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 Posted - November 24 2006 : 11:10:07 PM
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The best time of the year is here(AT least for me)Christmas!! Growing up in the 70's-80's brings back a lot of memories of stores no longer in existance that carried huge tyco and life like items at this time=nov-jan. I can remember going to Service Merchandise with my parents-they would go to one part of the store while i headed to the toy dept scouting out all the tyco and life-like accessories and big sets and making my list out. The train sets and race sets would take up one aisle. My parents had to literally drag me out of the stores. There was also a Nichols and Zayres dept stores that always had huge tyco train sets and accessories at christmas time. We would go out to eat before heading to these stores. I could not hardly eat as i was too excited about getting to the stores to drool over all the trains and accessories and race sets and dreaming of getting it all on christmas morning. While i did not get every item-i did get a lot and am thankfull my parents did not buy it all as it made me appreciate what i did recieve. It is too bad that it is not the same now as it was when younger as far as train selections in dept stores that even carry them now. I also use to look forward to after christmas sales as i usually got money from aunts and uncles as these stores would literally give tyco trains accessories away to make room. post your favorite tyco christmas retail memory
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Country:  USA ~
Posts: 2507 ~
Member Since: January 31 2006 ~
Last Visit: October 21 2017
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Posted - November 25 2006 : 1:28:00 PM
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Ahhhh...yes. Christmas time again.
Our hometown had a HUGE Sears as the main anchor retailer of the local mall. Throughout the year, a large atrium-styled (I'd say 100 x 60) wing with walls of large plate glass windows floor to ceiling (about 12ft. high) housed all of the lawn and garden stuff. Mostly displays of riding mowers, yard tents, BBQ grilles, etc. Ho-hum to a kid.
Well...come November, that lawn and garden center turned into TOYLAND, complete with working displays and "hands-on" demos. There were about 10 aisles of toys in the main dept. store, with the crown jewel of the mall being the plate-glass-encased TOYLAND. Even the employees decorated it festive...garland, large colorful bulbs, wreaths, colorful lights...flocked snow from a can frosting the windows.
I remember one special childhood Christmas season vividly. Sears had built a FULLY FUNCTIONAL and OPERATING Tyco Layout Expander System, all four trains, all accessories, all lighted buildings, as if it jumped right from the colorful pages of the Layout Expander Manual that still pops up on eBay occasionaly. Certainly some employee was a railhead, as this was no "plug and play" affair...the Layout Expander System would have taken a seasoned professional builder at least 2 weeks to complete, minimum. And that is conservative.
There was also a 4x6 oval of track, with The Chattanooga Choo Choo GP-20 set (Baby Ruth, Wesson, Jello, Old Dutch, Chatt caboose) making an appearance. So...this puts the timeframe after 1976...I'm guesstimating the Christmas shopping season of 1977.
Aside from the two wonderful operating layouts, there were three full 20 foot aisles, filled on both sides, of HO scale trains (Bachmann, Life-Like, AHM, Model Power and Tyco) alongside the gangbuster-business of HO slot cars. My jaw hit the ground each time I stepped foot in TOYLAND. And those guys tried to outdo themselves every consecutive year with bigger, bolder operating layouts and displays.
That is...until Atari, Colecovision, Intellivision, girls, tricked-out BMX bikes...and eventually cars and motorcycles...pulled each of us all too soon...from the comforts and safety of those magical childhood Christmas' past.
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Country: USA ~
Posts: 316 ~
Member Since: June 16 2006 ~
Last Visit: September 02 2017
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Posted - November 25 2006 : 9:18:55 PM
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Intellivision! YEAH!!! I still have my dad's 1st-gen Master Component, an INTV2, Intellivoice, and about 80 games. Talk about simple, innocent fun. Memories of him and me playing SNAFU and "Shark Shark" through all hours of the night when my mom wasn't around are among my most cherished. Ahh.
I never did see any masssive layout displays myself. I remember Toys R Us and Child World having pretty big aisles back in the 80's... even year-round. Nowadays you have to hunt the whole store to find one crappy LifeLike set.
Can somebody who was there explain / opine just WHY HO scale trains were so HUGE back in the 70's? It's not like they were new. So why was that such a grand time?
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Country: USA ~
Posts: 2175 ~
Member Since: July 15 2006 ~
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