As a former Warner Bros. Studio Store employee, I thank you for this incredible trip back in time. I loved working there and still own some merchandise purchased during my time there from 1996-2000.
Those years were definitely a great time in my life as I was aged 17 to 23. You still had the chance to hope for bigger and better things. The 90s were a good decade.
@@Clay3613 I remember they did a Bruce Timm set of Justice League mini statues, a couple of years before the Justice League cartoon and Green Lantern was Kyle Rayner... I bet that's worth a fortune, now.
The scene of Bugs silently counting money while Droopy McCharmless drones on about the "synergy" between TW and AOL is subtly (and darkly) brilliant. 👏👏👏
I remember being blown away by this store as a kid in the 90s, all the Looney Tunes and especially Batman and Superman animated series stuff and there being TVs all around the store playing that stuff.
years ago when our local WB studio store was going out of business and 'liquidating' i happened to walk in when the store owner was in house, and on a whim i offered to buy one of the enormous 'Gremlins' statues that used to be apart of the store decorations but were not for sale normally, we came to an arrangement for 500$ although the man said i couldnt take possession of the item until after the store officially closed and the store was being dismantled...2 months later i got my 'Stripe the Gremlin' statue. To this day i have had people offer me thousands for it its just so cool that i probably will never sell it as it is the first thing people see when they walk into the front door and enter my foyer.
Having been born in the mid 90s, I have to say, it’s one of the sadder eras in pop culture. Things like this were still around for about 5-10 more years (depending on the brand/product/etc) but slowly died out while everything else started homogenizing. Granted things look more uniform now, but the style and pageantry from these types of places is long gone in middle America.
@Maddy! Yeah I would’ve probably exploded with joy if I ever was in one of the Warner Bros, Disney or Suncoast stores. I would’ve literally been like a kid in a candy shop. I probably would’ve stayed in there for hours just admiring everything and probably would’ve bought the whole store 😂
Actually, one of last big merchandise pushes in the stores was Harry Potter, but I believe it was more based on the books than the movies. I remember we sold clothing items (t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, etc), plush toys of the white owl, and copies of the books.
As a kid there were two stores I _always_ had to visit when going to the mall; KB Toys and the WB Studio Store. Even if I didn't get anything from it, the WB Store was just such an experience each time you went and it's something I never really got from the Disney Store. It still feels weird not seeing one when I still visit those very malls today.
These are things I miss from back in the day 90s, companies trying these kinda out there zany ideas to connect with people. It seemed all more lively interactive creative, rather than today it seems more cold distant just creating an app or VR experience. Rather than giving people an actual warm experience.
The only reason I remember the WB Studio Store growing up was because of those giant tuxedoed Bugs and Daffy statues outside the entrance. I passed it a lot at the mall my mom would get her hair done on Saturday mornings, and while I didn't frequent it like I did The Disney Store, it clearly left a lasting impression on me. Studio themed retail stores sure were magical - talk about a bygone era. Also, I know this wasn't the focus of the joke at 8:50, but that Gumby themed polo shirt is sheer brilliance, actually.
Oh man, these stores were my jam when I was little. Had to go to the Warner Bros store whenever visiting the mall. I remember always walking through the animated cels section and marvelling at all the cartoon art. Really cool stuff. (The Disney stores were okay but it never had the "random curiosities" kinda feel of wandering through the WB store)
What? How could you hallucinate Warner Brothers while buying Wizard of OZ merchandise at a Warner Brothers store? I have a feeling you never tried shrooms, Acid, or LSD....
Man, I really miss going to the mall back in the 80's and 90's. I bought a watch from the WB studio store in the summer of 1994 and yes I still have it.
The WB store in the Natick Mall, used to have replica Gremlins hanging out above the store in the rafters and vents. It was also the place to get everything Batman Related. Also in the back was a Interactive spaceship that would show episodes of Looney tunes featuring Marvin the Martian. Good times, Better Memories.
I 'member! Please tell me I didn't hallucinate as a small kid there use to be this Giant Looney Tunes Fishing Boat thing hanging in the Mall that had several characters all hanging off this boat.
@@TheNaturalPatHarris Yes, I swear it was near an old train shop that had a train that would run along the top of the store including a loop outside over the doorway.
Anyone who visited a store, do they recall a “hologram” table that at least had one Bugs Bunny scene? It was based on the SEGA Time Traveler cabinet. I remember being obsessed with this thing at the WB Store in Woodfield mall outside of Chicago. I only saw it working the first time I was there….I can’t find anything online about its existence.
This video gives me so many good memories. The WB Studio Store was my first stop any time my family and I went to the mall. So much great Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Gremlins and Batman the Animated Series stuff. And yes, the highlight was always crawling into Marvin Martian's spaceship where you could mash SFX buttons, play digital puzzles or coloring games on a touch-screen, and watch Marvin, Bugs and Daffy cartoons playing on another monitor. Thank you for creating this mini-doc, doc!
I really miss the hell out of these specialty retail stores. Disney's stores have disappeared from my area last year. I did have a preference for WB's Looney Tunes and H-B characters on merch, but I liked both. Even when Disney Stores were basically just the Pooh and the whatever movie was out at the time store for some time. I only started seeing WB stores later in the decade than the rest, and that was about the time Looney Tunes had the major popularity boom. Not to mention Animaniacs, my favorite cartoon at the time, having a small and growing presence. I even went to an autograph signing of Maurice LaMarche and Rob Paulsen at the Prudential Center location. The Beanie Baby fad was heating up, but WB had the BEST ones by far. Actual cartoon characters instead of random animals. I LOVED it when they added HB to their catalog. My Hong Kong Phooey bean bag plush is a prized possession. And the experience of seeing those large fiberglass mascots, both there and Disney was always a sight. I really missed the ones at Disney when they got their second wind and opened smaller, more lowkey stores. Best "experience" malls have now is the Lego Store, and even then it's like got one interactive screen and maybe a couple tables that look like Lego bricks. I get malls are dying because we'd rather all buy stuff online so we can wait a few days to get the stuff manhandled to death (I want my Funko Pop in a completely damaged box and my DVD's falling out their spindles, dammit!), but I miss a store you could walk in and be entertained. Not, "oh, do they have the thing I'm looking for? No? Now I'm just going to wander around disappointed because I'm out of the house."
8:50 - The Bull Shannon hand puppet might seem a bit random, but it's based on a ventriloquist dummy that actually appeared in a couple of Night Court episodes years before the Warner Bros. Studio Stores existed (so it wasn't some weird "use this in the show so we can sell merch" thing).
Dang! This seemed like an ideal store that'd still be in business. Like the stars were aligned and Warner owned a bunch of different properties but I guess mismanagement still thrives in Warner brothers today This store should make a comeback
We had one of these stores in a shopping centre/mall called the Arndale in Manchester England. I loved looking at all cartoon cells they had for sale. As kid I could never afford them and by the time I had the money the store shut. But the best part was they had one wall on the outside of shop carved out to be the bat cave from the Michael Keaton Batman film there the bat computer and a mannequin dressed in the suit.
I loved these stores as a kid. They had a sense of class that the Disney stores didn't have. And they had this line of t-shirts depicting Looney Tunes characters in hip hop attire that I wore obsessively as a kid, and haven't been able to find as an adult on the internet.
It is a shame retail stores are doing so poorly these days outside of some major tourist destinations you don't see anything like this anymore. I've never been in one of these stores, but I did somehow end up with a Scooby-Doo plush from one, and quite a bit of Animaniacs merchandise off of eBay when I got into that show during reruns on Nicktoons Network as a kid. It was cool seeing some of it in it's 'natural habitat'.
Imagine if these stores were still around today. We could’ve had a giant Harry Potter themed section of merchandise in the stores. As well as store exclusive collectibles like funko pops
Ok… I’m absolutely livid that my local mall never had a WB Store, this would’ve been paradise for little ‘ol me cause I was CRAZY for Looney Tunes thanks to my late mother showing me the theatrical shorts when I was a infant, loved Batman and Superman thanks to their kickass cartoon series and because they had stuff for Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and yes including Space Jam which I loved as a kid. With Disney Store officially closing all their locations last year, it broke my heart… maybe one day WB can resurrect The Warner Bros. Store cause all those children are now adults and movie buffs, and I bet they would love to own merchandise from Looney Tunes and if they sold horror memorabilia from their New Line Cinema library and such they would make a lot of money I tell you that.
I guess I should consider myself lucky that our mall in Fresno still has a Disney Store. Heck even the animatronics are still active. I didn't realize that most were gone.
The memories I have of visiting my local Warner Brothers Studio Store never left me. I have such nostalgia for this place and it's become a sort of mythical thing amongst some of my friends as none of them seem to remember that treasure trove but God I wish it'd come back in all it's glory.
So many childhood memories of these stores. I still have my Tasmanian Devil retro milkshake glass. Sadly the Yosemite Sam bobble head broke 20 years ago.
Oh God, a bittersweet memory from my late teenage years during the 90's was buying a couple of golf shirts with Daffy patches on the left side of the shirt. Why bittersweet, you ask? It was The Warner Brothers Store in the shopping mall under the original World Trade Center.
I miss the WB studio stores. Mine, in my old hometown of Woodbridge NJ, had a giant statues of Wile E. Coyote in an airplane hanging from the ceiling, and Road Runner on the first floor in the middle of the desert. It was beautiful, and truly defined 90s shopping mall decor.
I never went to one of these stores, but I remember hearing about them and seeing some ads for them. Those always looked cool to go to. Thanks for the video Joe, keep up the great work!
The thing I remember the most about these stores was how half the store was decked out with Tweety Bird and Marvin Martian merchandise. And over at the Disney Store, it was Tinker Bell and Winnie the Pooh everything. As a result, there was a short period when I was in junior high when the big fad seemed to be decals and binders with Tweety/Marvin/Tinker Bell. Eventually Tazmanian Devil and Goofy became the rage as well. It was like the two big companies were competing over who could push their secondary characters the most. Then, like the stores themselves, the fad just disappeared overnight.
Thank you for covering this. I recently re-visited Warner Brothers Movie World in Gold Coast, Australia and was getting really nostalgic for these stores. Still have a couple Christmas ornaments from my local WB store!
I remember loving going to the WB store. The few times we would go downtown every year always included a stop at the store. So much unique merch. There was only so much my saved allowance would afford me to buy. Why is it that now I'm an adult with a job all the cool specialty stores are gone?
Yes, Suncoast, WB, and Disney stores. My local mall had all three. I absolutely love the feeling of nostalgia and each of those would trigger it in wonderful ways. Going to the Disney or WB store was like going to a miniature theme park. I spent many happy hours in those stores. It's too bad they are gone forever.
Vert timely video topic! Wow, I have missed ours at the Florida Mall. It was right down the center of the mall and I had such fond memories of exploring it and the Disney Store, (which finally closed itself not too long ago).
I had to go to the Warner Bros Studio Store every time I went to the mall! It was always changing and I loved it! I still have my Superman the Animated Series Bust and like Sylvester Stallone my favorite character of the same name Speedy Gonzales I have a statue of him and other items! Miss this store! Thanks for the awesome video!
I almost had forgotten about going to the Warner Brothers store when I was a kid, since I was so young at the time, but then this video just flashed so much nostalgia memories back. Thank you for that, amazing video
This was so great! I have vivid memories of these stores. It was the first place I ever saw an animation cel. I started collecting them not long after.
Oh wow, I used to visit the store in London all the time growing up, I had completely forgotten. The bottom floor was Gremlin themed and I was scared to go down there!
I'm sad to see these all gone, especially since it seems interest in nostalgic products like those they sold is BIG and lucrative. I always wondered what became of the large fiberglass characters they had decorating their stores.
In the 1990s at the Glendale Galleria had a Three Stooges store which was modeled after the Warners and Disney mall stores. This was owned by Comedy 3.
This didn’t have any extra content just to pad for time. The intro was all informative and to the point. You have a great overview of the store without getting lost in the weeds. Fun personal anecdotes but not going off on a tangent. Wish ALL of these types of videos were more like this one! Awesome job , subscribed and excited for more
The Warner Brothers Store was totally an childhood dream lol. I honestly miss that store I had some Looney Tunes, DC, and Animanicas merchandise from those stores.
I used to go there and buy Friends shirts in the mid 90s. I have fond memories going to the store around Christmas time. It was all decorated. They were playing Christmas clips. The first one I saw was the Christmas tree scene from the Christmas Vacation movie, and then Jingle Boo. I start singing it very loudly. Some kid I didn't know started dancing. My mom was so embarrassed. When Kids WB started airing Pokémon in 99 there was a lot of Pokémon merch in there. I got 2 or 3 Pokémon shirts there.
I think we must've lived outside their location base, because this is all new to me. It looks exactly like the type of store I would've loved to visit too. I was born too late I swear
I was a huge fan of Warner Bros. as a film studio and company when I was a kid back in the 1990s. When other kids would draw that strange anglular "S" or the Van Halen logo on all their notebooks, I drew the WB shield logo. I was a weird kid. Still am. ;-) When I found out that the Studio Store had a location at the Water Tower Place Mall in Chicago, I visit there multiple times just looking at all the Warner-themed items, and hoping for the day when I could afford one of those rare cels from the Looney Tunes shorts (costing tens of thousands of 2022 dollars). They even had WB Shield stickers that I placed proudly on my notebooks. I even bought a shield logo pin on a couple occasions (though I lost them by now). It was definitely a store almost tailor-made for someone like me. When the Studio Store was replaced by an FAO Schwartz in the late 90s, I hoped the WBSS would open elsewhere, but it didn't. In 2014, when taking a tour of the WB Studios in Burbank, I looked through the WB Archives/Museum in the studio lot. Right next to the exit in a small frame was a harrowing image that also strangely gave me a bit of closure- the Warner Bros. Studio Store at the World Trade Center in New York... on September 20, 2001. It was completely darkened with debris everywhere and the windows completely blown out. Behind where the window should be was a dust-covered statue of Bugs Bunny wearing a hat and carrying a briefcase covered in dust.
I have memories of going to the one in Chicago as a kid in 1994 with my aunt and uncle. I remember getting a stuffed Wacko Warner as a Christmas present from my uncle
None of the malls near where I lived had Disney or WB stores. I think I only got to see a Disney Store once, where I bought a flipbook of Mickey doing magic tricks from one of his old cartoons.
I never got to experience it. I got to go into one of the stores at Universal Studios but I know they aren't any where of the same. Yes they did sell some Warner Bros. stuff like clothes, dish wears, collectibles and other odd things. I did see some neat items at the Universal Studios store. I really wanted a Scooby Doo cap but it was just way to much! I have been to several of the Disney Store which I thought those were sooooo cool at the time. I haven't been back in a while but not to say I think it would be neat to find a Warner Bros. Store just while walking around one of the older Outlet Malls. As always I enjoy your videos and you always have some of the neatest ways of putting them together. Peace Out!
I worked here for a moment from 1996-1998. I have nothing but FUN memories of being a part-timer here. It was an unusual experience that I loved. It was a great shopping experience. I wished these stores were still around. It would be epic.
I live in New York City and I used to love going to the Warner Brothers store on fifth Avenue and The Disney store was only a block away. The Warner Brothers store in Times Square however was nothing in comparison to the fifth avenue store. I think The Times Square store is still a Walgreens now.
Thanks for putting this together. It was always fun to go to the Warners store in "On the Avenue" in Cleveland. I used to have a bunch of classic Warners cartoon mugs. They have all broken over time. That was a wonderful era.
I thought this store was just a fever dream from my childhood. I even remember that Marvin the Martian rocket! I was so young before they closed down. I wish they still had stores like WB Studio or Suncoast. They're like vinyl record stores but for movie fans, there's just something special about them.
Because Cartoon Network played Dragon Ball Z the WB Studio Store at Trump Plaza (where my mother worked as a server) was the only place in South Jersey I could ever buy Dragon Ball Z merch and I remember every purchase fondly
I remember visiting the store as a 13 yr old at the NorthPark mall in Dallas back in 1999. They were playing clips of “Wild Wild West” & had all kinds of Merch. It was fun, good times…
Holy cow! I remember this from my childhood! We had one of these at my local mall. I used to love crawling through the Marvin the Martian space tube thing and smashing the big flashing buttons. And then it just disappeared off the face of the earth and I mostly forgot it ever existed. Good to finally know what happened to these stores. Thanks for the video!
The Warner Brothers catalogs were some of the only mail I got when I was a little kid. There was some amazing, and, in retrospect, mostly tacky items in it. However, what I remember most is that 95% of it was super expensive. I don't mean I had 10 dollars to my name expensive, I mean hundreds of dollars for themed jackets expensive.
Thank you so much @hatsoffentertainment … I used to go to the one in Chester or Manchester whenever I could. I think I only went 4 times in my life but I remember every second. Thank you so much!
I have fond memories of the WB Store at my mall, I think one of the photos around 3 mins was my store. I would always run to Marvins Rocket to play. I got some great toys there too, the animated Batmobile and my Iron Giant right after seeing the movie
this video brought back so many memories for me. I live in the UK, and I remember we had one in our local shopping centre and I was always really scared to go inside it as they had life-size models of gremlins all around the store that I was afraid were going to eat me or something lmao
Thank you so much for making this video. I loved going to the store in Indianapolis when I was a kid! I loved all the WB merchandise and the giant statues of the characters. I was sad when they closed it, whenever that was. Appreciate you covering this!
My local mall, the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga, New York (just outside Buffalo, NY) has both a Disney Store and a Warner Bros. store. WB was by far my favorite. It was located on the second floor and the nearby elevator had a fountain featuring several of the characters either near what was supposed to be a version of Niagara Falls (only about 20 mins away) wearing rain gear, in a boat, or in a barrel going over the falls. The store eventually closed and the entire fountain and display was removed. Truly a sad ending on multiple fronts. I also appreciated the SCTV reference.
@@MrJunk78 Awesome. Yeah, it was rare I got anything outside of Xmas or birthday, but I did get some Marvin the Martian stuff. He's still one of my favorites.
So no mention of the Warner Store that was located at the World Trade Center that was destroyed when 9/11 happened? The pictures of the aftermath of that store are a thing of nightmares.
I have these vague memories of visiting my grandparents as a kid, going to the mall, going to a store, and crawling around inside some tube thing that had buttons and videos screens. For 20+ years I always wondered that the hell kind of store that was, and whether or not I imagined it. This video just unlocked old memories. It was the Warner Bros Studio Store! Mystery solved!
I hope someday eventually we see Warner Bros. bring back the Studio Stores. I wasn’t alive when the stores were around, and I think it would be great for a new generation to experience the WB Studio Stores.
As I sit her sipping coffee from my Marvin the Martian mug I bought at the Warner store back in the 90's across my desk from the coordinating Duck Dodgers plush.
My kids loved the one we had in La Jolla, California and have occasionally asked me why the stores shut down…I had to ask them, “Do you EVER remember actually Buying anything there, or just playing around with the stuff there?”…Yeah, I think a LOT of folks browsed but just didn’t buy Anything
The one by me on Long Island NY had the Marvin The Martian rocket. Remember buying a ton of Space Jam march there. Another even shorter lived tv/movie themed shop were the nickelodeon ones.
So bizarre, my mom showed me her dress that she had bought WAY back just the fay before yesterday. True quality. Just a mere shadow of what the store had in…store for you. I still recall the life-size looney tune characters that would await in front of said store front. WB store and the Disney store were the romping grounds of the halcyon days of my childhood.
I remember meeting the voice actors of the Animaniacs at the Warner Brothers store. They each signed the certificate of the cartoon cell showing Yakko, Wakko & Dot that I purchased. I'll never forget that day.
I'm still mad at AOL for killing it. And they claimed it was they didn't have IP. ARE THEY INSANE? The only thing close now is the Wizarding World shop in NY...and I'm stuck in IL. BTW, do you not know how bad Walter Hamada is?
I don't like the guy from Discovery- plastered over Jack Nicholson's Joker in this video. Based on decisions already made with HBO Max, I fear what will happen with the only streaming service I've paid for from the beginning.
@@fromthehaven94 Believe me, there's some moves Zaslav has made I don't agree with, but Hamada is sending a bunch of reporters in his pocket to write hit pieces to salvage his job. And he is NOT doing a good job.
Well, sadly, our local mall never had a Warner Bros store, nor a Disney store, so I truly missed out. Wow, so the AOL/Time Warner merger not only killed WCW, but killed this store chain, as well!!!
It's stuff like this that reminds me that Warners Bros can make some cool stuff sometimes, but studio heads will somehow find ways to ruin it. From the days of Jack Warner selling off the entire Warner film catalog to AAP, to buying Atari a few years before the Video Game crash of 83, to the AOL merger, to the AT&T merger, to the Dicovery Merger(tthat's a lot of mergers), Warner Bros will somehow find new ways of screwing something up.
Well, the Atari deal was actually a boon for WB and Atari when the times were good. No one could have predicted the gaming crash back in 1979, and they could have survived past 1983 if the head honchos at Atari focused on making more innovative consoles instead of 1) sticking with the 2600 for far too long, 2) not let their best developers leave to form Activision, and 3) didn't release the 5200 as a repackaged Atari 8-bit computer that was incompatible with the 2600- forcing customers to buy their titles all over again. Plus, if they actually went forward with the deal they were making from Nintendo before the crash, the NES would have been an Atari console here in the US, and it would have sold gangbusters... unless the Warner Brass told the company to stop making Mario games or something.
I can say it in one sentence-- "way too expensive for what you got." They're one of those stores like Rainforest Cafe, Planet Hollywood, and Sharper Image that typify the excesses of the well-off in the 90s. At no other time could such concepts gain traction.
That's the thing, I think a lot of this stuff failed because you had people trying to use their money to show off, rather than really enjoy it.. and they weren't used to being allowed to enjoy things, so they just sort of spent it on whatever they knew. some desperate attempt to seem like they're doing well. now people actually know what they like, but too late, economy didn't line up with that and bad habits are too entrenched.
As a former Warner Bros. Studio Store employee, I thank you for this incredible trip back in time. I loved working there and still own some merchandise purchased during my time there from 1996-2000.
It seems like a lot of that exclusive merchandise is still worth a bit of money.
Those years were definitely a great time in my life as I was aged 17 to 23. You still had the chance to hope for bigger and better things. The 90s were a good decade.
@@Clay3613 I remember they did a Bruce Timm set of Justice League mini statues, a couple of years before the Justice League cartoon and Green Lantern was Kyle Rayner... I bet that's worth a fortune, now.
If you ever wanna share some pictures of what you have I would love to see! What an amazing place to work at
B Morgan-Were you a clerk?
The scene of Bugs silently counting money while Droopy McCharmless drones on about the "synergy" between TW and AOL is subtly (and darkly) brilliant. 👏👏👏
@meelf huntah Disney is still good
Destroyed WCW too
It also sums ups the state of Warner Bros Discovery
I remember being blown away by this store as a kid in the 90s, all the Looney Tunes and especially Batman and Superman animated series stuff and there being TVs all around the store playing that stuff.
years ago when our local WB studio store was going out of business and 'liquidating' i happened to walk in when the store owner was in house, and on a whim i offered to buy one of the enormous 'Gremlins' statues that used to be apart of the store decorations but were not for sale normally, we came to an arrangement for 500$ although the man said i couldnt take possession of the item until after the store officially closed and the store was being dismantled...2 months later i got my 'Stripe the Gremlin' statue. To this day i have had people offer me thousands for it its just so cool that i probably will never sell it as it is the first thing people see when they walk into the front door and enter my foyer.
As a movie fan, I wish I was around in the 80s and 90s. Stuff like this would make me pass out in excitement!
as someone who lived through the 90s, I can confirm that u guys missed out on something wonderful
I missed out on it since I was born in 2001
Sucks for you! Haha
Having been born in the mid 90s, I have to say, it’s one of the sadder eras in pop culture. Things like this were still around for about 5-10 more years (depending on the brand/product/etc) but slowly died out while everything else started homogenizing. Granted things look more uniform now, but the style and pageantry from these types of places is long gone in middle America.
@Maddy! Yeah I would’ve probably exploded with joy if I ever was in one of the Warner Bros, Disney or Suncoast stores. I would’ve literally been like a kid in a candy shop. I probably would’ve stayed in there for hours just admiring everything and probably would’ve bought the whole store 😂
I wish I could time travel to those kinds of stores. The 90s were a great period for shopping and TV.
Closing in 2001, they just missed out on selling the Harry Potter and LOTR merch
Actually, one of last big merchandise pushes in the stores was Harry Potter, but I believe it was more based on the books than the movies. I remember we sold clothing items (t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, etc), plush toys of the white owl, and copies of the books.
As a kid there were two stores I _always_ had to visit when going to the mall; KB Toys and the WB Studio Store. Even if I didn't get anything from it, the WB Store was just such an experience each time you went and it's something I never really got from the Disney Store.
It still feels weird not seeing one when I still visit those very malls today.
These are things I miss from back in the day 90s, companies trying these kinda out there zany ideas to connect with people. It seemed all more lively interactive creative, rather than today it seems more cold distant just creating an app or VR experience. Rather than giving people an actual warm experience.
I agree with this comment.
The only reason I remember the WB Studio Store growing up was because of those giant tuxedoed Bugs and Daffy statues outside the entrance. I passed it a lot at the mall my mom would get her hair done on Saturday mornings, and while I didn't frequent it like I did The Disney Store, it clearly left a lasting impression on me. Studio themed retail stores sure were magical - talk about a bygone era.
Also, I know this wasn't the focus of the joke at 8:50, but that Gumby themed polo shirt is sheer brilliance, actually.
Dude you've got an eagle eye holy shit. That shirt is freaking amazing.
Oh man, these stores were my jam when I was little. Had to go to the Warner Bros store whenever visiting the mall. I remember always walking through the animated cels section and marvelling at all the cartoon art. Really cool stuff.
(The Disney stores were okay but it never had the "random curiosities" kinda feel of wandering through the WB store)
Ello
Agreed
They were your jam? More like your SPACE JAM!
The malls I went to, the Warner Brothers Store was always straight across from the Disney Store. It was great
Thank God, this wasn’t just something I hallucinated buying loads of Wizard of Oz merch at!
What? How could you hallucinate Warner Brothers while buying Wizard of OZ merchandise at a Warner Brothers store?
I have a feeling you never tried shrooms, Acid, or LSD....
@@Silenced23 It’s a joke, bud. I was 3 or 4 and the memory is wildly blurry.
Man, I really miss going to the mall back in the 80's and 90's. I bought a watch from the WB studio store in the summer of 1994 and yes I still have it.
The WB store in the Natick Mall, used to have replica Gremlins hanging out above the store in the rafters and vents. It was also the place to get everything Batman Related. Also in the back was a Interactive spaceship that would show episodes of Looney tunes featuring Marvin the Martian. Good times, Better Memories.
I 'member! Please tell me I didn't hallucinate as a small kid there use to be this Giant Looney Tunes Fishing Boat thing hanging in the Mall that had several characters all hanging off this boat.
@@Tadicuslegion78 in Natick Massachusetts? Now that you mentioned it I believe it was there
@@TheNaturalPatHarris Yes, I swear it was near an old train shop that had a train that would run along the top of the store including a loop outside over the doorway.
@@Tadicuslegion78 the great train store by the elevator, near the food court
@@TheNaturalPatHarris YES!
I never knew how badly I needed a Bull from Night Court puppet until today.
Anyone who visited a store, do they recall a “hologram” table that at least had one Bugs Bunny scene? It was based on the SEGA Time Traveler cabinet. I remember being obsessed with this thing at the WB Store in Woodfield mall outside of Chicago. I only saw it working the first time I was there….I can’t find anything online about its existence.
This sounds like it could be some interesting lost media!
I remember seeing the Time Traveler cabinet. Neat tech, boy was the acting and gameplay terrible. Looked pretty damn good, though.
Old orchard
I don't remember seeing this at the North Park Mall in Dallas, but then again I was only 3 or 4 at the time.
This video gives me so many good memories. The WB Studio Store was my first stop any time my family and I went to the mall. So much great Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Gremlins and Batman the Animated Series stuff. And yes, the highlight was always crawling into Marvin Martian's spaceship where you could mash SFX buttons, play digital puzzles or coloring games on a touch-screen, and watch Marvin, Bugs and Daffy cartoons playing on another monitor. Thank you for creating this mini-doc, doc!
I really miss the hell out of these specialty retail stores. Disney's stores have disappeared from my area last year. I did have a preference for WB's Looney Tunes and H-B characters on merch, but I liked both. Even when Disney Stores were basically just the Pooh and the whatever movie was out at the time store for some time. I only started seeing WB stores later in the decade than the rest, and that was about the time Looney Tunes had the major popularity boom. Not to mention Animaniacs, my favorite cartoon at the time, having a small and growing presence. I even went to an autograph signing of Maurice LaMarche and Rob Paulsen at the Prudential Center location. The Beanie Baby fad was heating up, but WB had the BEST ones by far. Actual cartoon characters instead of random animals. I LOVED it when they added HB to their catalog. My Hong Kong Phooey bean bag plush is a prized possession. And the experience of seeing those large fiberglass mascots, both there and Disney was always a sight. I really missed the ones at Disney when they got their second wind and opened smaller, more lowkey stores. Best "experience" malls have now is the Lego Store, and even then it's like got one interactive screen and maybe a couple tables that look like Lego bricks. I get malls are dying because we'd rather all buy stuff online so we can wait a few days to get the stuff manhandled to death (I want my Funko Pop in a completely damaged box and my DVD's falling out their spindles, dammit!), but I miss a store you could walk in and be entertained. Not, "oh, do they have the thing I'm looking for? No? Now I'm just going to wander around disappointed because I'm out of the house."
8:50 - The Bull Shannon hand puppet might seem a bit random, but it's based on a ventriloquist dummy that actually appeared in a couple of Night Court episodes years before the Warner Bros. Studio Stores existed (so it wasn't some weird "use this in the show so we can sell merch" thing).
Dang! This seemed like an ideal store that'd still be in business. Like the stars were aligned and Warner owned a bunch of different properties but I guess mismanagement still thrives in Warner brothers today
This store should make a comeback
I never had the ability to see a WB studio store but they look amazing.
As a cinephile, I know Donald Trump has been in many movies and has an extensive Hollywood resume.
We had one of these stores in a shopping centre/mall called the Arndale in Manchester England. I loved looking at all cartoon cells they had for sale. As kid I could never afford them and by the time I had the money the store shut. But the best part was they had one wall on the outside of shop carved out to be the bat cave from the Michael Keaton Batman film there the bat computer and a mannequin dressed in the suit.
I loved these stores as a kid. They had a sense of class that the Disney stores didn't have. And they had this line of t-shirts depicting Looney Tunes characters in hip hop attire that I wore obsessively as a kid, and haven't been able to find as an adult on the internet.
It is a shame retail stores are doing so poorly these days outside of some major tourist destinations you don't see anything like this anymore.
I've never been in one of these stores, but I did somehow end up with a Scooby-Doo plush from one, and quite a bit of Animaniacs merchandise off of eBay when I got into that show during reruns on Nicktoons Network as a kid. It was cool seeing some of it in it's 'natural habitat'.
Imagine if these stores were still around today. We could’ve had a giant Harry Potter themed section of merchandise in the stores. As well as store exclusive collectibles like funko pops
Ok… I’m absolutely livid that my local mall never had a WB Store, this would’ve been paradise for little ‘ol me cause I was CRAZY for Looney Tunes thanks to my late mother showing me the theatrical shorts when I was a infant, loved Batman and Superman thanks to their kickass cartoon series and because they had stuff for Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and yes including Space Jam which I loved as a kid.
With Disney Store officially closing all their locations last year, it broke my heart… maybe one day WB can resurrect The Warner Bros. Store cause all those children are now adults and movie buffs, and I bet they would love to own merchandise from Looney Tunes and if they sold horror memorabilia from their New Line Cinema library and such they would make a lot of money I tell you that.
I guess I should consider myself lucky that our mall in Fresno still has a Disney Store. Heck even the animatronics are still active. I didn't realize that most were gone.
The memories I have of visiting my local Warner Brothers Studio Store never left me. I have such nostalgia for this place and it's become a sort of mythical thing amongst some of my friends as none of them seem to remember that treasure trove but God I wish it'd come back in all it's glory.
So many childhood memories of these stores. I still have my Tasmanian Devil retro milkshake glass. Sadly the Yosemite Sam bobble head broke 20 years ago.
I was just in a WB store the other day... they didn't have any Batgirl merchandise in stock
Oh God, a bittersweet memory from my late teenage years during the 90's was buying a couple of golf shirts with Daffy patches on the left side of the shirt. Why bittersweet, you ask? It was The Warner Brothers Store in the shopping mall under the original World Trade Center.
I miss the WB studio stores. Mine, in my old hometown of Woodbridge NJ, had a giant statues of Wile E. Coyote in an airplane hanging from the ceiling, and Road Runner on the first floor in the middle of the desert. It was beautiful, and truly defined 90s shopping mall decor.
That was pretty much my store as well...though enjoyed going to Bridgewater Mall, and visits to the "Flagship Store" in NYC w/my GF at the time.
I never went to one of these stores, but I remember hearing about them and seeing some ads for them. Those always looked cool to go to. Thanks for the video Joe, keep up the great work!
The thing I remember the most about these stores was how half the store was decked out with Tweety Bird and Marvin Martian merchandise. And over at the Disney Store, it was Tinker Bell and Winnie the Pooh everything. As a result, there was a short period when I was in junior high when the big fad seemed to be decals and binders with Tweety/Marvin/Tinker Bell. Eventually Tazmanian Devil and Goofy became the rage as well. It was like the two big companies were competing over who could push their secondary characters the most. Then, like the stores themselves, the fad just disappeared overnight.
If this was still around, it would be about 98% DC Comics and 2% Bugs Bunny
Thank you for covering this. I recently re-visited Warner Brothers Movie World in Gold Coast, Australia and was getting really nostalgic for these stores. Still have a couple Christmas ornaments from my local WB store!
I remember loving going to the WB store. The few times we would go downtown every year always included a stop at the store.
So much unique merch. There was only so much my saved allowance would afford me to buy.
Why is it that now I'm an adult with a job all the cool specialty stores are gone?
Yes, Suncoast, WB, and Disney stores. My local mall had all three. I absolutely love the feeling of nostalgia and each of those would trigger it in wonderful ways. Going to the Disney or WB store was like going to a miniature theme park. I spent many happy hours in those stores. It's too bad they are gone forever.
Vert timely video topic! Wow, I have missed ours at the Florida Mall. It was right down the center of the mall and I had such fond memories of exploring it and the Disney Store, (which finally closed itself not too long ago).
I had to go to the Warner Bros Studio Store every time I went to the mall! It was always changing and I loved it! I still have my Superman the Animated Series Bust and like Sylvester Stallone my favorite character of the same name Speedy Gonzales I have a statue of him and other items! Miss this store! Thanks for the awesome video!
We had one in Australia near where I lived! I always preferred WB over Disney so I have fond memories looking at all the cool things I couldn't afford
I once walked into a Disney store and asked if they had a Marvin the Martian shirt. God, I felt dumb. Lol.
I almost had forgotten about going to the Warner Brothers store when I was a kid, since I was so young at the time, but then this video just flashed so much nostalgia memories back. Thank you for that, amazing video
This was so great! I have vivid memories of these stores. It was the first place I ever saw an animation cel. I started collecting them not long after.
Oh wow, I used to visit the store in London all the time growing up, I had completely forgotten. The bottom floor was Gremlin themed and I was scared to go down there!
This store was a core memory for my childhood. I loved every minute I spent there.
“Controversial?” Maybe, but fiscally and morally sound.
I'm sad to see these all gone, especially since it seems interest in nostalgic products like those they sold is BIG and lucrative. I always wondered what became of the large fiberglass characters they had decorating their stores.
In the 1990s at the Glendale Galleria had a Three Stooges store which was modeled after the Warners and Disney mall stores. This was owned by Comedy 3.
This didn’t have any extra content just to pad for time. The intro was all informative and to the point. You have a great overview of the store without getting lost in the weeds. Fun personal anecdotes but not going off on a tangent. Wish ALL of these types of videos were more like this one! Awesome job , subscribed and excited for more
This just reminded me how insane WB's catalog is. #Classics
I worked at our local WB Store for a couple of months during the holidays years ago but it was the most fun job I'd ever had.
The Warner Brothers Store was totally an childhood dream lol. I honestly miss that store I had some Looney Tunes, DC, and Animanicas merchandise from those stores.
I used to go there and buy Friends shirts in the mid 90s. I have fond memories going to the store around Christmas time. It was all decorated. They were playing Christmas clips. The first one I saw was the Christmas tree scene from the Christmas Vacation movie, and then Jingle Boo. I start singing it very loudly. Some kid I didn't know started dancing. My mom was so embarrassed. When Kids WB started airing Pokémon in 99 there was a lot of Pokémon merch in there. I got 2 or 3 Pokémon shirts there.
I think we must've lived outside their location base, because this is all new to me. It looks exactly like the type of store I would've loved to visit too. I was born too late I swear
I was a huge fan of Warner Bros. as a film studio and company when I was a kid back in the 1990s. When other kids would draw that strange anglular "S" or the Van Halen logo on all their notebooks, I drew the WB shield logo. I was a weird kid. Still am. ;-)
When I found out that the Studio Store had a location at the Water Tower Place Mall in Chicago, I visit there multiple times just looking at all the Warner-themed items, and hoping for the day when I could afford one of those rare cels from the Looney Tunes shorts (costing tens of thousands of 2022 dollars). They even had WB Shield stickers that I placed proudly on my notebooks. I even bought a shield logo pin on a couple occasions (though I lost them by now). It was definitely a store almost tailor-made for someone like me.
When the Studio Store was replaced by an FAO Schwartz in the late 90s, I hoped the WBSS would open elsewhere, but it didn't.
In 2014, when taking a tour of the WB Studios in Burbank, I looked through the WB Archives/Museum in the studio lot. Right next to the exit in a small frame was a harrowing image that also strangely gave me a bit of closure- the Warner Bros. Studio Store at the World Trade Center in New York... on September 20, 2001. It was completely darkened with debris everywhere and the windows completely blown out. Behind where the window should be was a dust-covered statue of Bugs Bunny wearing a hat and carrying a briefcase covered in dust.
I have memories of going to the one in Chicago as a kid in 1994 with my aunt and uncle. I remember getting a stuffed Wacko Warner as a Christmas present from my uncle
None of the malls near where I lived had Disney or WB stores. I think I only got to see a Disney Store once, where I bought a flipbook of Mickey doing magic tricks from one of his old cartoons.
I never got to experience it. I got to go into one of the stores at Universal Studios but I know they aren't any where of the same. Yes they did sell some Warner Bros. stuff like clothes, dish wears, collectibles and other odd things. I did see some neat items at the Universal Studios store. I really wanted a Scooby Doo cap but it was just way to much! I have been to several of the Disney Store which I thought those were sooooo cool at the time. I haven't been back in a while but not to say I think it would be neat to find a Warner Bros. Store just while walking around one of the older Outlet Malls. As always I enjoy your videos and you always have some of the neatest ways of putting them together. Peace Out!
Great video! Such a blast from the past. Thank you so much for sharing!
I worked here for a moment from 1996-1998. I have nothing but FUN memories of being a part-timer here. It was an unusual experience that I loved. It was a great shopping experience. I wished these stores were still around. It would be epic.
I live in New York City and I used to love going to the Warner Brothers store on fifth Avenue and The Disney store was only a block away.
The Warner Brothers store in Times Square however was nothing in comparison to the fifth avenue store.
I think The Times Square store is still a Walgreens now.
What a nostalgia blast! I’d forgotten all about these - great to see the Chester shop in the video, I must have spent hours in Marvin’s rocket ship!
Lol me too!
Thanks for putting this together.
It was always fun to go to the Warners store in "On the Avenue" in Cleveland. I used to have a bunch of classic Warners cartoon mugs. They have all broken over time. That was a wonderful era.
I thought this store was just a fever dream from my childhood. I even remember that Marvin the Martian rocket! I was so young before they closed down. I wish they still had stores like WB Studio or Suncoast. They're like vinyl record stores but for movie fans, there's just something special about them.
Because Cartoon Network played Dragon Ball Z the WB Studio Store at Trump Plaza (where my mother worked as a server) was the only place in South Jersey I could ever buy Dragon Ball Z merch and I remember every purchase fondly
I remember visiting the store as a 13 yr old at the NorthPark mall in Dallas back in 1999. They were playing clips of “Wild Wild West” & had all kinds of Merch. It was fun, good times…
Holy cow! I remember this from my childhood! We had one of these at my local mall. I used to love crawling through the Marvin the Martian space tube thing and smashing the big flashing buttons. And then it just disappeared off the face of the earth and I mostly forgot it ever existed. Good to finally know what happened to these stores. Thanks for the video!
The Warner Brothers catalogs were some of the only mail I got when I was a little kid. There was some amazing, and, in retrospect, mostly tacky items in it. However, what I remember most is that 95% of it was super expensive. I don't mean I had 10 dollars to my name expensive, I mean hundreds of dollars for themed jackets expensive.
Thank you so much @hatsoffentertainment … I used to go to the one in Chester or Manchester whenever I could. I think I only went 4 times in my life but I remember every second. Thank you so much!
I have fond memories of the WB Store at my mall, I think one of the photos around 3 mins was my store. I would always run to Marvins Rocket to play. I got some great toys there too, the animated Batmobile and my Iron Giant right after seeing the movie
this video brought back so many memories for me.
I live in the UK, and I remember we had one in our local shopping centre and I was always really scared to go inside it as they had life-size models of gremlins all around the store that I was afraid were going to eat me or something lmao
Thank you so much for making this video. I loved going to the store in Indianapolis when I was a kid! I loved all the WB merchandise and the giant statues of the characters. I was sad when they closed it, whenever that was. Appreciate you covering this!
My local mall, the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga, New York (just outside Buffalo, NY) has both a Disney Store and a Warner Bros. store. WB was by far my favorite. It was located on the second floor and the nearby elevator had a fountain featuring several of the characters either near what was supposed to be a version of Niagara Falls (only about 20 mins away) wearing rain gear, in a boat, or in a barrel going over the falls. The store eventually closed and the entire fountain and display was removed. Truly a sad ending on multiple fronts.
I also appreciated the SCTV reference.
That was my local one as well! Don’t think I have had the money to buy anything from it. But it was a must see stop every time we were there.
@@MrJunk78 Awesome. Yeah, it was rare I got anything outside of Xmas or birthday, but I did get some Marvin the Martian stuff. He's still one of my favorites.
@@michaelk8860 He was my dads favorite as well. He had a Marvin mug on his dresser from the 90s up until he passed. I bet it was a gift from there!
I just thought I dreamt up this place! It was one of my favorite stores as a kid!
So no mention of the Warner Store that was located at the World Trade Center that was destroyed when 9/11 happened? The pictures of the aftermath of that store are a thing of nightmares.
I have these vague memories of visiting my grandparents as a kid, going to the mall, going to a store, and crawling around inside some tube thing that had buttons and videos screens. For 20+ years I always wondered that the hell kind of store that was, and whether or not I imagined it.
This video just unlocked old memories. It was the Warner Bros Studio Store! Mystery solved!
I hope someday eventually we see Warner Bros. bring back the Studio Stores. I wasn’t alive when the stores were around, and I think it would be great for a new generation to experience the WB Studio Stores.
I still have a Daffy Duck cap I bought there in 1998. It was a great store for WB cartoon fans.
Really appreciate the editing on this episode. Nice work.
As I sit her sipping coffee from my Marvin the Martian mug I bought at the Warner store back in the 90's across my desk from the coordinating Duck Dodgers plush.
My kids loved the one we had in La Jolla, California and have occasionally asked me why the stores shut down…I had to ask them, “Do you EVER remember actually Buying anything there, or just playing around with the stuff there?”…Yeah, I think a LOT of folks browsed but just didn’t buy Anything
I miss this so much
I love that you make content specifically for me and nobody else. Thank you.
The one by me on Long Island NY had the Marvin The Martian rocket. Remember buying a ton of Space Jam march there. Another even shorter lived tv/movie themed shop were the nickelodeon ones.
My dad was just telling me about the Warner brother store
I really miss the old Warner Bros. They did awesome through my childhood in the 90's and early 2000's.
So bizarre, my mom showed me her dress that she had bought WAY back just the fay before yesterday.
True quality. Just a mere shadow of what the store had in…store for you.
I still recall the life-size looney tune characters that would await in front of said store front.
WB store and the Disney store were the romping grounds of the halcyon days of my childhood.
This was the HBO Max of 90s mall stores
I remember meeting the voice actors of the Animaniacs at the Warner Brothers store. They each signed the certificate of the cartoon cell showing Yakko, Wakko & Dot that I purchased. I'll never forget that day.
Thanks for this great video. I have fond memories of going to the WB studio store with my grandpa
I'm still mad at AOL for killing it. And they claimed it was they didn't have IP. ARE THEY INSANE? The only thing close now is the Wizarding World shop in NY...and I'm stuck in IL.
BTW, do you not know how bad Walter Hamada is?
I don't like the guy from Discovery- plastered over Jack Nicholson's Joker in this video. Based on decisions already made with HBO Max, I fear what will happen with the only streaming service I've paid for from the beginning.
@@fromthehaven94 Believe me, there's some moves Zaslav has made I don't agree with, but Hamada is sending a bunch of reporters in his pocket to write hit pieces to salvage his job. And he is NOT doing a good job.
Thank you for this video! You unlocked so many memories in me after watching it. I loved that Marvin the martian rocket as a kid!
Well, sadly, our local mall never had a Warner Bros store, nor a Disney store, so I truly missed out. Wow, so the AOL/Time Warner merger not only killed WCW, but killed this store chain, as well!!!
It's stuff like this that reminds me that Warners Bros can make some cool stuff sometimes, but studio heads will somehow find ways to ruin it. From the days of Jack Warner selling off the entire Warner film catalog to AAP, to buying Atari a few years before the Video Game crash of 83, to the AOL merger, to the AT&T merger, to the Dicovery Merger(tthat's a lot of mergers), Warner Bros will somehow find new ways of screwing something up.
They’re like the sega of the filming industry
It’s not necessarily bad decisions, it’s dinosaurs desperately trying to cling to life
Well, the Atari deal was actually a boon for WB and Atari when the times were good. No one could have predicted the gaming crash back in 1979, and they could have survived past 1983 if the head honchos at Atari focused on making more innovative consoles instead of 1) sticking with the 2600 for far too long, 2) not let their best developers leave to form Activision, and 3) didn't release the 5200 as a repackaged Atari 8-bit computer that was incompatible with the 2600- forcing customers to buy their titles all over again. Plus, if they actually went forward with the deal they were making from Nintendo before the crash, the NES would have been an Atari console here in the US, and it would have sold gangbusters... unless the Warner Brass told the company to stop making Mario games or something.
BROOKLYN NY, i remember going Shopping at Kings Plaza Mall, The Warner Bros Store was Great 👍👍👍👍
Perfect time to put this up with the Discovery merge happening right now.
I can say it in one sentence-- "way too expensive for what you got."
They're one of those stores like Rainforest Cafe, Planet Hollywood, and Sharper Image that typify the excesses of the well-off in the 90s. At no other time could such concepts gain traction.
That's the thing, I think a lot of this stuff failed because you had people trying to use their money to show off, rather than really enjoy it.. and they weren't used to being allowed to enjoy things, so they just sort of spent it on whatever they knew. some desperate attempt to seem like they're doing well.
now people actually know what they like, but too late, economy didn't line up with that and bad habits are too entrenched.
It was magical, it sucks that I never took pictures next to the character statues, I always thought they were gonna be there forever