You could always spot a Toys By Roy by the large rocking horse
logo on the front of the store.
In 1961 Roy Ater opened his first Toys By Roy in the
brand-new Winrock Center Mall in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The new shopping
center was billed as ‘the largest in the Southwest’ and Ater’s toy store was
one of its first, and most successful, merchants. In the following years Toys
By Roy would become a successful franchise that expanded to thirty-four
locations in nine states.
As shopping malls began to fall out of favor with shoppers
Toys By Roy would see rents rise and sales decline by the mid-1980s. Slowly
Ater began to close his stores one by one and in January of 1988 he would close
the doors of his cornerstone Albuquerque location. It was the first and the
last of his once successful chain.
Ater still remained in the toy business after the demise of
Toys By Roy opening a smaller store in the rival Coronado Center in Albuquerque
along with a store he already owned in Southern California.
Toys By Roy wasn’t a giant toy supermarket like Toys R Us,
or a high-end retailer like FAO Schwarz, nor was it a cramped over-stocked mall
cave like KB Toys. In almost every way it was superior to every one of them.
It is interesting to note that Toys R Us would open a store
on the Winrock property shortly after Toys By Roy had closed its doors. We all
know that decades later that toy store chain would succumb to the same fate as Ater’s.
This time loosing out to online retailers who could stock more merchandise at
lower prices with lower overhead and operating expenses.
I just happen to be one of those lucky kids who used to
troll up and down the isles looking for whatever geeky sci-fi inspired toy I
could talk my mother into buying for me. This could range from a smaller Star
Wars or Micronaut figure to a cool spaceship like the electronic MB Starbird
all the way up to a three-foot tall Shogun Warrior. Toys By Roy had them all.
As I recall, toys from young children were towards the
front, then dolls and other toys for girls, then stuff for boys with hobbies
for big kids and adults in the rear. The store had a natural flow to it as I
remember it.
As I grew older and my interests grew from toys to hobbies
and I always bought my model planes, tanks and electric trains from there. When
it comes to the latter, I still have locomotives and rolling stock that I
bought at Toys By Roy. Unfortunately, Duke City Hobbies opened
along Wyoming Blvd and I found myself shopping there more. Even though I loved
the store I honestly didn’t even notice when it closed up. My interests by the
late eighties had turned to collecting records and chasing girls.
The big kid I am now wishes that I had taken the time to visit that store more
often in its last days.
Photos of the original Toys By Roy provided by Alan Ater son of founder Roy Ater:
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I was in Texas and Toys-By-Roy was the go-to place! They had all the Japanese Robots pre-Transformers and the Britian's Deetail die-caste stuff. It was the best! I can't believe there is so little on the chain online. I would love to see some photos. Thanks for this post.
ReplyDeleteKen,
ReplyDeleteWe also, had a Toys by Roy here in Oklahoma City. It was where I-35 & i-240 crosses and was in Crossroads Mall, somewhat over 1,000,000 square feet. Toys by Roy even sold coins ?
I never did visit the one at Crossroads Mall, but I do remember there was a Quail Springs Mall location i went to when I was 3 or 4, on the east side of the mall near the Sears.
DeleteWe had three Toys by Roy near us- Cortana Mall in Baton Rouge, the mall in Hammond and one in New Orleans. From Macross Models to Micronauts, they had it all. They closed the store in Cortana and moved all of the stock to a much smaller store near Service Merchandise. They put up a banner sign with some name like "Michael's Toys" or something that didn't sound as inviting. It was not the same and the store closed soon after.
ReplyDeleteTbR was such a wonderful toy store. I fear there will never be such again.
We lived in Albuquerque in the late 70's and remember Toys by Roy. It was my favorite toy/hobby shop at the time. Great time to be alive. Plastic model kits, trains, coins, and stamps, Toys by Roy had it all. They even had a small n-scale layout behind glass in the back of the store. Great memories!
ReplyDeleteI'm Alan Ater, the youngest of two sons of Roy. Roy was actually his middle name but naming the store Toys by Reverdie (yes, his real first name) wouldn't have been as catchy! Anyway, it brings a huge smile to my face knowing that Toys by Roy not only brought happiness to the lives of so many all those years ago, but continues to do so in memories even today. Toys by Roy belonged as much to my mom as it did to my dad. Trust me, even though you didn't see her at work in the stores, she was at home in her office making sure all of the bills, receipts, records, payrolls, tax stuff, and everything else behind the scenes of a successful endeavor got done. My dad passed away in 2001 and my mom in 2005 but I can tell you that they would have been thrilled to read what others on this site have said about Toys by Roy.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid growing up in Dallas in the 1970's the Toys By Roy at Valley View Mall was a wonderland to me. It was there that I fell in love with plastic soldiers(Airfix)...a passion of mine to this day. Also, I still have my Shogun Warriors from there as well as some Britains and die cast tanks by Corgi. My older brother actually worked at the Toy Train counter at the back of the store for a while. When we moved to New York, we would visit Dallas every summer and I couldn't wait to get back to Toys By Roy!
DeleteMr. Ater, is there a chance you have any photos of the store in the Winrock Mall, circa 1978?
DeleteWe had Toys By Roy in Phoenix - I remember the ones at Metrocenter and Paradise Valley Malls. They had seemingly everything up until the NES came out, and before Toys R Us started to come to town they felt like top dog.
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I loved to frequent the Toys by Roy @ Valley View Mall in the Dallas area (we lived in Duncanville then 1970-1972). The manager at the time made beautiful 1/35 WWII dioramas and had fully dressed manikins in WWII uniforms in his office there at the shop. He is responsible for getting me into model making, diorama building and figure painting which I still do today some 52 years later. They always had the best stock there, cases filled with Elastolin soldiers and knights, Airfix soldiers which no one else in the States seemed to carry, and model kits imported from Japan at a time when most other shops only carried the US made kits like Monogram and Aurora. Yes many fond memories of visiting that shop and gazing through the display window at the manager's latest dioramas....
ReplyDeleteWow! I grew up in Albuquerque and remember going to Toys by Roy in the 60's at the Winrock Center. They had a great collection of Avalon Hill games, and a terrific model of the CSS Alabama that I dreamed of owning someday. Looking at the photos, it seems to me that they might have moved to a different location in Winrock because I remember walking down the long causeway and then turning right into a smaller area where Toys by Roy was. I don't recall it being next to the Ben Franklin's. Anyone else remember this?
ReplyDeleteI remember visits to the Toys by Roy in the Valley View Mall in Dallas. I fondly remember the cases full of Corgi, Dinky and Britains toys. I loved receiving those tanks and soldiers as toys when I was a boy. What a wonderful place to visit and daydream.
ReplyDeleteI’m thrilled to learn that there were multiple Toys by Roy stores! I reminisce regularly about the location I grew up with, at Parkdale Mall in Beaumont, Texas. The towering stuffed giraffe inside was iconic, and I spent hours admiring the Schleich animals, model kits, puzzles, coloring books, and DoodleArt posters. It was a wondrous place that sparked imagination and creativity in me and so many of my friends, and I treasure the memories made there.
ReplyDelete