Photos by Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Lucy Tu holds some of the stuffed animals that kept generations
of customers coming back to Jeanlu Toys in Kailua. The store boasted
toys that were hard to find elsewhere, such as Stella Alpina dolls
(center) and Corgi cars (bottom).

Oahu’s oldest
toy story ends

Jeanlu Toys is closing down
after 46 years, for want of a successor

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Some of Lucy Tu's original customers are grandparents now, coming to her Jeanlu Toys store in Kailua to buy toys for their grandchildren.

"It's the oldest toy store in Honolulu, 46 years old," said Tu who at age 78 has decided to close the store and retire.

Her decision to end the business she loved so much opens an opportunity for toy aficionados. The store is famous for its old-fashioned classic toys and all will be offered at sale prices until the stock has gone.

Tu said said she has dug out some toys from the 1960s, the '70s and '80s, all in the new condition they were in when they were first brought into the store, as well as the newer stock.

The store at 25 Maluniu Ave., near the Kailua Library and Kailua Elementary School, no longer has any staff and Lu has it open only four hours a day, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Her partner and cousin, John Holt, died in June and that led her to complete her retirement plans.

"At one time we had four stores -- one in Waialae-Kahala, one in Ala Moana Center and one in Waikiki. The Waikiki one was the first," she said.

They built the 4,000-square-foot Kailua store mostly to use as a warehouse but it became the only retail outlet after the others stores closed in the 1970s.

"We're old-fashioned," she said. No electronic gizmos for her. The store is known for its great collection of stuffed animals, Steiff teddy bears and Playmobil toys from Germany, British-made toy soldiers, Radio Flyer wagons, Wonder Horses, original Raggedy Anns and Andys.

"The most famous is our stuffed animals because we carry such a big collection," she said.

There's a heavy emphasis on toys that educate. "I believe in teaching children with their own minds, to work with their minds instead of these electronic things. That's my old-fashioned philosophy," she said yesterday.

The toys are old-fashioned to some eyes, "but they're made to last and to keep, not like some of the stuff (these days) that children play with for a few minutes and put aside," she said.

Tu, a Chinese immigrant educated in the United States, was working in San Francisco as a social worker. "I was sick and tired of that field," she said.

Holt, her cousin, was born in China and had worked for intelligence services during and after World War II. He later worked for a department store in San Francisco. In 1951, he asked Tu to come to work with him in his gift store in Waikiki. They brought in some toys and soon became an expanding toy business.

There's nobody left that wants to carry on the business, Tu said.

"My family are all professionals, either doctors or engineers, and all their children follow the same professions."