On my way in for likely the last trip ever, I saw someone taking a picture out in front. Maybe the last time they would ever set foot in one and wanted to remember the moment. Not kids; maybe late teens or early twenties. What was it that Kylo Ren first said? "Look how old you've become." Yes, we've all become old, but the toys make the years seem small. Inside, I walked past the place (long since reorganized to sell other, lesser goods) where I first saw Mario running around a 12-poly castle façade controlled by a three-headed monstrosity. He kept going and going, never got tired, didn’t seem to get scraped or bruised even if he jumped and dove headfirst; he kept going no matter what. Then he rode a turtle shell like a skateboard and launched himself in the air from a cannon! He was whooping and hollering the whole way. Such joy and freedom! These yelps called directly to me as they leaped, long-jumped, and wall-jumped through my heart and arrived at the tip-top of my soul where they have yet to leave. Why sell any other toy, why have an entire toy store at all, when that was possible?
Of course, that’s probably what they said about Star Wars back in the day. I meandered through where I thought might be miniature ships for my desk. I saw things and brands I didn't recognize. Row upon row of playthings for imaginations not from my time. A squishy ball shaped like the head of Predator. What in the world would you crazy youngsters do with that?! (Besides, they're not even old enough to watch that movie...) Just across the aisle were Legos. I wasn't sure if the Technic brand wind surfer was on sale so I continued on to the Lego Star Wars to pay my respects for a once great franchise. Strange--I didn't remember seeing a flash-forward scene of Rey in 50 years in Episode 7 or 8, but then I realized it was supposed to be Lego Supreme Leader Snoke. My bad. On to the videogame section, rightly situated in the front corner of the store was the place I wanted to be.
~20 years ago, a Star Fox or Wind Waker Link plushie, Boo backback clip-on buddy, and Slippy Toad World-of-Nintendo figure would've been at the top of my Christmas list. Now, all I could do was shrug at dozens of unwanted Tom Nook Amiibos and laugh at the greedy son of a gun getting his due. What’s for sale today, Tom? Any overpriced total uggo carpet for sale? Not one decent DS game on the shelf? Nope, it’s all in 3D now. Oh, I could tell you about 3D; this was the first and only place I ever got a Virtual Boy-induced headache and the only time I have wondered if I would ever be able to see another color other than red. It was also the only way I had to try out Sega games, or any other game that wasn't due out for awhile. "Early access," for you 2000's babies, was going to the Toys R Us or Blockbuster and hoping they had a demo unit to try out. If they didn't, then you simply didn't play it until launch and looked at a screenshot of it in a magazine instead. The only thing I really wanted from the store today was something from a franchise I didn't yet have a plushie or statue from: Pikmin, which first came out half a lifetime ago. Life-sized red Pikmin from the World-of Nintendo line, all of 2 inches tall, $4.99. Red, like my watering eyes after Mario’s Tennis circa 1995. Like the company’s profits, circa right now.
My last purchase at Toys R Us on 3/25/2018 at 12:52pm, red Pikmin, is a determined fighter that will fight anybody and carry anything you ask of it. Toys R Us did the same, never getting tired, jumping and getting a little bruised along the way, carrying our memories and imaginations off to be used to make better things, better ideas. Then one day the whistle calls, the day is over, and it’s time to find a new place to explore. Let's-a-go