KB Toys

They B Closed.

KB Toys(Kay Bee Toysprior to 1981) was a toy store chain operating in theUnited States of Americaand its attached territories. For a time, it was the second largest toyretailerin the United States, behindToys "R" Us.Unlike its primary competitor, KB Toys locations were primarily found in shopping malls, with its "KB Toys Outlet" and "Toy Liquidators" subsidiaries located in outlet centers. As one of the major toy retailers in the U.S., KB Toys had its fair share ofexclusives,most notably the entire1997Machine Warsline.

KB Toys started liquidating its remaining stores in late 2008, with the last stores closingFebruary 9,2009. Amazingly, despite the chain having officially changed its name from "Kay Bee Toys" to "KB Toys" as early as 1981, three years before the launch of the originalTransformerstoyline, many stores never went along with the rebranding during the subsequent 27 years, and still featured "Kay Bee Toys" store signs by the time they ceased operations entirely. What was left of the company was bought by Toys "R" Us,^[1]who later operated "Toys" R "Us Express" stores in malls where KB used to be.

With the imminent demise of Toys "R" Us, it was announced in March 2018 that the KB Toys trademark had been acquired by Strategic Marks LLC, and that the brand would make a return in the form of pop-up stores in time for the holiday season.

KB Toys exclusives

Beast Wars / Beast Machines

In1999and again in2000,KB Toys ran a promotion where customers would receivea free videotapewith anyBeast WarsorBeast Machinestoy purchase. Tapes of "Bad Spark"and"Code of Hero"in a plain white sleeve or"The Reformatting"and"Master of the House"in a full color sleeve were available for the 1999 promotion, while the 2000 promotion featured a tape of"Sparkwar Pt. I: The Strike"along with leftovers of the previous two tapes. In some locations, leftover tapes were sold by themselves.

Machine Wars

Megaplex

Released in 1997, the KB-exclusiveMachine Warsline is made up of molds originally slated forGeneration 2and toys previously only available in European markets. It remains one of the oddest little sub-lines inTransformershistory.

Robots in Disguise (2001)

Assortment 2 Crosswise. Get used to this mold set.

The success ofRobots in Disguisereally boosted the number ofTransformersexclusives. While all the 2002 exclusives still featured the originalRobots in Disguisepackaging design, the 2003 releases instead adopted the overall template also used forArmadapackaging (but still retained theRobots in Disguisebranding).

Reportedly, the first wave of "Spy Changers"showed up in someTargetstores before they arrived at KB. This does not appear to be a very widespread occurrence, however.

Energon

Cyclonus with Crumplezone

KB'sEnergonexclusives were few in number, but kind of important for fans, as they are functionally imports of toys previously only available inTakara'sSuper Linkversion of the line.

Universe (2003)

Downshift

Micromaster Aerialbots inSuperionform

KB'sUniverseexclusives mainly ran along the same lines as theRobots in Disguiseones, focusing on the lowest-end price points. In particular, they released four of the five recently-rereleased-in-JapanMicromaster"Sixteam" sets as individually-carded figures, some straight repackages, some in new decos. These toys were released at normal retail in some European countries, albeit inEnergonorCybertronpackaging.

Speaking of those lines, KB got in a number of repackaged retail toys fromEnergonandCybertron,and even theClassics"Ultimate Battle" two-pack, under theUniversebanner, though these were "shared" exclusives with a number of discount chains like Big Lots, Dollar General and Tuesday Morning.

Transformers (2004)

Wheeljack

One more round of Spy Changers (at least they're not the same prior six molds this time around) with decos based on major "Generation 1" characters, this time on cards lacking any kind of subline branding.

These were later re-released inUniversepackaging through at Dollar General and Family Dollar stores, with a few other toys added to the assortment.

References

External links

• KB Toys at Wikipedia
• KB Toys Company HistoryFundingUniverse