Could the once based Pittsfield KB Toys Be Headed For A Comeback?

Now that Toys ‘R’ Us is bankrupt, could that open the door for the once Pittsfield based KB Toys be revived?  The chain, once branded as The Toy Store in the Mall, may be brought back to life thanks to a California entrepreneur who has already brought back some classic brands like Hydrox Cookies and Astro Pops.

According to Masslive.com, Ellia Kassoff announced this week he has plans to bring back KB Toys with some mall stores in time for Christmas this year.  By the way, Kassoff also owns the names of a number of now defunct department store chains, like Boston’s famous Jordon Marsh.

KB Toys went out of business totally by early 2009 and the last owner sold the name, logo and intellectual property to Toys "R" Us that year.

Toys ‘R’ Us allowed their trademarks to expire in June 2016 and Kassoff's company picked up those trademarks in December 2016.

KB Toys had about 200 employees at its corporate headquarters in Pittsfield at the time of its demise.  During its heyday KB had 277 mall-based stores, 40 KB Toy Works stores which were mainly in strip malls, 114 outlet stores and 30 short-term holiday stores. It had 4,400 full-time employees and 6,515 seasonal employees.