Buying in the 80's how we used to buy figures

bosk70

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I was just thinking the other day, am I alone in the type of place I used to buy figures between 1982 and 1984,

I have mentioned this on other threads but never really heard of anyone who had a similar experience as me. Most of the hype of the films was over and I found that my local hardware / market shop stocked Star Wars goodies out the back of the shop in a shed like extension,(must have been mostly over stock from the buying warehouses / wholesalers ), I remember boxes of playsets all around the shelves, which I could not afford even at the reduced prices, but what I used to concentrate on were the rows of boxes at the bottom which were packed with Jedi carded figures.
I and others used to flick through these in a similar way that you flicked through comics in long boxes , got got got need etc, most were the left over usual Jabbers goons but occasionally you would get a jem, maybe a storm trooper or endor trooper, as new boxes arrived for army building.
As a 13 year old it never once occurred to me to collect these on card, (most were defiantly not mint, well thumbed), and at 50p each were within my pocket money range, many were purchased and immediately ripped of the card to make up the numbers in garden dioramas.
I think the cards were in there original shipping boxes and only remember them being kenner at that time. I also remember seeing fett's etc and thinking don't want them already got that :) if only you could go back in time.

In about 1992 I had an epiphany and was starting to get into Star Wars again, boot sales etc, I thought i'll go back to that shop and just ask (you know have you anything left out the back :D )
To my absolute surprise never happened since I was sold an Empire slave 1 £5 and three Jedi at st, £5 each, all that they had left hidden behind some rubbish out the back

Just wondered if any of the other member's of a certain age had similar memories as I love to hear these tales :)
 

Bonsai_Tree_Ent

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My pocket money was something like 20p a week in the late 70s / early 80s when the toys were on shop shelves. I'd ride my Raleigh Chopper down to the newsagent and that 20p would get me a can of drink, a Texan bar, or maybe a copy of 2000AD. I never had enough to actually buy toys myself. Pretty much all my Star Wars came in those two big yearly bonanzas of birthday and xmas, I think maybe now that's why I don't particularly like price stickers on my vintage toys as the gift giver would have taken the sticker off before wrapping it.
 

bosk70

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Bonsai_Tree_Ent said:
My pocket money was something like 20p a week in the late 70s / early 80s when the toys were on shop shelves. I'd ride my Raleigh Chopper down to the newsagent and that 20p would get me a can of drink, a Texan bar, or maybe a copy of 2000AD. I never had enough to actually buy toys myself. Pretty much all my Star Wars came in those two big yearly bonanzas of birthday and xmas, I think maybe now that's why I don't particularly like price stickers on my vintage toys as the gift giver would have taken the sticker off before wrapping it.

Remember it well 10p for the 2000ad and 5p for the packet of space dust that left 5p for 10 half penny sweets :D
 

Pomse2001

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I am from 79 so I first began to get figures after ROTJ :( I think I began to get them in 83,84 but I also got some in 85 and maybe 86. Most of them that was in the danish shops was ROTJ figures at that time, but I also remember ESB moc in the stores and ESB and SW figures. I remember one day I bought 2 AT-AT drivers with my mother and another day 2 stormtroopers :D
 

Pomse2001

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Bonsai_Tree_Ent said:
Pomse2001 said:
I remember one day I bought 2 AT-AT drivers with my mother and another day 2 stormtroopers :D

'Army builder' at a young age!

yes and variant collector, I remember I was surprised to see the emblem at the back of the 2 AT-AT drivers was different one was orange the other was brown :lol:
 

Robstyley

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That's a great story, I too love to hear about these experiences. I've also mentioned in other threads about my memories of buying SW figures in toy shops in Essex where I grew up. You're a little older than me and I don't remember hunting for toys/figures on my own but I have some very clear memories of flicking through the figures with my Mum or Dad there :D
 

Snaketibe

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I was born in 1972, and so was 6 by the time the toys hit the UK in 1978. I too spent most of my pocket money on fuelling tooth decay, however xmas and birthday (both presents and money), were mostly put to good use acquiring Star Wars toys :-D. I remember frequently walking the mile or so to the local toy shop by myself (not something many parents would probably let their 6 year-olds do today!), and either gazing in wonder at the amazing array of toys on display, or else far better, actually buying some! I have very clear memories of buying the original Palitoy 12 and 20 back figures, plus all the Palitoy Star Wars playsets, Landspeeder and Darth Vader's TIE Fighter from that same toy shop. I also later remember buying the Twin-pod Cloud Car there plus few other bits and pieces, however by the time Empire came out my shopping horizons had broadened somewhat and my Star Wars purchases started to get spread out to some other shops too :)

I do very clearly recall however inadvertently causing a bomb scare in a toy shop in Stevenage, after my mum took me there to buy some new shoes (which we did), but I twisted her arm into visiting a toy shop we passed and I spent minutes in rapt wonder at the white TIE Fighter gracing the shelves! Naturally I had to hold one, and so the bag containing the shoes was placed on the floor and promptly forgotten about as I had far more important matters demanding my attention. It was only when we got home and my mum asked where my shoes were that we worked out where I must have left them, and so she rang the toy shop, only to discover that my carrier bag containing a shoebox of shoes had led to an evacuation of the building! :oops: :lol: I'm not sure how they determined everything was fine and no bombs were involved, because by the time she rang the shop already knew they were just shoes! :D I guess some brave sole (sorry, couldn't resist ;-)) had peeked inside the bag and determined the IRA hadn't paid them a visit after all! :lol:

I collected Star Wars toys until 1982, then foolishly sold up before Jedi came out. I used the cash to buy a (not very good) BMX, but I never lost interest in looking at the Jedi toys on the shop shelves, and can remember being outraged when I discovered a Luke Jedi with a BLUE lightsaber on the shelves of the local Co-op! :lol:

Years later, in the early 90's when I got back into collecting, the owner of one of the local collectibles shops told me that he had very recently visited all the local toy shops and cleaned out their remaining stock; the one which sticks in my memory was an unopened case of 6 AT-ST's.
 

edd_jedi

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Annoyingly I don't have many recollections of how I actually acquired my Star Wars toys. I had a fairly healthy collection in the 80s, but only have three memories of getting things:

1) Hospital visit from my cousin in 1984 (my first SW toys)
2) Being given a second hand Luke X-Wing by a friend in about 1987
3) Winning a Bib Fortuna MOC at a hook the duck stall in about 1990.

Other than those, I have no idea how or when I got the rest of my toys. I do remember a few Christmases and birthdays, but no Star Wars toys from them. I do have one hazy memory of being in a toy shop in Grimsby and seeing Star Wars toys, but no specific details.

So basically no, my memory is rubbish, I envy some of you guys who can even remember what cardbacks you got :lol:
 

batman

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I was born in '78 and we did not see the movies until we got a vcr in the late 80's but i remember buying most of our figures out of large metal baskets filled with tri logos sitting outside on the curb in front of our local Intertoys toy store . They were only 1 gulden so they were very affordable and we would spend ages rummaging through all the figure not knowing who they were or even what kind of role they played in the SW universe . Even back then the blisters were not firmly sealed so beneath the metal baskets all kinds of accesoiries had fallen on the sidewalk only to be swept into the gutter at the end of the day . As tempting as that was our mother told us we were not allowed to pick them up as they belonged to the store .
We got 12 of the last 17 figures from those baskets, i wanted Warok, Lumat and Paploo but could not find them anywhere and i clearly remember passing on carbonite Han because he looked silly with his fat neck, now he is still one of the last figures i need but my opinion on how he looks has not changed a lot . About a year after the baskets had disappeared a bunch of A wing pilots showed up at the same store and i got very exited thinking a new wave of figures must have been released as i had never seen him on the back of the cards but it turned out to be the last remnants of the overstock .
 

peekaygee73

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We bought through conventional toy stores, and sold up not longer after the 77-backs started appearing on shelves so I missed out on the bargain bins of the mid/late 80s.

I started collecting again in the early/mid 90s, and my favourite memory of collecting was reading through Model and Collector's Mart and buying stuff through the adverts or sending off to sellers for their catalogues. You can't beat the feeling of a photocopied hand-written catalogue coming through the post then quickly ringing up the seller before sending off a cheque for your items; the internet's taken collecting to another level, but I really, really miss that part of collecting.
 

TK-7785

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My only memory of buying figures new was a local market near Guildford. I'd go with my mum every now and then when she went to get fruit and veg for the family shop. There was a guy there who would have crate loads of Trilogos. That would have been the late 80s, maybe 87, before I got in Action Force. I still have the AT-ST driver my mum bought for me one time. The blaster lasted all of about a week before it was lost forever. :lol:
 

MrGudz

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I didn't get into Star Wars until it was shown that first magical evening on ITV and I was allowed to stay up and watch it. The next Saturday we went into town, we went in every 3 weeks, and as I was lucky enough to get a whole 50p every Saturday, I went in armed with the princely sum of £1.50. it usually involved a trip to the library and then down to either Trents or Zodiac in Swindon. I can't remember what the card backs were ( presume Empire) but I remember seeing a wall of figures in front of me. I picked Han Solo.

And so it started, my parents wernt the whealthiest, but I felt very lucky to get what I did. I remember getting a battle damaged X-Wing from Zodiac for my birthday, An AT-AT for Christmas and with some birthday money Vader's Tie Fighter from a John Menzies on holiday in Bournemouth.

I picked up a few last 17 in another Bournemouth toy shop but the only other place I went to for Star Wars was the huge (at the time) Hamleys in Bath. They had **** loads if I remember rightly including rows of AT-ATs.

It's hard to think that Debenhams used to sell a decent amount of figures but while there to meet Darth Vader I managed to talk my Mum into getting me Admiral Ackbar.

I cant remember much when it came to the big Woolies giveaway - my brother picked up an Ewok Village - I was dead jealous.
 

Ruby2511

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I was born in 72, so most of my Star wars stuff was ROTJ, these were bought for me at Xmas and birthdays and every Saturday my Mama would take us into Mansfield to wimpy then off to Woolies to pick a figure, from what I can remember the majority were either 99p or £1.59 ??

I do miss the old bird, we had some great times, she always treated us and loved us to bits xx
 

TheJabbaWookie

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I don't remember ever purchasing Star Wars with my own pocket money. I was born in 76 and would of only been 6 when I got into it around the time Star Wars was released on TV in October 1982. I didn't go to the cinema to watch Jedi either so my early memories of the saga are all of Star Wars, hence it is my favourite film of the original trilogy. I definitely saw ROTJ before 1988 so I'm guessing it was a pirated copy.

My only memories of buying or receiving Star Wars were going to the local Tesco superstore which had been recently built in December of 1982 and marvelling at the size of it and the rows and rows of Star Wars on the shelves. I selected a Darth Vader's Tie Fighter. My other memory was of receiving a second Gamorrean Guard for Christmas in 1984. I don't recall the date exactly but since I remember clearly it being on television I'm putting two and two together as it was first shown on tv at Christmas on 30th December 1984. It sticks in my head because I remember the dilemma of having to decide whether to keep it or take it back to the shop. In the end I decide to keep it and it's the only childhood memory I have of actually opening a card, though I couldn't tell you what packaging it had. I think it was my only duplicate.

It wasn't until I was in to He-Man that I can actually remember going to a shop with my grandfather and actually purchasing an item. I selected Man-At-arms.
 

Snaketibe

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Perhaps I'm a little unusual then (yes, 'weird' is another word ;-)), but I remember buying loads of Star Wars toys in lots of different places. Yes, most were bought from Ware Toy Shop in Hertfordshire, but I also remember getting some from Ware Tesco, Hertford Toy Shop (saw some Kenner 20 backs there and wondered what the hell the Dewback was and why I'd never seen one, plus why the Droid Factory and Cantina shown on the card differed from my Palitoy ones!), Stevenage Toy Shop, Stevenage market (finally got a Boba Fett there, but was disappointed it wasn't a Palitoy card! :lol: ), Inverness Toy Shop (where I bought a Snowspeeder whilst on holiday at Loch Ness, but had to take it back as it had one missing and one duplicated part, and I ended up having to swap it for a Turret and Probot playset instead, as they had no more Snowspeeders). I remember swapping figures with my brother's friend, which finally got me a pin head Han, and all of this between the ages of 6 and 11. I would say 10, but although I sold my collection to a friend when I was 10 so I could buy a Halfords Turbo BMX bike (which was every bit as rubbish as it sounds), I couldn't resist buying one ROJ figure, in the form of Chief Chirpa, at age 11, again from good old Ware Toy Shop.

There's plenty of things I don't remember from my childhood, but many of my clearest memories revolve around Star Wars, usually the toys, but sometimes the films, like being taken to see Star Wars at the Odeon, Leicester Square by my godparents, and marvelling at how huge R2-D2's dome was on screen during his close-up on Tatooine when C-3PO throws a wobbly and ditches him after landing. Or like going to see Empire with the same godparents a couple of years later and being really annoyed that the audience cheered when an AT-AT was brought down on Hoth, instead of watching the film in respectful silence, like considerate people do ;-)
 

Fishtalk

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I love stories like these. I was born in '68, so was more than ready when the toys arrived 10 years later. We had a tiny toyshop in my home town and it had a very small Star Wars section, most days it was the same figures - Luke, Leia, Ben, Chewie and Artoo. Sometimes Han would show up along with Threepio, and that was it through the Spring and Summer of 1978 - we never saw the other figures, and must of driven the shop workers mad with our constant questions: "Have you got Darth Vader? Stormtrooper? Jawa?" The response was always the same, "no, but we're getting more in on Friday".
I was getting very upset that I couldn't find all 12 figures, I would complain to my Mum who would always remind me of the disclaimer on the back of the card, 'all 12 Star Wars action figures may not be available in your store at the same time' and tell me to be patient, which didn't help.
After the Summer holidays the other figures began to appear, although I couldn't find the elusive Jawa until November - he was SO hard to locate, and I remember being amazed after the eternal wait how small he was. Great times.
 

edd_jedi

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Snaketibe said:
Or like going to see Empire with the same godparents a couple of years later and being really annoyed that the audience cheered when an AT-AT was brought down on Hoth, instead of watching the film in respectful silence, like considerate people do ;-)

I never saw that happen in British cinemas until much more recently, 2000s. The first time I saw people cheer in a cinema was in New York in the mid 90s when I was a teenager, and I remember thinking what the **** are all these idiots doing :lol:
 

Mini99

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It totally amazes me you guys can remember things from your childhood, but then again I can't remember what happened yesterday! :roll:
Keep the stories coming as I enjoy reading them.
 

TheJabbaWookie

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Snaketibe said:
Inverness Toy Shop (where I bought a Snowspeeder whilst on holiday at Loch Ness, but had to take it back as it had one missing and one duplicated part, and I ended up having to swap it for a Turret and Probot playset instead, as they had no more Snowspeeders).
So that's where your love of the Turret & Probot came from Jeremy :lol:
 
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