I don’t remember the exact age when I first walked into a Toys R Us. I think I was older than 8 and younger than 15 (really narrows it down, huh). I vaguely recall thinking it was so cool. All the toys, stuffed animals, games and more. It was like heaven for kids (except here, you could see the toys and touch them to know they actually existed). My first few times going, my interests were straight up Transformers. Not those knock off GoBots. I wanted the ‘robots in disguise’. I’d walk up and down the aisles of the boys section at Toys R Us looking for them. And when I finally did, I never wanted to leave. I wanted to sit there on the floor and play with them all (for some reason the store frowned upon opening the boxes and having an Autobot/Decepticon war in the middle of the aisle). I remember having several Transformers as a kid: Metroplex, the Combaticons, Hot Rod, Springer, the Constructicons, Blue Streak, Scorponok, several of the triple changers (can’t remember their names), Astrotrain, one or two of the Headmasters toys. Man, what fun.  Ah, the memories. The days of cool toys for boys. But now it looks like those days may be numbered, as Toys R Us-in a bid to combat gender stereotypes-has ::gasp:: dropped gender filters from its UK website!!!

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