Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration

Tuesday, February 27th, 2018 3:22PM CST

Categories: Company News, Retailer News
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Fellow Seibertronian ZeroWolf has pointed us to an article from the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper, which states that Toys Я Us U.K. branch is expected to go into administration (a type of pre-bankruptcy accounting of a business) within the next 24 hours.

Retail experts said Toys R Us’s problems were down to a lack of investment in its stores and website. “It would be easy to blame Amazon, but the reality is that Toys R Us has been a victim of complacency,” said Natalie Berg, an analyst at NBK Retail . “As a specialist retailer, the Toys R Us experience should have been a magical one with in-store events, dedicated play areas and product demonstrations. The reality was a soulless shed.

While not totally unexpected, and affecting mainly the British branch of the toy retailer, it could give us a preview of what might happen to the struggling company worldwide. Check out the whole article by clicking here, and let us know what you think about the latest development in the ongoing saga of Toys Я Us below.

Credit(s): ZeroWolf

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Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943016)
Posted by Ravage XK on February 28th, 2018 @ 4:34am CST

Bye bye Toys R Us. Very sad. Good news to Smyths Toys though. I wonder who, if anyone, will take the future TRU exclusives in the U.K.

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943021)
Posted by ZeroWolf on February 28th, 2018 @ 5:51am CST

I was wondering if symths might pick it up, to the best of my knowledge, they have no exclusives do they?

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943023)
Posted by Ravage XK on February 28th, 2018 @ 5:54am CST

Smyths? No I don’t believe so.

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943029)
Posted by Coptur on February 28th, 2018 @ 6:58am CST

Smyths has been better the last few years especially when compared to ToysRus but they have sized restrictions on their in store toys i.e no headmaster or prime sets.

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943030)
Posted by ZeroWolf on February 28th, 2018 @ 7:07am CST

So that's why I couldn't see any of the prime masters there. Very strange

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943045)
Posted by Coptur on February 28th, 2018 @ 8:12am CST

ZeroWolf wrote:So that's why I couldn't see any of the prime masters there. Very strange

It's a company policy unfortunately for collectors (has anyone seen the legends size in Smyths as I didn't yesterday in Beckton, London)

Toys-UK have them though and I can't say that I've seen them in the Entertainer (has anyone?)

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943072)
Posted by ZeroWolf on February 28th, 2018 @ 11:29am CST

The entertainer in Middlesbrough never stocked the individual titan masters or legends though I can't remember what the new shop (toy land I think it was called) there stocked in the way of tfs.

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943083)
Posted by blackeyedprime on February 28th, 2018 @ 12:28pm CST

Smyths does do exclusives eg imaginext power rangers base https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/toy ... e/p/151397

Smyths does blind bags/mini figs etc so I'm not sure how or why they would have a size limit on stocking titan masters/prime masters?

Entertainer had the first wave of the POTP legends in but it was blink and miss it (I picked up Beachcomber & Windcharger from there), no restocks byut they are currently trying to clear out reduced price baynus toys.

Asda has had the prime masters in if it helps anyone.

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943091)
Posted by Va'al on February 28th, 2018 @ 1:19pm CST

This will be interesting to follow as it develops, as Italy lost TRU a long while back - meaning we get no TRU exclusives, and Hasbro EU and Italy had no idea that was the case until maybe a year or two ago.

TRU Italy appeared in 1996, and disappeared again (bought by Giochi Preziosi and made into the new chain Toys Center) in 2000.

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943171)
Posted by primalxconvoy on February 28th, 2018 @ 11:37pm CST

Sing with me now!

"There’s a tragic old place
With no staff that cares
Where kids and their parents
All leave in a huff
It’s Called Toys’R’Us!

So it's about time
When stock prices fall
Share-holders and owners feel sad for
themselves

The stock is so poor
Plus increasing price-hikes
They took us for fools
So online was liked

‘Where's Millions?’, says bankers
"Please give us the proof"

We've all had enough,
Had enough, had enough!

Can I get in trouble here for trolling Toys R Us UK?

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943176)
Posted by Jelze Bunnycat on March 1st, 2018 @ 12:20am CST

Va'al wrote:This will be interesting to follow as it develops, as Italy lost TRU a long while back - meaning we get no TRU exclusives, and Hasbro EU and Italy had no idea that was the case until maybe a year or two ago.

TRU Italy appeared in 1996, and disappeared again (bought by Giochi Preziosi and made into the new chain Toys Center) in 2000.

The Netherlands lost the franchised Toys 'R Us in... 2009, almost 10 years ago. ToysXL came in it's place, but was in turn replaced by Intertoys XL stores by the turn of the year... Good grief, I'm so out of the loop. 8-}

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943385)
Posted by ArmadaPrime on March 2nd, 2018 @ 2:29pm CST

Nipped into the Coventry TRU this evening and they've got store-by-store discounts on, I guess they are starting to liquidate stock! TFs were on 20% off as were most action figures it seems- other products varied from 10-25%. Can't guarantee it'll be the same elsewhere but I have heard that they're doing mass, whole-store discounts nationwide...
(Not a great deal of interest TF-wise though unless you reaaaaally like Infernocus, TLK voyager Grim, or the TLK stealth bomber deluxe megs repaint, but I'll keep most of that to the good ol' uktf sightings thread

)

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943386)
Posted by ArmadaPrime on March 2nd, 2018 @ 2:30pm CST

ArmadaPrime wrote:Nipped into the Coventry TRU this evening and they've got store-wide discounts on, I guess they are starting to liquidate stock! TFs were on 20% off as were most action figures it seems- other products varied from 10-25%. Can't guarantee it'll be the same elsewhere but I have heard that they're doing mass, whole-store discounts nationwide...
(Not a great deal of interest TF-wise though unless you reaaaaally like Infernocus, TLK voyager Grim, or the TLK stealth bomber deluxe megs repaint, but I'll keep most of that to the good ol' uktf sightings thread )

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943388)
Posted by Ravage XK on March 2nd, 2018 @ 2:46pm CST

I got the email about the sale but the stupid snow prevents me getting to it. Grrrr, damn you Beast from the East!

Re: Toys Я Us U.K. Going Into Administration (1943390)
Posted by ArmadaPrime on March 2nd, 2018 @ 2:51pm CST

I braved a snowy, unfamiliar bus route out of sheer boredom to check the Coventry one out, but we've gotten off comparatively lightly so far!
Also, no idea how i ended up double-posting above, whoops, I'll blame the pub WiFi rather than the beer :-P