in march 2019, kasoff cited a lack of funding as the reason that the pop-up stores did not open as planned. he stated, "the toy companies had lots of conflicts of interest that prevented them from investing in kb given that they sell to other retailers, and mall operators don't typically invest in prospective tenants. it is taking a while to get this done and build out a strategy. once we get the money together we will be off and running." strategic marks sought an investment bank to finance the opening of 200 to 250 temporary kb toys stores, which would determine whether permanent locations would be viable. as of january 2020, there has been no news from strategic marks about the kb toys revival.