1980's Kay-Bee Toys

My wife always liked seeing Kay Bee Toys because K B are her initials, both maiden and married names.  Maybe that is where she got the Bachmann train set she gave me as an engagement gift.  $15 doesn't sound like much now, but come to think of it, it wasn't much then either.  

I used to buy alot of my HO scale trains from Kay-Bee Toys back in the 80's. 

The year would be 1989.   The Sega Genesis was released in North America that year.   Those game cartridges shown, were the launch titles.   I purchased the Sega Genesis on the day it came out.   I  purchased some Like Life and Bachmann N scale at Kay Bee toys in the early 90's.    I love looking at old ads and Sears Wish Book scans from my childhood era.

Thank you for the date Mike.  I have never paid attention to video games, but I do know something new comes along so quickly they can provide a good source for dating advertising.

My wife bought the set for me over 5 years before.

I remember K B Toys well.  Used to stop in after stopping by Allied Hobbies to see if they had anything I could use and afford.  

I had spent a  lot of time at Kay-Bee too. I bought Bachmann and Life-Like N Scale trains by the dozens. I had most of them until recently. I started listing them on eBay and the response was amazing.

It's great seeing the old prices.

Sean

I also frequented K-B toys alot.  Never saw any trains at my local K-B but I sure bought a ton of Die cast 1:18 scale cars from them.  Must have bought a thousand (actually more like 100 or so) of them.  LOL

As for the toy catalogs.  I can remember when toy catalogs were as thick as phone books.

Rick

I remember buying HO trains at Kay Bee.  Good source for inexpensive HO.  (in my area in suburbs of NY, so was Play Word, Toys R Us and Child World. 

-Dave

Another "Whatever happened to...." store? I never saw or bought trains there, in their usual mall locations in this area 

$15 was quite a bit of money back then as I recall.  Have one of those Bachmann sets somewhere in the basement.  

I still have an HO AHM 0-4-0 I bought at the K-B Toy and Hobby (before they dropped the "Hobby" designation) at Northwest Plaza in St. Louis.  I painted and weathered it, and it still runs.  I also still have--or, rather, my son has--a pile of LEGO blocks I bought there.

colorado hirailer posted:

Another "Whatever happened to...." store? I never saw or bought trains there, in their usual mall locations in this area 

According to Wikipedia, out of business in early 2009 (less TRU buying rights to the name).

Before I looked it up (assuming Wikipedia is correct), I was going to suggest I wasn't sure if K•B and Kay Bee were the same thing, but it seems that name change was from an earlier re-organization.

-Dave

It seemed to me that Kay Bee spent most of my childhood either getting into or out of model railroading.  When they would leave the market they would mark down everything and sell it off.  That is when I would buy.  I got a Chessie System box car and a Santa Fe car carrier full of cars both from Bachmann and a neat intermodal crane with some Sea Land containers from A.H.M.

I grew up in that store as a kid especially in the winter time after shoveling snow and had extra cash.