The History & Eventual Murder of KB Toys 

I miss that feeling of going inside a real toy store....

"Oh, you think the mall is your ally. But you merely adopted the mall; I was born in it, molded by it." -Bain Capital

Every cool place died in the 2000's thanks in part to corporate greed. The small mom and pop toy/collectable stores in malls were just magical. Malls are straight up depressing now a days. No arcade, no toys, or people.

I worked at a KB in high school during the name change from Kay-Bee to KB. I can't tell you how many times people writing checks would get mad when they asked how to spell the store's name and I told them "It's just KB"...like I was messing with them. I still have my old name tag, and it very clearly says KB on it. It was one of the best jobs I ever had, and I was sad to see them go under.

KB Toys, Waldenbooks, and Electronics Boutique, the stores i made sure to hit on every visit to the mall with my 10$ allowance. oh yeah, and Aladdins Castle arcade with whatever change i had left!

Oh how I miss KB toys. Or just toy stores in general

KB toy stores, Sears wish list annual Christmas catalogs. There are some great things the generations moving forward will never experience for themselves, unfortunately.

Moral of the story: Everyone says Amazon killed the toy store, when in fact it was Mitt Romney. True story.

Thank you for such a clear and educational video. I had no idea that Bain Capital was responsible for multiple downfalls within toy retail. Such a sad and miserable story. The world is certainly a less fun place without a proper toy store. And, of course, so many people loss their jobs and pensions.

KB Toys and the arcade were my sole reasons for being okay with having to go to the god forsaken mall. That applied to me as a child and an adult. Then they both died. Now when asked if I will go to the mall, I break down and weep. Mostly because my wife doesn't want to take a crying grown man with her to the mall. It's an effective escape plan. try it.

KB: where you went in 2007 to find 'Robocop' toys from ... 1993.

I come here to hear how every piece of my childhood has been liquidated, crushed, and discontinued.

the fact I found this FASCINATING despite being British and never hearing of KB before speaks # volumes to the research, scripting, presentation and production of this Chanel.

KB was my first job out of school. I worked there for 3 years and honestly loved every day of it until I got a new manager and started hating every day of it. I honestly miss those day. The early 00s was a different more simple time. I was sad when they went under.

I've only been in a KB/Kay-Bee once but enjoyed the history lesson, and Greg really produced the heck out of this episode :)

Back in the early 90's my favorite store was the corner store. There were magazine racks full of comics, an area dedicated to Arcade machines, and the front counter was all trading cards. Now you don't find any of that stuff at a corner store...

Murder mysteries, inspirational quotes, AND Bill & Ted references? Best episode EVER!

15,000 years of human evolution, and I really feel like we've peaked with this video. Dan, you are a goddamn national treasure and I salute you

I worked at a Toy Liquidators (KB Toys outlet), and here's a little secret of our store that may be true of others as well. I think people know that KB seemed to never get rid of toys, they would just discount and discount until they sold. Well, what happened if the toys never sold? Here's what happened at my store, those toys just got thrown up on top of the aisle rack where they were out of sight. My favorite thing to do was to get up on the ladder and sift through the mountains of dusty, forgotten toys on the top of the racks. The best part was, when you'd ring them up, the system kept discounting them all those years later and they were a small fraction of whatever the sticker price was by that point. To give you an idea of the randomness up there, my favorite find was a 1996 WWF Bend-ems ring with Paul Bearer figure, and I worked there in 2001-2. Easily my favorite (and least paying) job!

Company man, had already clued me into the cartoon villains that are bane capitol, but I enjoyed your take on this as well. I especially loved the "meeting footage"You are in my top 5 favorite channels, and even though I don't always comment, I always watch, and I always thumbs up. Keep up the good work sir (s)!

For me it was always K.B. toys, rarely ever went to Toys R us because "They're too expensive" lol

Having worked for TRU, and that is a company I owe (at least their people) in my time of need after my military service, I feel for their employees. I'm glad you made this so people will see the real reasons behind why these companies go out of business behind the scenes. I didn't know it was the same company with Kay Bee. Those were childhood memories! Great video as Always T.G.

I'm 38 and I absolutely love going into brick and mortar toy stores.

Awesome video and quality work Dan & Co.! Easily my favorite channel on RU-vid!

Wow! Wow. I had no idea that the same "investment" company was at the heart of both major toystore closings.. mind blower. If it turns out that Bain's silent partner is Heat Miser, I am going to be very dissappointed.

Kay-Bee was where I bought ALL my Gobots! Including Thruster and the Command Center! I think I had fonder memories of going into Kay-Bee because it was always sporadic and unexpected that I was allowed to go, a pleasant surprise, meanwhile, Toys R Us visits were fewer and far between, and planned. I always found more obscure toys there, too, and a larger selection of stuff like Gobots. Great trip down memory lane, Dan!

I used to work for Kay Bee. I was very “green”. My first day was on Black Friday. Not a good experience at all.

I've recently started watching this channel, mostly bingeing on stuff you've already done. I greatly appreciate the topic material, and also the amusing style with which you present, including the interleaved bloopers.

Gotta love America, where a faceless corporation will buy a smaller company for the sole purpose of bleeding them dry, running them out of business, and earning a profit just for themselves. Stuff like this is what just makes me sad, but then again I get an odd satisfaction in knowing that those executives *have no souls and know no true happiness* . Oh yeah, toys. Toys are COOL!

This one hurts. K.B. Toys is actually where I started my Marvel Legends collecting. One fateful day I walked in with one of my first high school job paychecks and walked out with series 1 Iron Man, Captain America and Hulk (Toad had already sold). My life and hobby was changed forever that day.

Same thing with Gamestop, with its inflated value I'm sure they took out a crap load of loans. Killing it for sure now.

“This is a Candy business, but it’s still a business.” Love that I have a lot in common with 10 year old Dan.

I friggin love these history videos. Thank you so much, Dan. You guys have filled the void left behind after Glenn Webb passed away as the history aspect of his channel was something I truly looked forward to watching and loved. Toy Galaxy has become my favorite RU-vid channel.

I grew up pretty poor, so a trip to the mall or Toys R Us (once we got one in our city) was a pretty rare occurrence, however KB was more likely to happen since my mom could drop us off at the mall for hours and have some probably much deserved time to herself. So a lot of my paper route money was spent at good ole KB. In college one of my close friends managed the KB store, and I worked in a Pipe and Cigar Store in the same mall. So I spent some time helping with truck, and still spending chunks of my pay check there.

Kay Bee was where it was at. Toys R Us was a palace with more toys and seeing a pyramid of Technodromes will always be in my memories but I built my collection because of those 3 for $10 and 3 for $5 deals. Those sales were my life. TrU was also on the other side of town the mall was only 5 minutes away by car. There was only one choice to satisfy my toy fix.

Wow, this is the first video I ever watched from this channel and I just realized I have been thoroughly enjoying for the last year. Nice

Just posted some toys for sale on ebay that still had the KB Toys price stickers on em :)

It was so fun going into that store and finding interesting toys you didn't find anywhere else. G2 Transformers... Machine Wars... it was the Wild West of toy stores.

KB was my first job while I was in High School in the early 90's. GREAT JOB on the history and research regarding it. I really remember some key points that were happening during my employment there!

"They Melvined me." I had a feeling you were going to say this... xD

worked at KB for 4 years, which kicked my collecting hobby into high gear at the age of 16. 32 years old now been going strong ever since!

You missed the chance to play the clip of Rises where businessman Daggett tells Bane in fear: “but we’ve paid you a fortune.”

I worked at a KB Toy store for exactly one week and quit because the manager hated kids and he griped about how much mess they made of the toy displays. It was one of the most depressing places I ever worked and I never regretted leaving there.

My goodness. What a great voice you've got. I could easily imagine lots of cartoon characters brought to life by your deep and gritty pipes.

I miss you 😭Kay Bee Toys 85% my collection came from this store

I don't know how you find the time to make these videos but I'm damn pleased you do!

It was awesome to hear the story of what really happened. My wife was a store manager and left right before everything came crashing down (she did the same at Toys R Us). So many fond memories of those stores from childhood too.

Same thing I said when TRU went out of business: if I want to overpay for last year's toys, there's still Target.

I started as a part-time seasonal overnight stocker and worked my way up district manager... 13 years after I started they closed the doors and I enlisted in the Army... yeah it had that kind of effect on me lol

i used to love KB toys, this was a great vid happy new year Mr. Dan Larson...

This may be my favorite history episode yet. When can we expect the Toy Galaxy Inspirational Posters? That government sugar rarioning quote tugs at the heart strings.

My friends and I worked at a KB in an outlet mall in our early 20's, we would smoke weed all day and had to deal with creepy old men who collected 1:18 scale diecast models. Good times.

I'm not even a toy person and I can't stop watching Every-Single-One of your infernal videos. Damn you, Toy Galaxy, damn you!!!! (Also, great job on this one.)

This so very sad. Our company, The Party Source, is an ESOP (Employee Owned) company. Seeing Bain systematically destroy someone's livelihood is purely sickening. I loved KB Toys, they were the only toy store in my town were I grew up. So many happy memories with them. Cheers, -J.O.

I’m happy i got the chance to enjoy this store, the 90s were awesome!!!! Thank you for making an awesome video!!

I am 48 years old and of all your videos I have watched so far, this made me the most happy with so many memories of the three big toys store chains, but at the same time, the most sad because I remember the decline of KB and Toys R Us and especially going from Toys R Us to Toys R Us when they were having their going out of business sales. Every once and a while I still pass an old Toys R Us that never became anything else. It just sits there with it's original outside Toys R Us paint job, reminding every time just how great we had it for so many years when there were actual stand alone toy stores. It makes me sad knowing that my daughter only had Toys R Us in her life for about the first six years of her life. She is eleven now and still has a few memories of our Friday night stops at Toys R Us even it we didn't always make a purchase. I think I am more sad now just thinking back on how much fun she had there. It truly was a store of wonders when you were under the age of seven. Thank you so much for this trip down memory lane.

I need that Silverhawk motivational poster... that made me laugh harder than it probably should have.

"they melvin'd me" is also what popped into my head when you said Melville as well

Dan, this is the store that introduced me to the Toy Biz Marvel Legends! Thanks for this stroll down memory lane my brother 🤘🤘

Your videos are hilarious 😂 keep them coming

I was a young, young, every so young manager at Toys R Us when Bain Capital bought us out with KKR and Vornado Realty as their partners. Everything changed after that. Store closings, higher prices and constant threats to our jobs if we didn't like the changes. However, in all fairness, Toys R Us (like KB) left themselves open to that by making a lot of foolish business decisions. Fortunately, I left well before the hammer fell at Toys R Us. Until this video, though, I didn't know Bain Capital had done this to KB. Damn shame.

Every time I watch one of these videos I think about how much fun it would probably be to hang out with these maniacs.

I miss going in to a K- B toy store as a child. The battery operated dog that barks and does back flips and along with the penguin staircase that when they get to the top they slid down to go back up again. All set up to draw attention of children as they walk past with their parents. I miss it all 😭😢

Some of my fondest childhood memories are when my Dad used to take me to KB Toys in our local mall. I honestly would be the happiest kid on earth whenever we could afford to go there

I miss kB toys and Toys R Us!

Kay Bee always had the best toys and lots of stuff TRU didn’t have. If only the Wayne Foundation had stepped in, Bain Capital wouldn’t have murdered all the toy stores.

that was a phenomenal Video. Thank you for this trip down memory lane and filling those of us who were not paying attention in on how it all went down.

How I miss my favorite toy store..u still remember

holy crooked finances, Danman. Bane broke the backs of toy businesses by buying them out and beating them down with bankruptcy.

Mitt Romney must be the one person that hit the dislike button

KB toys, Radio Shack, Suncoast video, Sears ... Malls used to be so much more fun than they are today. I'm glad my daughter got to see at least the last few years of physical toy stores before they all closed up and she out grew them. Telling her kids about places like this is gonna be like telling them about a fantasy they'll never experience.

Great video dan and company!

Wow, this episode turned out so great! I want to work in toys, but the money is in toy business murdering.

I'm from the UK, so this was really interesting as we didn't have KB over here. I'm interested in the business and history of the toy industry as much as I am in toys themselves. Thanks! Keep up the good work and interesting, well researched content.

Great video. I had a 2nd job fresh out of college working at KB in the late 90's that helped me pay off school loans. It was a great environment and thankfully I left long before it went belly up. Those stacks of discounted toys right inside the door were a PITA though, especially on Black Friday *shudders at the memory*

I was actually curious about this, thanks for the report!

Dan, thanks for all of your hard work. Your videos are almost always a highlight in my week. And I live a pretty great life, so..... 😀

I remember my parents took me and my brother to KB toys every week. I don't remember what I bought (I was 4 years old at the time), but I wish they were still around today.

I am the one who broke KBs back.

Can we PLEASE do something about Bain? They exist entirely by leeching off other companies until they die. Or, hey, maybe start a class action lawsuit with as many former KB and Toys R Us employees as possible. Fortunately, FAO Schwarz is back again. Frankly I hope Toys R Us goes after their assailants once they've finished recuperating, and maybe we can put those parasites down once and for all.

Thanks Baine Capital Murdurer of Toy Stores 😢😢😢😢😢😢

Yo, KB was my favorite. They had toys u couldn't find in other stores.

This is your funniest video yet!!! Love it

I love how you don’t edit out the bloopers. Have a like and a subscribe.

As a KB Toys Store Manager in TN and CA, I approve of this updated HR Orientation video...Do you need any batteries? How about a cow tail? They’re 3 for a dollar.

Sigh....so many Toy Biz toys bought, but the most note worthy was my buying all those Exo-Squad toys. Ohh what a magical time to be a kid and having a KB in a mall near me, it was beautiful Dan...sooo Beeeaauutifull *weeps incohrently

@ Toy Galaxy I was a manager at a KB in Utah for a while. I miss that job! At the time, it paid well, was way fun and the employee discounts were generous. Good times..

Thank you for this video, I worked for KB Toys from 1996 to 2010 and still miss working there, it was a great place to work even when in hard times

That Silverhawks crack hit me right in the nostalgia-very distinct memories of purchasing all the ones I owned from KB back when. I was always able to hit KB up over my maybe once a year trip to TrU on special occasions. And then even as I got older, realized KB was still rocking old stock, and purposely seeking them out to find older stuff.

Bain Capital? Why does that name sound fami- OH. OH NO.

I grew up in Pittsfield and remember the giant KB Toys that was a few minutes from our house. We went there all the time, mostly to look and waste time, but I always got my video games there. I still remember getting my copy of Perfect Dark from a big discount bin they had near the front. I even dreamed about living in the small house next to that shopping plaza so I could play the game demo stations whenever I wanted. I had no idea about how my "local toy store" meant so much to so many other people until many years later. After the company went under, that location sat until eventually becoming a new bank branch. It means a lot seeing this video and more recently, the Company Man video covering this same topic, as it'll always be my fun home away from home.

ok Dan and team by far ur funniest video yet!!! the Godfather approach was legit! thanks once again for all the insight...and of course the laughs...I'll have nightmares now about "dividend payout and more loans" lol

I forgot all about k b toys now I feel sad and nostalgic at least we still have toys r us... oh wait never mind. Good bye toy stores. I'll be in my corner crying.

Every time a toy store closes. A great disturbance is felt throughout the universe.

Awesome video! Never had KB in Canada that I’m aware of, but I love the history of toys and the toy business. And apparently candy business...

KB Toys was my hangout spot in the early to mid 90s. It was less then 100 yards away from the arcade in the mall so I was in each of those places everytime my parents and I went to our local mall. I can still see the stores interior in my mind...wow I miss that store. Thanks for bring back those memories

Toy Galaxy makes me smile.

Love the Bane usage. LMFAO

I loved KB Toys as a customer, and I was both a customer and an employee of Toys R Us. I actually gathered the shopping carts from the parking lot of the Daytona Beach Toys R Us for the last time shortly before we closed the doors for good on our last day of operation. Neither one of these great stores had to go out of business except for the greed of a few money grubbing individuals....

I love this channel.