Store displays used to have absolutely no interest in being subtle. A few dresses could require an entire stage, Christmas shopping could involve miniature villages and model railways, and toy companies were perfectly happy to install characters large enough to qualify as additional employees. Some windows crammed nearly every inch with merchandise, while others turned a simple promotion into a full-blown scene shoppers could stop and stare at. Decades later, many of these displays look less like advertising and more like somebody was handed a decorating budget with no adult supervision. Subtle merchandising clearly had its day off. Here are 15 vintage store displays doing way too much.RedditMacy’s Gave Three Dresses a Full StageThree mannequins stand between towering decorative structures in this vintage display, giving three dresses considerably more scenery than they technically needed.RedditThis Carpet Shop Built a Whole Christmas VillageA model railway circles a miniature village beside a Christmas tree made from stacked rolls of carpet, because apparently regular garland was nowhere near ambitious enough.RedditChristmas Shopping Became a Whole ProductionA department store turned its holiday display into a snowy village complete with trees, a house, fencing, and a reindeer pulling a sleigh through the middle of it.RedditThe Mannequins Were Practically FlyingThis 1980s clothing department put elongated mannequins high above the racks in dramatic poses, because displaying the shirts at normal human height apparently was not enough.Reddit / Marina AmaralThe Toys Were Fighting for AttentionTwo boys peer into a window packed with dolls, animals, decorations, and enormous reindeer overhead, with barely any empty space left for the actual glass.RedditCastle Grayskull Became Actual FurnitureA gigantic Castle Grayskull display towers over the action figures beside it, turning a toy-store promotion into something closer to a piece of fantasy architecture.RedditMario Was Practically an EmployeeThis enormous Mario figure once did the work of an ordinary store sign while taking up roughly the space of an actual employee.RedditChristmas Took Over the Entire WindowToys, decorations, and holiday props crowd this early-1940s Christmas window, leaving shoppers with considerably more to inspect than whatever they originally came to buy.RedditBarbie Got Her Own DepartmentDolls, outfits, accessories, boxed sets, and a huge branded sign all compete for space in this elaborate Barbie display, which basically functions as a tiny store within a store.PinterestCorgi Toys Created a Traffic JamCars, buses, trucks, planes, and boxes crowd this illuminated Corgi display so aggressively that the shelving starts to look less like merchandising and more like a small transportation crisis.RedditDreamcast Basically Built a Mini ArcadeSega’s oversized Dreamcast kiosk gave shoppers a screen, console station, and towering branded shell just to try a game before deciding whether to buy it.RedditThe Christmas Tree Came With a RailroadA full model train loops beneath the tree past miniature buildings and tiny utility poles, turning one holiday display into a miniature transportation system.RedditThis Window Was Basically a Toy MuseumA little girl pauses in front of a brightly packed 1939 Christmas display, where the sheer amount of merchandise makes casual window shopping look like an event.RedditThe Penguin Was the Entire DisplayA giant vintage department-store penguin takes up most of this newer Christmas window, leaving the tree, ornaments, and lights to work around one extremely large seasonal coworker.RedditHop Ching Took Over the WindowBox after box of Hop Ching fills this vintage toy-store window, with games and other merchandise packed around them until barely any display space is left unused.The post 15 Vintage Store Displays Doing Way Too Much appeared first on Den of Geek.