Fans of the famous FAO Schwarz on Fifth Avenue flocked to the iconic toy store in droves before the flagship shut its doors for good Wednesday night.
“It is a gloomy day, but I’m happy I am here on the last day,” said 11-year-old Wilson Blano of Sacramento, Calif., who has visited the store up to seven different times while vacationing with his family in the Big Apple.
“I am going to miss the experience of being here, but I took a lot of pictures because I am going to make a scrapbook that I will keep forever,” said Blano, who shouted “I am going to miss you!” as he waved goodbye to the Manhattan toy emporium.
The 45,000-square-foot beloved store — which was the setting for the Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia piano-dancing duet scene in the 1988 flick “Big” — is vacating its home of nearly three decades in the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Ave. because its rent is too high, parent company Toys ‘R’ Us has said.
Even the though the company plans to reopen the store in Midtown, toy lovers, who lined up in the rain to have their picture taken with the real-life toy soldiers that stand guard outside of New York’s most famous toy store, were still crying into their teddy bears.
“It’s a landmark. Even if it opens somewhere else it’s not going to be the same,” said Hope Bell, 43, the owner of a children’s salon in Harlem, who took her 7-year-old son Patrick to the toy wonderland on its last day and got him a “Jurassic World” figurine.
“When we saw it in the paper, he kept on saying, ‘it’s not true, it’s not true,’ ” she said. “He was so down. He wouldn’t talk.”
Out-of-towners and New Yorkers alike poured into the store Wednesday to say their last goodbyes after the company announced in May that the store would close.
“Being here is like a family affair,” said Melinda Russell, 46, who is visiting with her son, Colin, 12, from California.
Andrea McEachin, who has worked in the GM Building for 35 years, said it was “such a sad day.”
“I never thought that I would see this day,” she said. “It feels like the end of an era.”
The 153-year-old brand has had a New York City location since 1870. It moved to the GM Building in 1986 following 55 years at 745 Fifth Ave.
The company is reportedly in talks to move into a space in Times Square, but a spokeswoman for Toys ‘R’ Us declined to comment.
“We are actively looking for a new location,” said spokeswoman Jessica Offerjost.