquidator consultant had me put up a sign that said "Everything you can fit in your cart - only $10". Needless to say, everything was gone within the hour. I took a video camera and video taped some of the mayhem on the last day. Fortunately, I had a job lined up and was paid nearly 3 months severance/remaining vacation pay if I stayed to the end."
--------------------------------------------------------

I'm was so happy to hear about this "pack-away system". That explains all the old stock and why the aisles were literally packed to the rafters. At the Omaha location, on the shelving above the new stock, was this Tetris like packing of old boxed vehicles, playsets, etc. Then, along the back of the store was more boxed toys and aisles of carded toys. And lastly, the front entrance of the store was filled with closeout items too. Huge displays of Masters of the Universe, Voltron, Gobots, Rock Lords and the like, years after they had run their course.

The store was probably 1/3 closeout items. It was honestly a crazy way of doing business, but all those old toys are some of my fondest memories of the chain.

Tag! Your it! aka "The Old Price Tag Sticker Post"

I was going through a box of old stuff in the basement (kids books, coloring books, etc) and was digging on the old price tag stickers that were still on the items. You don't see too many place using them anymore (Kmart is the only place that comes to mind). As a collector of all sorts of old nonsense, I like it when they're left on. It's the history of the item boiled down to a 1" square space. And, when it's something from your youth, it triggers the memories of when you first bought the item.

It's like "Yeah, here's that GI Joe coloring book from Walgreens that was bought to keep me quite on a visit to an elderly relative in a nursing home 25 years ago."

And thanks to retaining important memories like that, now when I go to Wal-Mart to buy trash bags, I end up walking out with Night Court season 1, egg rolls and a "Tiger Force" Flint GI Joe figure instead...

Anyway, I think they're fun little reminders of yesterday; from stores long gone or still going strong.

.

CHILD WORLD / CHILDREN'S PALACE toy stores

Kmart

SHOPKO

TARGET

WALGREENS

1/2 PRICE STORE

Children's Palace Virtual Toy Chest

One of the few Children's Palace artifacts I've run across is the Children's Palace Virtual Toy Chest from 1990 (I think). It's basically 45 min of crappy skits and segways to various toy commercials. Wacky kids run a TV network and endorse all sorts of Mattel, Tiger and Matchbox toys.

The "adult" at the network is the notorious "ROBO-T". Robo-T. That could only be some sort of Mechano-Man or at least a super advance cyborg. So lets pay a visit to FANTASY PARK! and ROBO-T!!!

What in the hell!?! Yep, no mechano-man or super advance cyborg. Robo-T is in fact some "Weird Al-lite" ass-clown with a man-perm.

“Cause she’s got a GREAT ASS!"

He's dope, he's wack. He's a ra-ra-ra-ra-rappin' fool!

Robo-T is goosed by a stray unicorn while in Fantasy Park

Hey kids, it's an Amber Alert!

There's a lot of crappy toys shown and a few cool ones. Some came an went like "Bongo Kongo", "Mall Madness and"Spy Tech". The NES was in full effect at the time, so there's plenty of game commercials too.

"Double Dragon II: Rescue the girl with C3PO's arms"

The ape from Kongo Bongo

I'm dreaming of...horses? "Carousel Horses" by Matchbox (huh?)

Remember Krunchers! ? Well, they eat them in the video for some reason.

Bye-Bye Children's Palace.

---END TRANSMISSION---

DR.G

Let's go shopping! Children's Palace

A typical Children's Palace/Child World store front (from "The Color of Money")

Children's Palace and Child World toy stores

One of our little obsessions here at Geektarded is the by-gone toy store chain, Children's Palace. The Palace opened it's doors in Omaha in early November 1985. The store was located at 7500 Dodge St., at the former "Handy Dan" hardware store location. As far as I know it was the first big chain toy store in the area (Toys R Us didn't open until 1987, in the same shopping center, no less). Omaha did have "Toys Plus" a part of a small chain of about 35 stores that were based out of St. Charles, Mo. and closed around late 1987/early 1988.

Due to the recession and competition from other retailers, Child World Inc. started closing unprofitable stores. The Omaha CP lasted until late March of 1991. The store closed for Easter Sunday and never reopened.

The Palace was a wonder to behold. The store front was designed to look like a castle and inside the shelves were stacked to the rafters with new and old toys.

The old toys are one of my fondest memories of Children's Palace. They did not get rid of old stock and it appeared that they would also buy closeout stock from other stores. When they first opened we mostly did our new toy shopping there (Transformers, GI Joe, M.A.S.K., Super Powers). But around 1987, when I as 12 years old, I started to get into toy collecting as a hobby. My dad and I would go to CP every weekend and hit the clearance sections around the store. It was a wonderland. Old Robotech, Kronofoms, Godaikins, Super Powers, Megos, Gobots, Rock Lords and more.

Stuff that I still kick myself for not buying (aside from all the mint in box Robotech mecha) were the clearance priced Masters of the Universe toys that were stockpiled at the front of the store when you walked in. I remember tons of mint on card Kind Randor, Sorceress and Scare Glow Skeletor figures just stilling there along with just about any older figures and vehicles you could want.

I can still remember a family trip up north around 1988 or 89 (I think South Dakota) and stopping at an older CP store that still was fully stocked with Clash of the Titans and Raiders of the Lost Ark toys. Shelves and pegs full of figures and playsets. I remember barely having any money at the time but I managed to get an Indiana Jones figure, a Mego Human Torch, some Batman & Robin Color-a-Card playing cards from the late 70s and a Super Friends Parcheesi game. But man did I want those Raiders and Titans toys. At the very least a Kraken and Perseus with Pegasus...

A couple of Child World interiors from "The Color of Money"

Anyway... after the Omaha store closed the nearest stores were in Kansas City and Overland Park and those closed in 1992. I remember going down to both stores a couple of times before Child World Inc. closed for good.

Man, I wonder what happened to all that old clearance stock...

If anyone out there has any photos or info that is Children's Palace or Child World related, shoot us an email at geektarded@cox.net. I'm always looking and researching, so I'll post more photos and artifacts as I find them.

Peter Panda, the Children's Palace mascot

Facts from WikipediaChild World Inc.

Founded in 1974
Based out of Avon, Massachusetts

Store designsChild World was known largely for making its stores resemble castles, complete with turrets, battlements, and three half-circles (two small, one large) in the front door. The storefront motifs came from the Children's Palace stores (est. 1967), a subsidiary of Kobacker Stores, Inc. which Child World acquired in 1977.

Mascot Peter Panda

The End...

In 1991: Child World began to close less successful retail locations.

May 7, 1992: Child World filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

June 1992: A merger was attempted with the Lionel Corporation, operators of Lionel Playworld, Lionel Kiddie City, and Lionel Toy Warehouse. Child World announced that if the merger was not complete by July 12, 1992, it would begin liquidating its inventory at 20% off retail prices. Child World said the merger was its only chance to continue operating, and if talks failed, liquidation would escalate into a going-out-of-business sale.

August 4, 1992: Child World announced that the merger with Lionel had failed, and all Child World stores closed within four to six weeks of this announcement.

Most of the old store fronts were remodeled for the new retailers,

but a few castle fronts survived the change.

Apparently, Best Buy was expanding at the time Child World Inc. went under and took over many of the old locations. That was the case in Omaha, Denver and Chicago. To this day, I do 90% of my movie shopping at that Best Buy in the old Children's Palace location because there were a lot of great memories created in that building.