I Still Function! – Geoffrey’s Toy Box Is The New Toys “R” Us

Maximus Danz

Has there been a Geoffrey's toy box in the US yet?

Yes, Kroger brand stores had them over the holidays. Locally to me, they were in Fred Meyer stores

Are former Toys R Us execs reviving the bankrupt retailer? | Toy World Magazine

A new firm called Tru Kids was launched on Sunday, armed with the ownership rights to the Toys R Us and Babies R Us trademarks.

The New York Post has reported that a bid to bring back Toys R Us may be on the cards. Former executives at the bankrupt toy chain, which liquidated all of its US stores last year, began actively reaching out to toy manufacturers this week to discuss a comeback plan for the brand, according to reports.

An email obtained by The Post indicates that a new firm called Tru Kids was launched on Sunday, armed with the ownership rights to the Toys R Us and Babies R Us trademarks, as well as the company’s Geoffrey the Giraffe mascot.

According to the email, execs at the new company — whose chief executive is Richard Barry, the former chief merchandiser of the retailer — were looking to set up meetings at Toy Fair New York, the industry’s biggest US trade show, which begins 16th February.

Reactions to the execs’ presence at the fair are likely to be varied; many suppliers have blamed some of those same executives for losses associated with the Toys R Us bankruptcy. Some vendors recently contacted by Tru Kids executives are weighing whether to do business with the company.

“Almost everyone at the show got burned by Toys R Us,” one toy executive has said.

Tru Kids executives have reportedly just returned from Hong Kong, where they attempted to drum up interest from retailers, including their own franchisees, in their private-label products.

Insiders say the skeleton crew of ex-Toys R Us execs has been working out of the company’s old headquarters in Wayne, NJ, at One Geoffrey Way, a building that never got sold in the liquidation. The executive team includes former legal counsel Jamie Young and other merchandising and financial executives including Matt Finnegan and Rich Ryan, the email said.

Tru Kids “will service the many Tru stores around the globe,” the email said, as well as its Geoffrey line of private label toys and its Geoffrey’s Toy Box kiosks, which were launched inside Kroger supermarkets during the holidays.

The trademarks belong to a group of hedge funds, including Solus Alternative Asset Management and Angelo Gordon. Tru Kids also is interested in opening pop-up Toys R Us stores and striking deals with other retailers like Kroger.

https://nypost.com/2019/01/24/former-toys-r-us-execs-planning-potential-comeback/

Lody666

I got about tree fiddy

Well,it turns out that the investment banker I'd been talking to was actually eight stories tall and a creature from the Paleolithic era. I said "Dammit,Loch Ness Monster! Banking is already stressful enough,we don't need you doing it for us!"

Looks like the Hardship Fund is happening.
Report: Former Toys ‘R Us employees get checks from hardship fund
Anyone former employees here get a check? If so, how much was it if you don't mind me asking?

RandomDude1337

I found one today. All they had were one step changers.

That's not a GTB pallet drop. That's a Hasbro shipper.

A pallet drop literally comes on a slab called a pallet and is dropped on the floor over night with a pallet loader.

A shipper is just a small temporary cardboard display filled with smaller goods.

Kroger stores have also been getting BB movie shippers, as seen above.

(I really don't think I have much to contribute here, but I feel I have one more point about what's being said here.)

1.) the general ignorance of the public or casual toy shopper
2.) Wall Street's penchant for investing in vaporware.

We all know that TRU is deader than Elvis. (And I guess by we, I only mean the fans who have been following this closely, the lawyers, and the people directly connected. Employees, vendors and stakeholders and the like.)

But the general public, and our barely competent news industry have a very casual relationship with the facts. When someone says "Geffory's Toy Box" and shows an old stock photo of Geffory Giraffe, people say, "oh Toys R Us is back!"

It's not.

Now, here's where it gets interesting, Wall Street style. Somebody, somewhere in this mess has walked away with the licensing for the name. That's all he/she has, the rights to name a business Toys R Us. Through the bankruptcy process it has been divested of debt, overhead, payroll, real estate, inventory or legal obligations. All it is is a sheet of paper.

But this name, this brand, still has tons of value, as demonstrated by saying the words "Toys R Us" to the average consumer, they know immediately what your selling. THAT is what is of value to Wall Street.

If you were to start a brand new brick & mortar toy store tomorrow, (call it "Woody & Buzz's Toy Store E", lol) well not only would you get a call from Disney's lawyers, you probably wouldn't get much funding. But if you had the rights to the name "Toys R Us"? You'd be up by millions of dollars in advertising, probably lots of free news coverage. It's not perfect, but it gives you a massive head start, and investors would probably be more ready to forward you a line of credit on that basis alone.

So yeah, somebody's got the rights. And maybe, sometime soon, they might do something with it.

But mostly, I'm curious how this holiday season is going to go, because now that TRU is out of the game, there's a big hole in the market for the "casual toy shopper."

And nature abhors a vacuum.

Metalwario64

Wow! Toys R Us is back baby!!

Oh baby, Now that's a BIG comeback, a TITANIC return! Toys R' Us is…
… At your local supermarket.

RandomDude1337

I found one today. All they had were one step changers.

Wow! Toys R Us is back baby!!

Kroger to revive Toys R Us for the holidays
Geoffrey's Toy Box will show up in 600 Kroger-owned stores across the US, featuring 35 toys ranging in price from $19.99 to $49.99.

GizmoTron

Well not surprisingly it turned out that there is no involvement here from Hasbro or Mattel, and that there never actually was any indication that there would be or ever will be involvement from those companies, just wild speculation from those that maybe are still hoping TRU's closing this past year was just a bad dream and that their childhood isn't actually dead.

Exactly this. TRU making money off it's own IP is fine within bankruptcy laws. If a person declares bankruptcy, there's nothing stopping them from making crafts and selling them at a fair. And they can keep all their profits as long as the courts declare their filing as satisfied to all parties, of which, AFAIK, they have.

TRU is essentially no longer a retailer – they are now just a generic toy brand IP holder.

Now, they say they want to expand back into retail at some point. I'll believe it when I see it.