Hey guys! I mistakenly credited the Ghost Host to Ravenscroft instead of Paul Frees. You’d think someone who has a Haunted Mansion Podcast would know this.... 🤦🏼♂️
I am glad to see this as well! The store I ran my liquidator made sure the costumes were locked up for no one to sneak away. The Toys R Us company made us put them on a truck to send back to a warehouse. I have a sad video of putting the costumes on the truck and saying goodbye.
I never met Geoffrey at any store, BUT the hospital I work in had a long-time partnership with Toys R Us and we have a GIANT two-story Geoffrey statue in our Lobby that kids and adults alike still get excited about.
Toys R Us has come a long way, remember when it went bankrupt but later became a smaller business? Those times were crazy but I'm glad the company is still around. I miss the good old days when they played their theme song in commercials.
I wouldn't consider that "comeback" as something to applaud quite yet. Both times they attempted to re-open stand-alone brick-and-mortar stores-- only *two*, one in New Jersey and one in Texas, and *both* ended up closing after barely two years. Their "grand idea" to open 200 smaller stores across the United States never happened. They only have *one* physical store open, and it's located inside a Macy's-- _another_ retail company that has had to shut down many of *their* stores because they're not making enough money! That's like a kiss of death! What moron buys a bankrupt company and decides to partner with another company that has _also_ declared bankruptcy in very recent history?
Got to meet Geoffrey several times. In fact, my husband and I did a "farewell event" dressed up as our Stormtrooper and biker scout as we are both in the 501st.
I never got to meet Geoffrey, and now I’m disappointed knowing other people did because I always thought the costume character was just for commercials. 😭😂
I want to Toys “R” Us a couple of weeks ago ago it’s so so fun I just got this box bunny toy and more then I went to Claire’s it’s so fun I went to the mall
Although I do not remember seeing the Geoffrey mascot running around my local Toys R Us in the early 2000s, I do remember him calling my old house phone on my birthday every year lol.
It should be said, Toys R us isn't dead! They are trying to make a comeback! They already have 3 new stores in America Malls! Geoffrey is still alive!!! Also Toys R us is still in business at Canada!
I sincerely HATE to be this guy; but the Ghost Host was voiced by Paul Frees....not Thurl. Thurl was the Singing Bust leader in the graveyard and a few other ghosts . Love the video still!!!
Hey Dan, I'm making my own version of the evolution of Geoffrey the Giraffe which will be released around Black Friday. But I will be focusing more on the actual costumes and even plan on buying a Geoffrey suit on eBay. Will it be ok? Since I don't want people to think I'm ripping you off. I also love that you're doing non-Disney characters, and may I suggest Chuck E. Cheese as a future edition to Distory?
I was a Geoffrey! I only got to be in the costume for a week before closing, and somewhere on the internet there is a very blurry vertical video of me break dancing in the parking lot of the closed building! The head even falls off hallway through! My manager had been at the store so long, and was so bitter about the whole situation, that he was going to let me leave with the costume and claim it stolen. Sadly, I was living out of my car at the time and couldn't really store it. I miss that store, and that job. It was the best week I'd had, and definitely one of the best jobs, even though it came to a sad end.
I never got to go to a Toys R Us cuz they were always so much more expensive then everywhere else so my parents wouldn't take me, which is kinda ironic actually
I remember going to toys r us for the first time, back in 2004 I was in the first grade, and it was my first time visiting Dubai, and I’ve got a baby born doll, good times. I’ve seen Geoffrey for the first and last time when I was 9, I was so scared of him so I didn’t get to take a picture with him
Weird, I never once saw Geoffrey when I went to Toys R Us. But we also didn’t go there too too much when I was a kid once Walmart started offering things for much cheaper. 😔 I miss Toys R Us, though. Walmart and Target just don’t have the selection that Toys R Us did, and you can’t physically go to Amazon and touch the toys and examine them before you buy them, you just get what you get, and if you’re scammed, then sucks for you. Me and one of my best friends used to go to Toys R Us just to walk around and so I could look at the dolls since I’m a bit of a doll collector, and I really miss that. You just don’t get the same experience at other stores. Our only real “toy store” is a toy store in the mall that’s run by this super creepy dude who just stares at you angrily while you walk around. Sometimes I go in there just to touch everything and not buy anything bc I know it makes him mad 😂 but it’s not nearly as fun as Toys R Us was.
Gonna be totally honest, the realistic Giraffe looked the cutest and most friendly in mascot form for me. It's so cute and huggable. It's eyes are just adorable, but the modern mascot is creepy AF. Its eyes are so derpy...no thank-you.
I don't think I ever met a Geoffrey costumed character growing up, but I really did love going to Toys R Us (I'm a late 90s baby). Even remember going to Babies R Us a lot to get our pictures taken every year and just wander around and look at all the cute baby stuff. I think I bought a lot of my first video games at Toys R Us, which ended up being a big part of my life. I remember that section of our store very well. I remember mostly switching to Target and Gamestop as I got older, but I do miss our local store. It's a furniture warehouse now, but those repainted bars on the front of the store bring back nostalgia every time I'm by there. I would definitely say I was a Toys R Us kid. Maybe not as much as generations before me, but I can conjure up a lot of memories there. Everything from scooters to board games to Legos to helping mom and dad pick out stuff to donate to Toys for Tots at Christmas. Man, I didn't even realize how much nostalgia I had for that place until I started typing this. Thanks for helping bring back some good childhood memories, Dan.
I got to meet Geoffrey at a Toys R Us grand opening, in Riverside CA. It was a big deal, because before that, it was a 2 hour drive to the nearest location. Now, it was barely an hour drive! LOL!
Dark Fan Theory for what happened to Jeffrey's family. His son dissapeared first right? That's because he died. This tore the family apart and Mrs. Giraffe only stayed with Jeffrey until their Daughter was grown. So with their Daughter all grown up and moved away the two split. Leaving Jeffrey all alone.
I went into toy’r’us once with my grandpa. Very quick in and out with one sibling. He bought them a cool rc car and I remember nothing else 2005-9. I do remember the marketing making it super cool on tv but it wasn’t near us so we never went there. We had a smaller story in a town nearer to us called Hopscotch. That place was fun with great displays and a cat. Small toy storys cant be beat but I sure did get a lot of webkinz at Walmart. Oof
I use to be Geoffrey for my local store. It was so much fun dancing and playing with the kids every month for birthdays and special events.t. I only wish I could have been him during the last day of the store closing but corporate wanted all the costume back before the liquidation started. So we had to ship him away and say goodbye :(.
I've never got to meet the giraffe, I was able to go to the store within the last two or three years it had left before closing forever (i got a lot of Calico Critter toys from that store for Christmas one year and I knew cause Walmart didn't even have the set that Toy's R Us had. And that was the best day of my life) It's sad that the store is no longer in business though ):
I worked for toysrus for a few years and ran alot of the kids in store events, I helped Geoffrey alot and we made appearances together alot. Wish I knew you were doing this ep cuz I have tons of pics of events we did together and behind the scene pics of 2 different versions of the costume we used. After the store closed my friend who was friends with Geoffrey got to keep the mascot.
There was a jingle in the 🇬🇧 and its an ear worm.. 'there's a magical place, we're in our way there with toys in their millions, it's called Toysrus'xx
I worked at Toys R Us in the early 90’s (power rangers to tickle me Elmo era) we had an event in the parking lot. BBQ, games etc. we had costumes. I was Sonic, a ninja turtle and baby g that day. Didn’t realize the dimensions of baby g’s but. Totally knocked a kid over 🤦🏻♀️
We still actually have probably one of the only Toys R Us still open because we’re in Canada, although they said they were closing twice they never did and I can 100% say that the toy store is an idea that didn’t deserve to die out, they’re so wonderous even as I get older you walk in and feel like a kid again
my brother & i r twins & i went there in macys when we went 2 the mall in may. im glad they opened back up there but i rlly hope they open their real stores back up like they were gonna b4 the damn pandemic. we’re 28 & i still love it & toys
i know 1 abandoned toysrus and a hhgregg that got turned into a daluth trading co. every year they load the abandoned toysrus with spirit halloween crap
I met him ones, well twice because I was there as a young little child running around and I remember the classic one, and the newer one. I took a picture, got a hug.... and the next week, me and my family we’re getting ready to drive… I DK around 3 miles just to see him again, play with some more toys and get three things and then just leave, but the day we went up there in my tire remind you, 3 miles worth of driving and we finally make it there and we see that it is finely... closed
where i live we actually never had a geoffrey the giraffe costume character:( but instead we had a giant dinosaur animatronic that made me stop going to toys r us for 2 years because i was so afraid of it:)
In 2016, Puyo puyo chronicle was released, the next long haul game with the ALL-NEW 3D animated characters including ally and rafisol, wich are the new characters in puyo puyo chronicle series. At least 16 Hours and 72 minutes and so many more and get the job done!
I met 2001 Geoffrey, well technically it wasn't me, because I was also in character. I was chuck e cheese. And together Geoffrey and I were there to go and support Santa for the u.s. marines doing a toys for tots promo.
*Which logo is the one you remember from your childhood ToysRUs?* Mine was the 1988 logo, which wasn't changed until 2007. I was born in 2000 so my memory of the store only goes so far back but indeed it was definitely the 1988 version. This store is now gone ever since the death of the franchise but I'll always remember it.
