02/01/2004 Entry: "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...

http://www.kbtinfo.com/GOBStoreList012804.pdf

If I get a chance to check any of the Michigan stores in my area, I'll let you guys know what I find.

Chestnuts roasted by Paul @ 02/01/2004 10:06 AM EST

"Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" fan remakes:

http://www.glimpses-essential.com/starwars_remake/

http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=15348
http://www.drafthouse.com/trailers/raiders.mov

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 02/01/2004 10:31 AM EST

Sadly, there are no KB's here in St. John's, Newfoundland. Just Wal-Mart, Sears, TRU, and Canada's own Zellars. And their selections always suck. Maybe if they actually got new MOTU figures, Mattel wouldn't have cancelled the line. Seriously, they still have Series One Skeletor's at Zellar's for chrissakes! I WANTS MY GODDAMN SNAKE MEN!!! Am I to go through life without a King Hiss, or Hsss as he's now known?

Matt, make me feel better by reviewing "Mac and Me".

Chestnuts roasted by A-wel Cruiz @ 02/01/2004 10:31 AM EST

The bastards at KB fired my mom last summer. SHe was the district manager of about half of those Kansas stores, and several missuri ones. So, to say I was excited to hear they had gone backrupt would be an understatement.

Yesterday afternoon, I went in and picked up as many Wrestling figures as I could, as well as "MegaMan Zero 2". A vidiogame and a few figures, and my total? $38.

See Stuart? Fireing my mom put you out of buisness. Right here buddy.

Chestnuts roasted by Goodolwt @ 02/01/2004 10:37 AM EST

Also a Newfoundlander--and St. John's toy selection does suck! And their comics do too! That's why I live in Nova Scotia now. As for KB, I blame Wal-Mart. But I blame Wal-mart for everything. Like when I gained that 20 pounds.

Oh, and Mac and Me used to scare me (the ads in the back of my he-Man comics did anyway)

Chestnuts roasted by The Amazing David-Man @ 02/01/2004 10:39 AM EST

Well, the KB in my town is still going to be here, which is good I guess, because I was thinking of filling out an application to work there. Even though the place is really small and really crowded...maybe it would be better off dead and gone.

Chestnuts roasted by Denise @ 02/01/2004 10:42 AM EST

that sucks that that my local store is going out of buisness. at least since my b-day is coming up, I know I can convince everyone to go there to get even more stuff!

Chestnuts roasted by brandon @ 02/01/2004 10:47 AM EST

i wish i lived near one.......some marked down transformers would be great

Chestnuts roasted by Scourge @ 02/01/2004 11:11 AM EST

i can't believe our Bangor KB isn't closing. there's never anyone in it, and i thought it might close after seeing all the intense sales since Christmas. oh well. it cannot last. i shall circle it like the vulture i am.

Chestnuts roasted by zann @ 02/01/2004 11:29 AM EST

I'm a little sorry to see Kay-Bee Toys in this predicament, mainly because I/my parents shopped there who knows how many times years before the name was boiled down to a couple of insignificant letters. Then again, none of my local stores are going under yet. Rats...I was looking forward to snapping up a few bargains.

Chestnuts roasted by Andrew T. @ 02/01/2004 12:19 PM EST

matt,
ever think about getting a setup like Fark and vanquishing all the tools who write "first post!!!"? and nothing else?

Chestnuts roasted by Chopstick Sensei @ 02/01/2004 12:24 PM EST

They are closing like 3 of the 5 in my area. Luckly they aren't closing the one in my local mall. I should go out and buy some cheap toys.

Chestnuts roasted by pikachulover @ 02/01/2004 01:32 PM EST

I just got back from the KB in Raleigh, and their stuff is only marked down 20%. I'm gonna give it another week or two, by then they should be getting desperate.

Chestnuts roasted by i was a lion @ 02/01/2004 02:21 PM EST

Damnit! Our KB is staying open. I guess that's good for the people working there, though. I used to work at it. Man, I could tell you stories...

Chestnuts roasted by Wes @ 02/01/2004 02:39 PM EST

Well, apparently the 4 KBs in the giant mall that is Paramus, NJ are staying open. Why any one town would need 4 KBs is beyond me, but then, this is the same place with at least 3 of almost every major retail/food chain you could think of (or at least that I could think of), so there you go.
I went into one of the Paramus KBs around Christmas time. There was no price tag on the dancing monkey I was trying to buy, and then my boyfriend made me put it back 'cause he thought it looked too dirty to buy.
Stupid dirty price tag-less monkey. Grr.

Chestnuts roasted by MRNonCCN @ 02/01/2004 03:05 PM EST

My brother and I are both avid readers of X-E. We were shopping last week and had decided to stop at a Toys R Us I hadn't been to in a long time. I worked at one just recently and yes, it destroyed the magic. What also destroyed the giraffes empire was the fact that almost all stores follow the lay out plan of each other to a tee. So now we have a very sterile, predictable toy shopping excursion each and every time.

Now we live on Long Island and had entered: THE TOYS R US THAT TIME FORGOT! Um, actually it's in Commack, but nonetheless...

My god this place was loaded with crap! Old ass action figures and playsets galore! Almost all of them from the early to mid 90's. Man, oh man, we were in crap heaven! What bizzare place, they must not get much traffic and I am shocked at the amount of crap that is still on the shelf.

Ahhh but, here comes the real treat.

I worked at the Lake Grove store for all of a month this X-mas season. (tip: IF YOU WANT TO RUIN YOUR HOLIDAYS OFF THE BAT, WORK IN RETAIL) I never knew in all my years of toy searching the place had a second floor that was the size of the store, strictly used to warehouse all kinds of crap. It was there that I found many wonderous items. I'd like to discuss these items but, some dork will spoil my happiness in my finds and say " they got tons of those at blah, blah..". So I just thought I'd pass my pointless story on and waste more of Matt and his reader's valuble (snicker) time.

Chestnuts roasted by Gerald James @ 02/01/2004 03:32 PM EST

Gerald, don't worry about the haters...I want to hear whatcha found! :)

PS -- made the KB Toys stop this morning. Will post my finds in a few hours.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 02/01/2004 03:37 PM EST

We have three in the general area, two next town over and one near my school...none closing :( I feel like I lost the treasure hunt. Not that my roommate will mind. We are already losing the war for space to the toys.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 02/01/2004 03:49 PM EST

This is a sad sad day indeed... The KB in Kings Plaza was a fixture of my childhood. Many a time I would ask my mom if we could go just to look, the mere idea of all those toys in one place was enough for me, and once in a blue moon I actually got something. (like Astrotrain, my favoritest transformer!) I thought I had lost it once before, but aparently they just moved downstairs. However I fear with the loss of KB, spencer gifts going a couple of years ago, and the lack of a real food court (It doesn't count if the restaraunts are thrown to the 4 corners of the mall!) that Kings Plaza just won't be the swinging place where I met that girl who I dated for a while, and after we broke up started stalking me. Oh yeah, and The fountains used to kick ass.... ah memories

Chestnuts roasted by Trippy the 8th Dwarf @ 02/01/2004 03:49 PM EST

Okay I will tell you, but, to me the stuff I found is great, here we go:

WWF WRESTLING TOYS! TONS OF THEM!
DX figures, ken shamrock, mankind and a TITANTRON! I got the TITANTRON for 6.99 with A VinnyMac figure included.

Batman the animated series figures, I got Bane and just about every other villian you could imagine.

I also got a Spiderman unlimited figure from the shortlived show of the same name. A rare Thing figure from the original to biz line!

The most bizzare toy I found and I might have to send a photo was a Beasty Bear. It was an innocent looking teddy bear whom with a few tucks and folds (ala Popples) became a nasty vicious bear. Hasbro made this bizzare demon bear. This thing probobly gave many a kids nightmares. This thing is evil and might be my undoing.....

Were Beasy Bears ever out on the market? Was this a recall? How did it pop up at Geoffrys place? Does anyone have the answers?

Also no matter how much of a toy geek you are: NEVER, EVER, work at a Toys R Us. The people I worked with creepy and it ruins any fun.

Chestnuts roasted by Gerald Furnari @ 02/01/2004 03:56 PM EST

There was a poster fair at school so me and my friend Travis got a Transformers poster that just has a bunch of Transformers and their names on it, it is so awesome, it looks like a page out of a really snazzy Transformers catalogue. I was talking to him about a Transformer I loved that turned into a microscope, and he was like "Shut up, there's not such thing" but yeah, good ol' Perceptor is in the top right corner of the poster. The poster is up in our office at work now, with the Transformers: the Movie poster. I love our office.

Chestnuts roasted by Gabbylicious @ 02/01/2004 04:30 PM EST

my nearest kaybee already closed and what was left they put inside sears. The whole mall is closing minus the big stores because they are remodeling the whole center. The toys r us by me was remodeled some odd years ago and it hasnt been the same since...i can only imagine how much great stuff they threw in the dumpsters :'(

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 02/01/2004 04:50 PM EST

As a former KB Toys employee, I'm neither saddened nor surprised at the mass-closings. I had the esteemed distinction of working at the KBToys e-commerce distribution center in Blairs, Virginia. The pay was terrible and we had 60 hour weeks. Fortunatly it was only a seasonal job and I got laid off after a month.
I've always thought KBs was overpriced for average toys so everyone who doesn't have personal issues with shopping there, I hope you get a killer deal. And don't worry about KB Toys, someone will probably buy it out, same as they bought eToys a few years ago.

Chestnuts roasted by TwoEvL @ 02/01/2004 05:16 PM EST

KB is ALWAYS overpriced. ALWAYS.

Oh, and we have a KB outlet about 40 miles from where I live. LOTS of old stuff. OLD stuff.

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron @ 02/01/2004 05:39 PM EST

It's my birthday today, so if anyone wants to send me some discounted KB stuff, I wouldn't complain.....:)

Chestnuts roasted by Garrison @ 02/01/2004 06:09 PM EST

Happy Birthday Garrison.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 02/01/2004 06:36 PM EST

Thanks. :)

Chestnuts roasted by Garrison @ 02/01/2004 06:47 PM EST

Heeloyd, my Atkins buddy, the ultimate sweet and yummy no-carb snack.... sugar-free jell-o. It tastes just like the regular stuff, and you can put whip cream on it (not Cool-Whip, real whip cream only). I'm eating some right now...

Chestnuts roasted by Gabbylicious @ 02/01/2004 06:48 PM EST

Hey, if anyone goes to a KB and finds them clearing out an inventory of Ninja Turtles Next Mutation figures (or any wacky TMNT stuff, for that matter), remember your ol' pal Wes... SC loves tatorusu. ;)

Chestnuts roasted by Wes @ 02/01/2004 06:51 PM EST

Oh, and happy birthday to Garrison from SC. :)

Also, Gabby -- Atkins? Does that stuff really work?

Chestnuts roasted by Wes @ 02/01/2004 06:55 PM EST

The store by me is closing. The mall its in has been in trouble recently because the suburbs have these huge fancy shopping areas and that the mall's main anchor moved out (had been there for years). Hopefully there's some deals, but I'm almost broke :(

Chestnuts roasted by JG! @ 02/01/2004 06:57 PM EST

Wes, you haven't seen Heeloyd's testimonials? ;) It's alright, it's working really well for my mom, but she has more weight to lose than me. It is hard to stick to at first, but you eat so many vegetables that you can't help but feel like you're being healthy.

Chestnuts roasted by Gabbylicious @ 02/01/2004 07:27 PM EST

*points aaaallll the way back to the top of the post*
WOO! Go Newfoundland! Born and raised baby! booya!
*ahem*
Yes well, I have no clue what KB was until Matt just mentioned it, but it's always a shame when a company goes outta business. (unless they were a really crappy business)

Chestnuts roasted by Xen @ 02/01/2004 07:51 PM EST

Yup the atkins diet works great(unless you MUST have pasta and breads).

I have lost 20 pounds in this first month and i have had more energy and overall feel more healthy. Sugarfree stuff tastes just as good if not better than regular stuff, and most of the low carb stuff we have tried tastes great too. Crystal light lemonade is my new favorite drink. I have had more vegetables and salads this month than I would normally have in a year and they were good too. I like broccoli. : )

Since today is superbowl and the end of our first month, me and my dad added a few more carbs just for today to celebrate. ^_^

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 02/01/2004 08:58 PM EST

Well, our local Bowling Green KB is closing. The store was about the size of a coat closet anyway. Hmm...Someone might have to make a trip to see if there's any nifty junk left.

Chestnuts roasted by two_peep_army @ 02/01/2004 09:20 PM EST

Closest KB Toys closings to me are in Philadelphia, and I'm not taking at least two busses just to get cheap toys. The ones in Mays Landing, Cardiff, and Vineland NJ are apparently not going under. Good. I got all my Sailor Moon stuff and many a present for my brother from those stores. The Mays Landing/Hamilton Mall store in particular is often busy and holds many fond memories.

Oh, BTW, Matt, I also forgot they now call themselves "KB" instead of "Kay Bee" and only figured it out a few days ago when I went to their site to see if they have any more great deals on Sailor Moon stuff. (They didn't.)

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 02/01/2004 09:31 PM EST

The one up the street from me staying open, that sucks. They haven't seemed to re-stock in the 4 years I lived in the area, yet they will remain open, try figuring that out. Oh, and this might be unrelated, but Matt, the next time you do a wrestling related article (as a lifelong fan, I love those), you should review the WWF Piledriver video.

Chestnuts roasted by Rob @ 02/01/2004 09:32 PM EST

Hopefully will do that one someday, Rob. But there will be a wrestling-related review coming very soon, probably this week, and it's one that's been requested an awful lot over the years. :)

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 02/01/2004 09:36 PM EST

The one in my area of Missouri is staying open, which is a suprize. It's amazingly overpriced and every time I walk by, the only one in there is the sad lonely salesperson.

Chestnuts roasted by Stacey @ 02/01/2004 09:54 PM EST

Hey two_peep_army would that be BG KY? Give it up for the Toppers! Ooo mini x-e con right here. Sorry... ahem... Yes our KB is/was tiny and crappy.

Chestnuts roasted by allicat @ 02/01/2004 10:09 PM EST

The closing of the KB stores is like when the Toys R Us of my childhood closed a few years ago. Now it's being turned into a Levitz

Chestnuts roasted by pikachulover @ 02/01/2004 10:46 PM EST

Ah, I wish I knew of this earlier! I totally missed my chances of scoring armfuls of cheap crap...

Tomorrow, definitely.

Thanks for the info, Matt!

Chestnuts roasted by Bobby... @ 02/01/2004 10:49 PM EST

Am I the only person who still remembers the long deceased Child World with good ol' Peter Panda (a super toy store and a whole lot moreeeee)?

Tom Brady jokingly telling people not to wreck the T...he wasn't joking and it will get wrecked. Boston fans don't know how to handle victory we so seldom get to see it.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 02/01/2004 11:10 PM EST

Shit. Nothing close enough. There just ain't enough KBs in Idaho.

Chestnuts roasted by Mr. Mr. Mr. @ 02/01/2004 11:34 PM EST

Child World rocked! When it went out of bussiness my friends and I bought an entire set of American Gladiators figures and proceeded to mock all the violent imagery we could muster from our skulls. We used stop motion to tape it and used quite abit of fake blood.

Chestnuts roasted by Gerald James @ 02/01/2004 11:46 PM EST

Children's Palace was an AWESOME place. The one near where I live was next to Chuck E. Cheese, so we'd go toy shopping and then go eat pizza and stuff. That's a big part of my childhood that I think about from time to time, and it makes me sad. I miss the days of Children's Palace, Kay Bee Toys, old Toys R Us, and everything along those lines. I hate being an adult.

Chestnuts roasted by Jim @ 02/01/2004 11:51 PM EST

Our KB is shutting down (Owensboro, KY). Can't say I'm sorry to see it go though, they were always way over priced, and selection wasn't very good anyway. The Owensboro, KY store was once notorious for bringing out really old items, like hard to find Star Wars figures found a Kyle Katarn from the short lived EU line. But other than that I always headed to Toy's R Us.

Chestnuts roasted by Guitarmageddon @ 02/02/2004 12:45 AM EST

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 01:28 AM EST

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 02:07 AM EST

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 02:17 AM EST

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 02:19 AM EST

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 02:21 AM EST

"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 03:03 AM EST

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 03:08 AM EST

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 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 03:10 AM EST

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 04:00 AM EST

Matt....are you reviewing No Holds Barred?

Chestnuts roasted by frank @ 02/02/2004 05:24 AM EST

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 07:41 AM EST

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 09:42 AM EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

Eat! Grow large with food!

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

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 EST

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 02:02 PM EST

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 02:31 PM EST

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 02:42 PM EST

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 02:58 PM EST

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 03:42 PM EST

Stilewalker - I totally agree with you. I think it's largely due to the fact I feel sorry for the bakers in this country. But seriously, you're dead on. Atkins is a fad diet, and what fad diet has lasted against the test of time? Yes, it works. All diets, fad or otherwise, work. I watched a special on PBS (with Alan Alda!) comparing a bunch of diets with test subjects. The result -- all that followed their respective diet lost weight. Those that didn't admitted to secretly binging or just giving up.

As a little kid I had major weight problems and my doctor pounded the food pyramid into my brain along with the importance of exercise. Now, through trial and error, I've lived a number of years with the one diet that works. And it pretty much matches what Stilewalker suggested.

What I've done:
1. Moderate eating habits. Fresh veggies, whole grains, fish, chicken, and skim milk - in small amounts. Eat slowly, you fill up quicker. When I need a soda, I have emergency supplies of the 8-oz Coke bottles in the fridge.
2. Bored? Exercise. If it's raining, clean the house.
3. Plenty of sleep. 6-7 a night is my goal. Gives me energy to get through the day and exercise in the evening.
4. Don't be your own slave. If you've had a good week, have an even better weekend. Eat out, get wasted, etc.

By living with these guidelines, I've been able to maintain pretty much the same weight I've been since I was 16. Not lecturin', just suggesturin'.

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 02/02/2004 04:27 PM EST

And just as a note, 16 years of age was the year I quit football - the only sport I could play due to my size - and took up cross country. I had already begun to lose weight leading up to that with my eating plan, pissing my football coaches off - they don't like lightweight linemen. But by taking up running, I lost a lot of my excess fat really quickly and got into a shape I had never ever been in. I had never been happier before until that year, and I've made a vow not to change a thing... and that was almost ten years ago.

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 02/02/2004 04:37 PM EST

Those store addresses aren't very detailed... I don't know where "Brandywine Parkway" is. Anyone else live in Delaware? (If you do, you can read X-E in the local paper. Suck on that, other states!)

Chestnuts roasted by Welsh Rabbit @ 02/02/2004 07:36 PM EST

muahahahhahaha i am now an evil nemesis that turns blogs into health topics...muahahahahhaa

HATE ME!!

oops, got carried away...plz dont hate me... :(

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 02/02/2004 09:05 PM EST

"Lionel Kiddie City turns that frown... (kangaroo jumps on the huge 'frown')...upside-down!"

I never saw the stores, as they were all in Philadelphia and up around the cities, but I knew the commercials well. They ran during Saturday mornings on all the Phily stations. I had no idea they even shut down until a few years ago.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 02/02/2004 10:46 PM EST

Kiddie City fucking ruled. Seriously, without that store, there wouldn't be an X-E. That place was an absolute haven for old junk. It'd turn anyone into a nostalgia nut.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 02/02/2004 10:47 PM EST

KB sucks. They're closing because they are TOO HIGH. This is the only mainstream retailer that has the balls to charge $54.99 for some new video games. If it's over $35, they're jacking the price up by $5 on almost everything. I still remember buying the original Tor, from Power Rangers, for $69.99, then seeing it a week later at Toys R us for $59.99 AND on sale for $54.99. Thier stores are always dead, even at Christmas. I was in my local one at the mall the other day and NOBODY else was in there, so I was stared at like I was going to steal and then followed, for god's sake. Don't know why I went in there... looking for wrestling figures from 2002 that are still $8.99, I guess.

So, goodbye KB, you suck.

Chestnuts roasted by Rein @ 02/02/2004 11:03 PM EST

Rein...you beat me to it!!! KB has always overpriced their shit for the last 500 years. My ninjas and I have taken a concensus and we say good riddance to bad rubbish. Isn't that right...Yoshida?

*insert maniacal laugh here*

Chestnuts roasted by Phandral @ 02/02/2004 11:39 PM EST

cyberelf- I actually have not even gone to the International Mall yet! I hear it has some great stores so I am looking forward to checking it out! I will let you know if I find any good deals. Plus, I work in Clearwater, right down the street from the Crossroads Outlet Mall. I went to that KB during Christmas and I did not find jack. I wonder what the prices will be like now?

Nachokhaki - I almost forgot how important sleep is. I've had insomnia since I was 11 years old. I would normally get a few hours of sleep a night, and sometimes I would go days without sleep. Sleep deprivation does some very weird things. Hallucinations are fun!!
I did some calculating. If the average person gets 7.5 hours of sleep a night, and I was averaging about 3.5 hours a night:
25 years old (when I finally slept regularly) minus 11 years old (when I think the insomnia started) is 14 years of bad sleep. 14 years times 365 days equals 5110 days. multiply that times 3.5 hours (my average sleep per day) = 17885 hours of sleep in 14 years. doing the same calculations with the average person's sleep I get 38325 hours of sleep for the average person. subtract 17885 from that and I get 20440 hours difference. divide that by 24 and I get 851 2/3 days. divide that by 365 and I get 2 1/3 years.
So I have had 2 1/3 more years of experience than the average person at that age. The drawback? Many poeple guessed my age at over thirty. One lady guessed my age at 37 when I was 25 years old. That sucked.
I went to the doctor to cure my insomnia and he told me (after some tests) that I had massive liver damage and I might have AIDS. After two months of freaking out and more tests I went back to the doctor and he said, "Oh, sorry. Your tests came back fine. Maybe you had a cold." I was so relieved that all my innards were intact that I forgot to mention that he had not cured my insomnia yet. Later that night, I realised I would have to make ANOTHER appointment to take care of that. I decided against it and just fixed it myself.

Now, two years later, I sleep very well, usually...when I am not keeping myself up watching some stupid movie or finishing Metriod Prime. Stupid TV.

Chestnuts roasted by Stilewalker @ 02/03/2004 09:06 AM EST

FAO Schwarz is closing all their stores. Two flagship (Vegas and New York) stores will reportedly reopen in summer 2004, butI'm skeptical. They look completely out of business. Walmart is pushing them out.

http://www.fao.com

Chestnuts roasted by lyfemist @ 02/03/2004 03:53 PM EST

I currently work at the KB Store in West Babylon, NY, and I'm GLAD its not closing! And almost none of the other KB stores around me will close either! (except for the Great Neck and Huntington ones, but I've never been in them)I've been shopping in my KB store since as long as I can remember (I even vaguely remember buying many early Transformers figures)

And if your mission is finding old, cheap, toys, that's the place to go! My store has just about everything that was posted before: MOTU toys, Beastly Bears, MANY toys that you've never heard of, useless "craze toys" from years back that we're still trying to get rid of (like the Poo-Chis), etc., as well as Marked Down Transformers for the month of February :p

Chestnuts roasted by Invader Norbert @ 02/03/2004 07:01 PM EST

I got some X-Box games at 20% off, not too bad. I have heard that Toy's R Us is losing profits as well, seems like a dark time for toy stores in general.

Chestnuts roasted by Justus Cade @ 02/03/2004 10:38 PM EST

That link was outdated since it didn't seem mention one near me which is closing.

Anyway K-B has always annoyed me. The store is claustrophobic with crap everywhere and aisles that are barley big enough for one person let alone a whole family of 9 with one of those giant strollers just standing there with a glazed look in their eyes and drool piling at their feet.
I went in there once while working at a now defunct competetitor and the K-B not only looked like 2 earthquakes and a hurricane had hit it but smelled like a combination of dirty diapers and puke.

My only guess as to why they are not making it is because they don't sell Thomas the Tank Engine crap. For those of you normal people who have no little kids or toy store employment experience, Thomas is the cheesy little wooden train set, featuring some dorky characters that come in videos. The trains not electric or cool in any way just plain ordinary wood, but for some reason people pay from 40 dollars for one train and a track that goes in a circle to several hundred dollars for a bigger sets with a tracks that have tunnels and stations and the like. Whenever it goes on sale people literally get into fist fights in order to pay 300 bucks for something their child will outgrow in 6 months.
I have 2 words for these dense people.
Big Lots.

Chestnuts roasted by toy girl @ 02/05/2004 02:56 AM EST

If anyone knows why the Child's world chain closed down, we are trying to figure out why here:http://www.toy-ads.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=8&t=004550

Any help would be appreciated!!

Chestnuts roasted by Scott @ 06/22/2004 09:43 PM EST

i am a kb manager and been with the company 16 years, I hate that some stores are closing, my store is not thank god, and we do sell thomas the tank toys, lots of them from track to wooden trains and plastic one to that are not as expensive, so dont everyone give up on us yet. Please i think we can pull out of it

Chestnuts roasted by cyndi @ 10/27/2004 01:03 AM EST

i am a kb manager and been with the company 16 years, I hate that some stores are closing, my store is not thank god, and we do sell thomas the tank toys, lots of them from track to wooden trains and plastic one to that are not as expensive, so dont everyone give up on us yet. Please i think we can pull out of it

Chestnuts roasted by cyndi @ 10/27/2004 01:04 AM EST

i am a kb manager and been with the company 16 years, I hate that some stores are closing, my store is not thank god, and we do sell thomas the tank toys, lots of them from track to wooden trains and plastic one to that are not as expensive, so dont everyone give up on us yet. Please i think we can pull out of it

Chestnuts roasted by cyndi @ 10/27/2004 01:04 AM EST