Jeffrey Prime (2016)

7 years ago, we said good-bye to Toys "Я" Us. At that time, I picked up this toy, a Japanese-exclusive, one of the surprisingly-few examples of a Toys "Я" Us-branded Transformer item, as a memento of the chain. It has hung quietly on a hook on my computer desk ever since. I never really intended to keep it in its package. I seldom do, anyway. Toys are meant to be played with, as I often say. But this toy is more of a symbol, certainly. So, for 7 years, it just stayed on the hook....

...Until now.

First, let's actually talk about the toy. Jeffrey Prime is a redeco of a small Optimus Prime figure from the 2015 Robots in Disguise line, with legs and arms colored to resemble Geoffrey (as his name is spelled in America), the Toys "Я" Us giraffe (the legs even have stars patterned like a giraffe's spots, in keeping with more recent interpretations of Geoffrey), while his shoulders seem to be intended to resemble unopened presents with an image of Geoffrey on one, and the Toys "Я" Us logo on the other. He comes with an axe molded in translucent orange, painted silver on one edge with the gaps forming a pattern that kinda-sorta looks like a profile of Geoffrey the giraffe's head (or so I'm told... let's just say it's stylized. It's clearly intentional, at least).

Like many Optimus Prime toys, Jeffrey Prime turns into a truck. Not much more to say, except perhaps why I chose to take Jeffrey Prime out of his package now. I mentioned 7 years ago that, even then, there were talks about rescuing the Toys "Я" Us brand. It took a bit longer than was even being considered at the time, but a company did so several years ago (actually the second since the closure in 2018!), and has been finding modest success through a partnership with Macy's. They've even started to open up a very few stand-alone stores. Today, I learned that they're taking the next step, with 30 new locations either having recently opened or opening soon (here's the actual list). It's not a huge amount (the closest one to where I live is a good couple of hours away), and as I was careful to say 7 years ago, it's not really the same company, anymore. But it's a fairly positive movement, nonetheless, and I just felt that the time had finally come to do some minor, ever-so-cautious celebrating. I hope that the new Toys "Я" Us does well.