Toys 'R' Us Evolution

Caldor Rainbow has constructed a fairly thorough and entertaining account of Toys 'R' Us various design iterations between 1978 and 1989.

My passion for finding these stores; ones which are brown roofed and rainbow-striped existing today has been a goal for over a year now as there are a good handful still out there. Each year, as the company catches up to these stores, facing a heavy pressure to conform to the decidedly boring looks of today, those special stores, still largely untouched by time (or any hapless repaint or remodel jobs), must be documented and preserved.

Since there's much information to cover, this entry will be dealing with Part I which encapsules the store history from 1978 to 1989; the last year of the brown/rainbow era. Many pictures shown here are mostly recent, from 2006 and 2007, from a few remaining, older looking locations visited including Woburn; Massachusetts, Clay; New York and Horseheads; New York. We hope to visit more in the future, and expand our travel scope.