Toy Shack - Las Vegas, NV

From July 1 - July 8, my girlfriend and I took a beautiful vacation to Las Vegas.  It was filled with sunny days by the pool, chest-pounding clubs, a few celebrities, shows and lots and lots of alcohol.  After all, it IS Sin City and although they claim what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, I couldn't leave it all in the desert.  For as wild and crazy as Las Vegas is supposed to be, I couldn't help but let the nerd in me come out.

On July 4th, after spending our morning at Encore Beach Club for the Macklemore concert, we took a taxi to Fremont St for a free Papa Roach and P.O.D concert.  That was the selling point that enticed us to go on the 4th of July, but the venture to Fremont was going down at some point that week for this store right here... Toy Shack!  If you're unfamiliar with this establishment, it's a store that houses and sells toys for all ages from just about every decade since the 50s.  I first heard about it on Pawn Stars where the Las Vegas pawn shop uses the owner of Toy Shack as their toy expert.  Whenever they need information or prices on a certain toy, this is where they go.  So, after hearing that and doing a few Google searches, I knew this would make for an interesting break from our "Hangover' vacation.  While I didn't intend on purchasing anything, I just had to see what they had available.  Of course, I took as many pictures as I could for all of you before a few associates started to give me the old stink eye.

As you can see, Toy Shack offers just about everything you can imagine and, for me, this was a trip down memory lane.  When I was a kid, I had every Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy you could imagine.  My parents went all out in making sure that I had the entire collection or, at least, the ones that I wanted.  The same can be said for WWF/WWE action figures which, surprisingly, I didn't see any of at Toy Shack.  That was my only disappointment, but it's hard to be upset at all when walking through a store like this.  Personally, I've never been in a more complete toy store.  Sure, I've see vendors at shows that specialize in certain aspects or offer rarer items, but Toy Shack is open year-round and has one hell of an inventory.  I was very impressed and thought it was much better than expected.  The worst part is that Toy Shack made me wish I still had all my childhood toys!

To round things off and really enhance the nostalgic experience, Toy Shack plays classic episodes of your favorite 80s and 90s television shows to truly bring back those memories.  Played clearly over the speakers was an episode of "Dinosaurs."  I remember pretending to be sick to trick my Parents into a day absent from elementary school.  While I don't think they were ever really fooled, the days off were usually granted and I'd stay home watching Dinosaurs, Maury and Jerry Springer.  Thankfully I didn't grow up to be a wife beater with 18 children.  I am not the mama, or the father..

To complete our trip, we took a few photos outside because, really, where else in Las Vegas can you pose with the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and pretend to be scared as he reaches to pick you up and throw you over the Stratosphere?  On this 4th of July, Toy Shack was certainly one of the highlights and I recommend stopping in whenever you're in Las Vegas!