Comics n Toys in River Edge, NJ

I thought I had hit most of the major retro game stores in the NJ/NYC area in a previous post, but my old roommate pointed me to Comics n Toys, located at 26 River Edge Road in River Edge NJ, about 10 minutes off the God-forsaken stretch of highway known as Route 4, which is in turn located another 10-15 minutes from the George Washington Bridge. It's off the beaten trail, located in what's practically a residential neighborhood, making it easy to drive past.


As the name suggests, it's not a dedicated video game shop, but rather stocks a general assortment of comics, old toys and board games, music CDs and DVDs, as well as an eclectic mix of games for every system up until present. Their game selection encompasses two whole long shelves, and while not extraordinarily expansive, there's a nice selection of stuff, and the prices are mostly in line with what you'd pay on eBay. I find myself wanting to pick up an Atari 5200, and they had a bunch of carts for a couple bucks each. They also had a few Super Famicom carts, including Hanjuku Hero, which I forgot to grab.


The rarer stuff is kept beyond the counter, which includes most of the really good Playstation RPGs, a bunch of Saturn and Sega CD stuff, and other more notable bits. Under the display counter is the even more collectible stuff, including a boxed copy of Bubble Bath Babes, which was on sale for approximately $1,750. There was also a boxed PAL Terranigma, although I forget how much that was going for.

As for my purchases - I randomly found a copy of the SaGa Frontier soundtrack (yay Kenji Ito) for $10, which I had previously owned but sold during my game music CD trading days in college, as well as a complete copy of the Saturn game Dark Savior for $16, about eBay price, which I've been wanting in order to do a "Proper Successor to Landstalker" article (Lady Stalker, Dark Savior, Alundra, Timestalkers, Steal Princess) which can only truly end in disappointment. (Well, the first Alundra is pretty alright.)


I love stores like these! Heck, there was even a handwritten sign for a "Record Room", which, sure enough, led through a hallway to a small room filled with records and record players. I don't even really like old comic books nor do I care about collecting retro toys, but these are the sort of stores that are fantastic to explore and pick though, and just muse at. Places like these are exceedingly rare in suburban New Jersey, having mostly been overtaken by boring, homogeneous chain stores, which is why this place is a must visit if you're in the area.

My absolute favorite bit:


Why yes, that IS a copy of Spice World for the Playstation priced at $137! How awesome.