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Toys R' Us Rebranding As Geoffrey's Toy Box And Making A Return This Year


JayC

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Following our story from the other week, it looks like Toys R' Us is already poised for making a comeback here in the United States after just a few months ago declaring bankruptcy and closing all their US based stores.

So last week we told you how it looked as if the Toys R' Us controlling lenders had a last minute change of heart about selling off all the companies assets because they decided the brand was just to valuable. Toys R' Us that same day released a press release posted on their website which says the following:

"Geoffrey, LLC, Toys “R” Us, Inc.’s intellectual property holding company subsidiary, announced today that it is moving forward with a plan for substantially all of its assets to be acquired by a group of investors led by Geoffrey, LLC’s existing secured lenders.

The announcement was made following a five month marketing effort by Boston-based Consensus, an investment bank retained to market the assets of Geoffrey, LLC, that resulted in several formal and informal proposals to acquire the intellectual property assets. After considering such proposals, it was determined that the proposal from the existing term lenders was meaningfully higher and better than any other global bid or the sum of the bids received on individual assets. The transition of the business to its new owners is pending approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court and all major creditor constituencies are supportive. Geoffrey, LLC thanks all parties that participated in discussions with the company over the prior months, particularly those that submitted proposals, for their thoughtful and diligent engagement.

Geoffrey, LLC, as reorganized, will control a portfolio of intellectual property that includes trademarks, ecommerce assets and data associated with the Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us businesses in the United States and all over the world, including a portfolio of over 20 well-known toy and baby brands such as Imaginarium, Koala Baby, Fastlane and Journey Girls. The reorganized company will own rights to the Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us brands in all markets globally, with the exception of Canada. It will also become the licensor of the brands to the company’s existing network of franchisees operating in countries across Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and in South Africa.

In addition to continuing to service these markets, the new owners are actively working with potential partners to develop ideas for new Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us stores in the United States and abroad that could bring back these iconic brands in a new and re-imagined way. Geoffrey LLC will provide additional detail on this front as it becomes available."


Then last Tuesday Geoffrey, the Toys R' Us mascot turned up at the annual Dallas Toy Preview show wearing a cape that said back from vacation. and having a booth called Geoffrey's Toy Box.
 
On the Dallas Toy Preview show website there is a description for Geoffrey's Toy Box which reads as follows:

"Wholesale toy distributor and intellectual property company whose focus is on popular play patterns across trusted brands that kids and parents love. Geoffrey's Toy Box is a fully outfitted organization with design, development and global sourcing expertise. Portfolio includes popular brands like Journey Girls, Fastlane, True Heroes, You & Me, Imaginarium, Just like Home and more!"

According to various reports, the Geoffrey's Toy Box reps who were at the Dallas show were telling folks their plan is to open consumer locations under the Toy Box name by November of this year. These will be done as a “shop-within-a-shop” concept where at least initially they will partner with prominent midwest retailers. In other words they will be opening for the holidays mini-locations within larger retail stores that might not normally sell much in the way of toys.

This is similar to the plan we heard several months ago when Toys R' Us first went under about KB Toys trying to make a return. Other retailers such as Party City have also indicated they will be implementing similar strategies as they all try and fill the toy store void during this busy holiday shopping season. The big question however remains, will any of them really be able to compete against the likes of Walmart and Amazon?
 
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Their intended plans of opening ‘shops within a shop’ sounds somewhat interesting, from the outset... But yea, I’m going to be really curious to see just how lucrative in the long run this’ll be for them. Considering the competition Walmart, Amazon and other such toy retailers are going to represent for them, these days.

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I don't really see why they had to change the name, this sounds more like a small chain that sells educational toys or something. Considering with how many people were devastated by the store closing you would think that they would keep the name because it meant something.

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I know that PixelDan will be very happy. The toy industry has changed a lot these few years. With online retailers expanding and people  having less time to enjoy shopping on stores and taking their kids with them. Electronic games also had a huge impact on that front.

In my country we don't have lots of stores. Only two major brands that are actually the same company. People still enjoy going there, but I see them getting emptier by the day. 

Toys R Us is an international brand well know in the whole world. See it dying was very sad. This model of store actually inspired the ones we have here. 

I hope it works out. Even if not for us collectors, the experience of entering a toy story with your family, see your kids playing with the toys and stuff is something that we cannot let die.  A moment that can be fun and in the future turn into nice memories. I still remember to this day entering in these stores with  my mom in my birthday to pick my gift or even going to them occasionally and just buying some board games or Gi Joes.

Writing this I am remembering that emotinal video that PixelDan did.  Don't know if you guys have watched it.

 

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Hmm seems like they are taking the Spirit of Halloween costume stores and taking over open stores for a few months (if I am understanding this correctly).  Not bad I guess if it gets a big box toy store out there even if it's just for the holidays.  Would still love to see TRU come back.  I can't imagine a whole generation of kids growing up and never being able to walk into a TRU.

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I just dont see the case, to me it all seems like a desperate cashgrab on the part of the investors/directors just to try and get as much money off the name of the brand before they shut off for good (I see it as the higher ups thought you know what, our brand name is still worth something why not use it while we can during this holliday season and then once we have gotten as much money out of it forget about it again), dont get me wrong I wasnt happy to see Toys R' Us go out of business but its these kind of practices and badly thought out plans that made them go bankrupt in the first place, I dont have much faith in this "return". 

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Good for them, I guess, I wasn't one of those that had an emotional childhood attachment to Toys R US and towards the end there I basically all but stopped shopping in them but I do feel sorry for the employees that were left jobless due to the closure of the stores. I hope that most of the are able to find work in the new stores, doubtful I know but still....

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