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Children's Palace Was Real
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.
Wasn’t that fun? The whole Barbie segment was so awesome and the quiz portions were hilarious! I also wanted to share one other commercial from Children’s Palace. Now this commercial is one that I actively recall. The message in this commercial is so true, and really sums up what was so nice about Children’s Palace stores. This was the toy store to go to for deals and the hard to find toys.
Does
anyone else remember Children’s Palace? There are certainly a number of toy stores
I recall from my youth, but this was one that was pretty special. Enjoy the
commercials, and stick around. There’s always more retro goodness at
Retro-Daze!
ronu Posted on Jun 06, 2018 at 06:45 PM
Yes, I remember Children's Palace and it was indeed real. There was in Monroeville, PA on route 22 right in front of the mall. There is a Dodge dealership now. I was very sad when it closed in the mid '90's because I too had a lot of childhood memories of that store. I thought that I was the only person in the world that still remembers their jingle from their commercials. "At Children's Palace, the password is fun!"
DirtyD79 Posted on Apr 30, 2016 at 12:14 PM
I remember Children's Palace from my childhood although I only remember being in 2 of them around Pittsburgh. They were expensive so we hardly ever shopped there. I remember when they shut down sometime in the mid 90s. One became became an American Eagle outlet store while the other became a Dodge dealership. I just thought the stores were so neat because of the whole castle theme they had.
Vaporman87 Posted on Jun 27, 2015 at 06:57 AM
Cool. Thanks for the site info Danny.
dannyd Posted on Jun 26, 2015 at 08:27 PM
I think a spam filter filtered out the website URL - replace the DOT with a .
ChildWorld DOT ROCKS
or
ToysWereUs DOT COM
Thanks - I'm hoping to make this a place where we can prove that not only were they real, but they are still alive
dannyd Posted on Jun 26, 2015 at 08:23 PM
Was Chldren's Palace real?
I don't know - I never saw one in real life.
But, I know that Child World was real - I worked at one from 1986 until they closed for good in 1992.
Everything that you said in your post is true - it truly was an amazing store, and even though I'm "all grown up", I still miss it.
Getting back to your question again - Was Children's Palace real?
Check out a new website that I've been working on, dedicated to Child World
squidbee Posted on Oct 23, 2014 at 02:46 AM
There was a Children's Palace store close to me during my youth. I even had the VHS tape of your first video. I wish I still had it for nostalgia's sake, but I recorded over it with music videos from 120 Minutes on MTV.
MissM Posted on Nov 19, 2013 at 06:23 AM
Vaporman- I believe there was only one Children's Palace by us, it moved twice before closing down completely. It's so sad, because it was truly a great place. I gave my parents a great deal of grief for sure! lol And yeah, the comedian/rapper guy was a bit much. lol
SegaFanatic- Yeah, I think it was important for there to have been more options. I wish there were now, but I guess all the options have moved to the Internet. Glad you enjoyed this!
Trash Man- Oh my goodness, thank you for this comment! I had no idea about the origins of Children's Palace. I feel like there was a Child World at one of the nearby malls when I was little, but I vaguely recall it. I mostly just remember Children's Palace. Thank you for this comment! I had no idea.
The Trash Man Posted on Nov 18, 2013 at 02:55 AM
Children's Palace was owned and operated by Child World, which was a chain of toy stores that was founded in Avon, MA. Right around the corner from where I grew up [and still currently live]. My friend and I were reminiscing about our local Child World just the other day while we were at the mall it used to be part of.
Their panda bear mascot meant more to my childhood than any Geoffrey the Giraffe ever could.
SegaFanatic Posted on Nov 17, 2013 at 07:31 PM
Intresting. I only had Toys R Us, which was fine, but I wish there were more options. Thanks for the article, I really enjoyed it!
Vaporman87 Posted on Nov 16, 2013 at 06:03 PM
Just reading about your experiences with Children's Palace makes me wish there had been one here in our area during my youth.
The closest thing we had for the longest time was Kay-Bee Toys in the mall. Toys 'R Us didn't come around until later for us. I can only imagine the grief I would have given my parents to take me to a Children's Palace.
The long commercial segment was awesome. There were several toys in there that I have no memory of ever seeing. Things like the Motor Mouth board game, and the Tiger piano game... great stuff. I really could have done without the curly haired "comedian/rapper" guy though. LOL
Great fun Miss M. Thanks for this.
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