As I have gotten older I have found the joys of shopping for all kinds of things. I have an affinity for cute clothes, bags, and shoes, but nothing gets my heart beating faster than a trip to the toy store. Of course toy stores these days seem like a rarity. Awhile back though there was just a plethora of toy stores to choose from. I miss those days.

Take for example Children’s Palace. Remember that store? Apparently no one in my life does. I loved Children’s Palace and for the longest time I felt like I had dreamt the place up. Obviously there was Toysrus and Kay-B-Toys, but Children’s Palace was something else. First of all, the place looked like a palace! There were towers and arched windows at the front. The inside was covered with toys, just covered!

My earliest memory of Children’s Palace was walking in and stumbling upon hard to find figures that I had only heard existed through rumor. There was a Teela proudly displayed with the other He-Man figures. I remember being so shocked and grabbing my mom’s arm, “Mom! Look! It’s Teela!” I was that annoying child that put my parents through the ringer searching for the hard to find stuff. How they put up with me I will never know.

I also remember being blown away by the sheer amount of products available. It was as if the toy shelves reached to the ceiling. I couldn’t get enough. Not to mention, I don’t think there was anything better than all the pinks and purples from the Princess of Power toy line. The golden yellow lettering was just magic. Pure magic!

However, all these lovely memories of my toy trips to Children’s Palace have been problematic. When I would recall these memories with my family and friends, no one would know what I was talking about. It was as if I was making up something on a whim. “Oh come on M, you dream about toys, this make-believe toy store was probably in one of your dreams.” But I knew there had to be a real life Children’s Palace. I may be a lot of things, but hallucinatory is not one of them.

For me, trying to prove the existence of a toy store that had been closed for years, proved to be difficult. This was of course before the advent of YouTube and Wikipedia. I had no way of really proving my memories, which is always a frustrating event. I was just stumped, how in the world could the people in my life not remember this?! I even had memories of going to Children’s Palace with my cousins. The Palace was the only toy store around that still had Voltron toys long after everywhere else gave up on the line.

With so many memories in my mind, I knew I was not insane. I simply needed proof. Enter Barbie. A family friend was hosting a charity gala with a silent auction that my parents had attended. Some of the items in the silent auction consisted of Barbie dolls from the 80’s and early 90’s. Naturally being the dorkette that I am, my parents decided to make some bids on the dolls. They won since no one else cared about the dolls.

After giving me the dolls, I noticed that one of the boxes had a sticker on it. I’m sure you are able to guess what happened next… The price sticker was from Children’s Palace! I finally had all the proof I needed. I told as many people that I could that Children’s Palace was real, that it had existed. People still don’t remember, but I at least have the proof now.

Now that we have the joys of YouTube, I also wanted to share some old clips of Children’s Palace commercials.

This first clip is a massive long commercial where a cast of characters takes us behind the scenes of a “news” show while also bringing us the latest in toy commercials. I got such a kick out of watching this. The kids have some pretty good acting chops and the toys featured in this super long commercial are just the coolest. It’s quite a long view, but it is worth it.