A Trip To The Past: KB Toys At Rockvale Outlets

If you have been following me on social media, you’ll notice I’ve been on the topic of nostalgia regarding both KayBee Toys and Lancaster PA and since they both connect and I have blog to wax nostalgic, I figure here is a chance to post even more and longer thoughts. Honestly, I don’t expect anyone who didn’t visit this location to care and that’s fine but for those who remember the KB Toy Liquidators at Rockvale Outlets in Lancaster, PA, here’s two photos I took in 2002. 

They’re not amazing or even clear to make out. But if you are familiar with this particular location, you’ll recognize it. To add context, these photos were taken at a time when I wanted to start a review blog of my own, yes even back then, so I got in the habit of carrying my cheap 35mm camera EVERYWHERE. And this was the result. Now, I have been going to Lancaster for about 15 years at this point so this was always the store I wanted to stop at while my brother went to the music store and while my mom and her sister would go looking at clothes, so I have plenty of memories of this place. Most famously that time I threw up in the car on the way up to Lancaster and to make me feel better, my mom got me a Razor Ramon Hasbro figure. The real humor comes from the fact that my mom locked her keys in the house before this trip and I had to break our basement window and slide in to get them. So that trip became a big joke between my mom and I many years later.

Now, back to 2002. I didn’t get a photo inside the store but I tried until I was asked not to by the manager, who I tend to remember being nice about it at least. And it made sense. Phones didn’t have cameras, some weird guy in an Andrew W K tshirt taking a photo of the inside of a toy store? Probably wasn’t normal looking to most people at that time. This was also the year I distinctly remember seeing Dan Severn WWF Jakks BCA figures from 1998 in stock as well as a copy of Lazer Tag Academy on VHS from the late 80s for a buck. More surprisingly, I didn’t pick it up. Why? Search me, brother, I don’t know. Since it was a liquidation store and 80s nostalgia was only just beginning to get popular at the time, it was very common to see lots of old stock and very out of date items slashed down to almost nothing. 

When I went back in 2020, I took a video of me walking the back hallway, recreating the feel of making your way to the very tucked away and almost hidden, now closed store. The little hallway itself almost felt like a hidden passage or something. Or at least that’s what I felt like as a kid. What can I say? 

That’s the kind of thing that impressed me as a kid and it stuck with me. Due to its spot in the plaza(tucked away in an corner and easy to miss), you’d think this store would be dead but I can confirm it was always hopping whenever I would go in. And from talking to others who worked there and have memories of it as well, they remember it being busy rather busy as well.

Today the store is a Five Below, which if you ask me, is a pretty good replacement. I mean Five Below is essentially a dollar store meets a toy store. So in the interest of optimism and looking on the bright side of things, let’s go with it. 

But I wish I had clearer photos and more photos of this cherished childhood spot from the outside including the sign but as someone who would frequent this location while on vacation multiple times through the years, I still treasure them.

-Chad