Where to buy Toys in California?

[Bibinettepony]

Hi Pony friends,

sorry if I post in the wrong section  my apologizes.

I have a very nice friend (who loves MLP and other Toys) who will go in 2 weeks in California for holidays and he asked me if I know where to find very nice Toys stores/ shops there?

Can some nice pony friends here tell me some tips?

Hugs thanks in advance,

Lots of Hugs  ,

Bibi

[lunar_scythe]

Do you know what part of California your friend will be in?  There are very few toy stores here, but as far as new toys and ponies, Toys R Us, Target, and Walmart stores usually have the biggest selections.

[Leave a Whisper]

Walmart, Toys r Us, K-mart, Target. There are swapmeets and flea markets depending on when and where your friend goes

[lovesbabysquirmy]

They can use Craigslist to look up advertisements for the local areas they will be visiting in California, for one thing.  There are often fleamarkets, swaps, and yard sales advertised there!  Also have them check the city's business directory for comic shops as those often have toys. 

[Wardah]

While I'm on the other side of the country I can tell you there aren't many stores devoted to just toys in the US. As a matter of fact I can only think of Toys R Us. Other than that your best bet is places like Walmart and Target that sell a bit of everything. The Mattel headquarters are in California tho so they might have a store there if your friend is into anything they make.

[goddessofpeep]

I live in Southern California, and G4 ponies are pretty easy to get a hold of.  There are *tons* of Targets, Toys R Us, Walmarts, and a few Kmarts out here.  Toys R Us is the only nation wide chain store that exclusively sells toys, but you can find a good selection at the other stores as well.  Drug stores(Walgreens in particular) also sell ponies, and they even had an exclusive G4!  Some malls have smaller toy stores in them.  There used to be a chain called KayBee Toys that was in most malls and had a great selection, but it closed down years ago.  Now the mall toy stores are pretty hit and miss.  If you go to a "cheap" mall, the toy store(if they have them) will sell mostly bootleg junk toys.  Some of the nicer malls have good stores with real ponies.  They're worth checking because they sometimes get stuff in faster than the big chain stores.

Kohl's, Ross, TJ Max, and Marshal's all have small toy departments.  You have to dig at these places because people shopping in the store usually dump their kids in the toy section and the kids trash the place.  Kohl's currently has a couple of exclusive G4 sets.  The other stores sometimes have older stock or sets that didn't get distributed properly for discount prices.

If you're looking for G1-G3, it's much harder.  Thrift stores sometimes can have ponies, but not often.  There's A LOT of competition here for vintage ponies.  You have to get really lucky.  There are flea markets almost every weekend.  The big one is here:
http://www.rgcshows.com/RoseBowl.aspx

It's once a month, but there are smaller ones all over the place almost every weekend.

[Bibinettepony]

  Pony friends you are AMAZING!!! 

so many thanks for your sweet answers and precious information!! you are adorable!!

My friend will do the following trip:
he will arrived in Tucson, then move to Vegas, then Sacramento, San Francisco and finally to Los Angeles (what a very nice trip!!!  )

I will give him all infos you provided me.

You are all very nice , many many thanks for your help