Toys 'R (Finally?) Us

The first TRU store in the country (ever?) finally opened in one of the city's malls a few weeks ago. I finally got to go check it out. I didn't have a lot of expectations, boardgame-wise, but did hope that some of the more common stuff would be there at somewhat reasonable prices.

The store is small by TRU standards. It's smaller than the two TRU stores in Singapore that I've had the chance to visit. The display that greets you at the entrance is a large Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest tableau. I immediately go looking for the only item that might interest me - Pirates Dice.

Nope, not available. Dammit.

I can see the large stack of Monopoly Manila edition a couple of aisles down and make a beeline for the boardgame section. Ooh, Game of Life. Ooh, Trouble. Wow, bunches of chessboards.

Whoopee.

Interestingly, the party games are very sparse. I see several Charades variants (no Time's Up of course). I went looking for Electronic Catchphrase, which I would have picked up had it been there.

Nope, not available. Dammit.

Along with scads of Battleship and Clue and Monopoly Basic Edition and a hundred UNO-brand games were a few boxes of Heroscape Master Set and one of the expansions. Not interested in that (there's a reason that it's a children's game), so that was it for the boardgame section.

Disappointed, I walked through the rest of the store, pausing at the videogame section just because they had some iPods and iPod accessories. Nothing unusual that I couldn't get cheaper elsewhere. So I turned around to leave when something caught my eye.

I could spot the box cover of Vegas Showdown on a shelf across from the action figures section.

This part of the store has a small selection of CCGs and CMGs. I was about to make a remark to the staffers that most of the Wizkids products on display were now unsupported, but thought better of it and instead focused on the boardgames.

There was a small selection of FFG, Hasbro and Eagle Games from the local distributor. Descent and Twilight Imperium III were US$100 each. Good luck selling those things. Vegas Showdown, Sword and Skull, Monsters Ravage America and Nexus Opes were around US$50. Still Ouch. Tsuro? US$50. Doom? US$65. Ingenious or Beowulf, which I was actually interested in picking up?

Nope, not available. Dammit.

So much for that.

I threaded my way past the Disney section, the Barbie section and even more Pirates to the exit.

One last check for Pirates Dice...

Nope, not available. Dammit.