X-Entertainment.com X-Entertainment.com A Proud UGO Affiliate
My dying wish is for an owl/camel hybrid, which I call camowl.

Poor KB.

Someone mentioned in one of these here comments sections (sorry, I can't find the original poster, but whomever you were, thanks!) that KB Toys was closing down a ton of stores. I wasn't skeptical at all given the sales climate and whatnot, but at the same time, I couldn't find any of this info on any news outlets. Then I realized, stuck-in-the-past idiot that I am, that I was searching for "Kay Bee." Doy. They switched to "KB Toys" years ago. Indeed, well over 300 stores are shutting down, and the liquidation is to commence immediately.

Definitely sucks for all the people working at these stores, and in general for toy lovers everywhere, and oh yeah, kids, but let's not let that sorrow blind us from our God-given right to collect on the perils of others. Here's a list of the soon-to-be-dead KB stores, organized by state. If you ain't down with watching a football game today, maybe you should head to KB and get some slashed-price crap. I think that's what I'll be doing.

If you end up joining in the exploitive fun, post your finds in the comments afterwards. Let's see what kind of steals are out there...

Posted by Matt on 02/01/2004. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 93 comments

Atkins works great. Well, it seems to, have lost about 10 pounds in 2 weeks, but I don’t feel so healthy… Of course, I am an idiot who just glances over what you can and can’t eat, reads: 20 carbs max, no vegetables and lots of meat, and proceeds to eat just eggs ,fish, and yoghurt. Been feeling pretty unstable last few days, dizzyness, headaches. Probably also due to the lack of sleep and 5 hours long quake:excessive sessions. I’ve also seen an interesting documentary about atkins. According to the BBC, the high amount of protein the atkins diet contains drives off the hunger, and dieters actually just eat less and therefore lose weight. All you can eat is right, but not in the way one would expect.

Chestnuts roasted by David @ 02/02/2004 1:28 AM


The KB Toys near me are all small, smallest is at the mall. (That sounded like a frigging Dr. Seuss statement) The biggest is near my school. They are overpriced (as someone else said) but they usually have decent sales. Plus ours also have a habit of digging deep into their stock and bringing out the old toys. I wonder if it is a KB thing.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 02/02/2004 2:07 AM


Stopped by the KB here in Chicago that will be closing… THEY HAD WMAC MASTERS TOYS! You remember… the Mortal Kombat meets WWF fake combat show that aired on Saturday mornings circa 1994, and was hosted by Brandon Lee’s sister Shannon (I think that was her name). Bought myself a WMAC Masters championship belt for the hefty sum of $0.99. They were also well stocked with toys from the Robocop animated series, first series skeleton warriors, Lost in Space toys…etc. Like a time capsule, it was.

Chestnuts roasted by Robotmonster1 @ 02/02/2004 2:17 AM


David, I don’t want to nag and sound like a mom, but eat your vegetables ;) Otherwise you might get sick. And take your vitamins! Make sure you take a vitamin with no iron though, you’re getting enough with all the meat.

Chestnuts roasted by Gabbylicious @ 02/02/2004 2:19 AM


PS Matt, I blame Heeloyd completely for turning the blog into a pseudo-Atkins forum. You know how that Heeloyd is… hey Heeloyd, want to be my nemesis? It’ll be fun!

Chestnuts roasted by Gabbylicious @ 02/02/2004 2:21 AM


"2704 Hyland Boulevard Staten Island"

Damn… that store’s been there as long as I can remember. Though I never really bought anything there, since there’s a Toys R’ Us right across the street and the prices there always seem to be cheaper. Well at least now I know what I’ll be doing on my next day off.

Chestnuts roasted by MG @ 02/02/2004 3:03 AM


Children’s Palace was great. We didn’t have one in O’boro, but there was one in Evansville, IN just 30 miles or so from my city. A Best Buy now resides where Children’s Palace once was. I remember as a kid looking up at the over-stock above the aisles and was in heaven. And yes, it must be a KB thing with bringing out old merchandise, either that or they are horrible with inventory, or their stock rooms/wharehouses are in bad shape. My friend was manager at the KB here for three years, I have to say I’m suprised to see them go because they have been there for awhile. I thought about going by KB to see their sales..but with me working 12 hour shifts during the week I figure all the good X-Box and PS2 games are probably all taken by now.

Chestnuts roasted by Guitarmageddon @ 02/02/2004 3:08 AM


Gabby & all you Atkins people — interesting. From the little I know about the Atkins diet it sounded like a load of tripe, but thanks to David’s explanation ("the high amount of protein the atkins diet contains drives off the hunger, and dieters actually just eat less and therefore lose weight") it makes sense now. I’m kinda tempted to try it out myself for a couple of weeks as a special http://www.scary-crayon.com/" target="_blank">SC feature, but a) I don’t eat (mammal) meat and b) if I lost any more weight I’d be deadly (if not dead).

Going to see if I can’t catch a bus tomorrow and find one of these closing KBs. Wish me luck, people! :)

Chestnuts roasted by Wes @ 02/02/2004 3:10 AM


Thanks for the advice Gabby, I’ll try to keep it in mind. Health is not really on my mind right now though. My plan is: lose weight, thén get healthy. That doesn’t mean I don’t mind getting sick, but I’m a pretty sturdy fellow, and I don’t think I’m in any real danger. Physically, that is. Psychologically, I have yet to find the therapist that can cure me.

Wes: I don’t know how much my ‘explanation’ is worth, the BBC presented it as the latest theory. They rejected the whole carbohydrates stuff, but on basis of a one day experiment, when according to dr. atkins you have to have less than 20 grams of carbs for two weeks to reach ketosis – a state in which weight loss supposedly becomes more rapid – , so viewers had to sort of draw their own conclusions.

Now I feel obliged to apologize: sorry Matt for all this non-toy related talk, but it’s one of the few things I cán talk about. My toy collection consists of three crates of lego, and I’m pretty sure there’s no KB toys store here in Holland. We have ‘intertoys’, but they’re selling enough GBA’s and console’s to stay in business for a while.

Chestnuts roasted by David @ 02/02/2004 4:00 AM


Matt….are you reviewing No Holds Barred?

Chestnuts roasted by frank @ 02/02/2004 5:24 AM


Atkins makes your poop turn to beef stew.

that’s about the most disgusting thing I’ve ever typed…

Chestnuts roasted by Trippy the 8th Dwarf @ 02/02/2004 7:41 AM


KB here us to have really old stuff, along with every other toy store. But the beast known as BIG LOTS gets all their old crap. You can still get Bannanas in Pajamas action figures at BIG LOTS.

Chestnuts roasted by Kennef @ 02/02/2004 9:42 AM


Cool, the KB at the ineternational mall in Tampa is closing. Now if only I can get my tax refund back before it shuts down completely. Come on government!!!!

As for the Atkins diet: I have a bad feeling about that diet. The body’s main fuel source is carbs, and when you cut that out, the body is going to switch to survival mode. Sure, it will start burning the protien and fats you are feeding it, but it is also going to burn your own protien(i.e. muscle) and try to store as much fat as it possibly can. The metabolism is going to slow down and try to work with what it is given. That will work great if you want to eat that way for the rest of your life, but as soon as you start eating carbs again, your slowed metabolism will store all of the extras as fat and you will end up being plumper than when you started.
The trick is to hone your metabolism into the perfect energy producing machine, equalizing food cunsumption with excersize. Carbs are the main source of energy, you just have to choose the right ones. Stay away from suger and white flour based breads and pasta and stick to the whole grain variety. WHOLE GRAIN, not whole wheat, there is a big difference. If you really want to eat healthy, simply look on the side of most ceareal boxes and you will se that cute little food pyramid that everyone ignores. Look at it. Go on, I won’t tell anyone. THAT is what you should be eating. If you want to see an even better one, look in a diabetic’s handbook. You will not find a healthier diet than what you find in there. That diet is designed to be perfect. It is to keep diabetics ALIVE! It is the best chart I have ever seen. They even give you food ideas. And of course, since it is angled towrads diabetics, it will keep you away from to much suger.
Just be careful cutting carbs out of your diet completely. It is a bad move in my opinion and will bite you in the ass (or inject you in the ass…as in fat) in the end. Just learn between good carbs and bad.
Oh, and there is no such thing as a quick fix. It will take aprox. one year for the average metabolism to reach optimum levels.

Quick health tips:

1. Cut out soda (unless diet)
2. try to eat 6 times a day (right, who has time for that)
3. exercise at least 3 times a week for about 45min to an hour on cardio.
4. Get a nice resistance routine going (wieght lifting) Muscle = metabolism.

I have heard people afraid to work out because they are afraid the muscles will grow and make them look fatter. also, some girls are afraid that they are going to start looking manly and icky. This is VERY hard to do. It takes women 4 times as much effort to build muscles as a man. Go ahead and do the routine, you will only increase your metabolism.

5. Eat whenever. Most diets say not to eat after 7:00 because the body is at rest at night and will store everything as fat. Not true! The body works very hard at night. This is the time when you body works double time on repairs and other maintenence. The body uses plenty of energy in this time.

6. Never go hungry. Very difficult to do, but when you eat six or more times a day, you won’t go hungry, and if you don’t ever feel hungry, your body will turn off the need to store fat. The body is designed to do this during times of plenty…which we usually have.

Ok, sorry about the long post, but this stuff means a lot to me. I did lots of research and it put me in prime condition. No fads. just eat right and exercise.

I just hope I can help someone out with what I’ve learned. Please don’t be mad at me!

Chestnuts roasted by Stilewalker @ 02/02/2004 11:21 AM


Boo KB toys!!
Yay Patriots!!

It’s a sad sad day when toy stores are closing down..
why not a hardware store instead?
I forget who said it up there^ somwhere..
I hate being an adult!!

Chestnuts roasted by Cyanyde @ 02/02/2004 11:42 AM


i went to a couple of kb stores in the malls on long island hoping to get some video games cheap. they were still overpriced and the only stuff that was slashed in price was a bunch of crap. very dissapointing.

Chestnuts roasted by mikey @ 02/02/2004 11:47 AM


ps i got a $125 dollar ticket for driving in the car pool lane this morning. how bad does that suck!

Chestnuts roasted by mikey @ 02/02/2004 11:56 AM


Ok, X-E hook it up, as some of you may know(mostly Bitner-ites) I am stationed in Iraq, so I woke up at 2 in the morning to watch the Super Bowl, stayed up through the boring first quarter and made it to just before halftime before heading off to sleepy land…so you know what I missed, Janets boobie, Ms. Jackson if you’re nasty…yes I’ve seen the online pic where she is grasping said booby looking ready to kill Justin Timberlake, so I know you guys can hook me up with a link to a still photo of the worlds most infamous nip…Thanks…
Oh and before I forget I wanted to ask you all about a Easter cartoon I saw as a kid, it had some sort of bad guy with a beard who was made out of steel and a major plot point involved the good guys falling into a covered hole(at least I think so, long time ago and my memory is terrible about some of things)…so there’s your two assignments…and by the way, should be home before the end of the month…

Chestnuts roasted by whitemale_98 @ 02/02/2004 12:01 PM


By the way KB toys is horrible, but at least their prices skewed cheap…I wanted some MOTU figures and now the line is being cancelled? Damn, all I wanted was an original Skeletor.

Chestnuts roasted by whitemale_98 @ 02/02/2004 12:03 PM


Eat! Grow large with food!

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 02/02/2004 12:23 PM


Stilewalker – I’m in Tampa too…have you been over to the KB in International Plaza yet? I haven’t made it there yet…was wondering if they had anything good. I’m also thinking about hitting the KB Outlet at Crossroads in Clearwater…might have some good old stuff there.
Let me know if you find any treasure! :)

Chestnuts roasted by cyberelf @ 02/02/2004 12:33 PM


NOO!!! ALL the Kay Bee’s in Green Bay are closing!!!! (I live in Wisconsin and Green Bay is an hour away) and 4 others are closing around the state!!! *cries*…Eh, the Green Bay KayBee sucked anyway, Too small.

Chestnuts roasted by dethstryke @ 02/02/2004 2:02 PM


I remember Children’s Palace, but was Kiddy City a national chain? My uncle used to work there: "We’ll turn your frown upside down!"

Chestnuts roasted by JG! @ 02/02/2004 2:31 PM


Good to hear bout yer Ma, Duck. Mine had her first heart attack on May 2nd, the day before all those tornados ripped thru the state. In fact, we were rushing down to the hospital in Lawton the next day, and saw one truckin’ north! I found out later that week that it had wiped out the house of someone I knew in high school. She had just had it built and didn’t have insurance. Made people rethink their opinion of "Twister," a super cell CAN spew out multiple vortices. Give Mother my regards.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 02/02/2004 2:42 PM


By the by, whitemale, check out FARK, and click on the comments to see a pretty good discussion on the whole halftime show.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 02/02/2004 2:58 PM


Never let it be said that I didn’t do my part for our troops:
http://members.cox.net/www/janet.jpg
I hope the link works.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 02/02/2004 3:42 PM


Add A New Comment!