70s/80s Toy Shops

[subzero]

It was Redgates in Sheffield for me. It was just pure heaven visiting every Saturday and I think most of my Star Wars toys came from there. It closed a few years back and is now a TKMaxx I think... Maybe, just maybe, there are some unopened Palitoy boxes stashed in a corner of the basement...

redgates.jpg

Try and get a weekend job as a cleaner there, and have a mooch about at night after closing, if you find nothing then you can quit :)

 

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

My local toyshops (Sutton, Surrey) for Star Wars back in the 70's and 80's was mainly Tesco's, I got most of my figures from there.

I remember getting them from BHS as well but our main toy only store was Gamleys. (went out of business in 2008).

Slightly off topic I'm currently making an excel spreadsheet for my local history group that shops the layout of Sutton High Street, which has the changes to street numbering, and buildings that have been demolished.

Each square indicates a shop and links to another tab that lists the occupants of that shop using old directories and guides from 1869 onward.

I grew up just down the road near Banstead. There was an independent toy shop in Banstead (cant remember the name) but it was where I got my first Darth Vader Palitoy figure, and there was Masters Of Epsom at Tattenham Corner which also sold SW.

I first saw Star Wars at Sutton cinema...

 

[Dr_Ball_MD]

My local toyshops (Sutton, Surrey) for Star Wars back in the 70's and 80's was mainly Tesco's, I got most of my figures from there.

I remember getting them from BHS as well but our main toy only store was Gamleys. (went out of business in 2008).

Slightly off topic I'm currently making an excel spreadsheet for my local history group that shops the layout of Sutton High Street, which has the changes to street numbering, and buildings that have been demolished.

Each square indicates a shop and links to another tab that lists the occupants of that shop using old directories and guides from 1869 onward.

I grew up just down the road near Banstead. There was an independent toy shop in Banstead (cant remember the name) but it was where I got my first Darth Vader Palitoy figure, and there was Masters Of Epsom at Tattenham Corner which also sold SW.

I first saw Star Wars at Sutton cinema...

Great stuff! I recognise that picture as well, I uploaded it to the cinema treasures website!

I think I saw most of my childhood and teen films in there. It's a nightclub now.

 

[Tony jedi]

I had two newsagents in my local high street to choose from. Hendersons had a toy dept upstairs and had three rotating stands full of MOC figures and a lot of ships etc. But a few times in Newport my dad and I would go there on the train and there were two toy shops and one of them was literally just across the road from.the station. Can't remember the names of them sadly. But many times I would have a figure from Newport as well as Caldicot..

 

[Captainsolo1978]

I used to get my figures in a toy shop called Gordon Christies in St Andrews. They have now moved from their original location. Apart from that I remember getting figures in John Menzies, Asdas and Tescos.

In fact I started collecting MOCs in 1990 when Menzies had a giant bin of them for 99p each. Picked up my first 20 or so figures there. Even 12 year old me got nostalgic for them!!!!

I've been told Toys r Us in Glasgow around the same time reduced all their Star Wars figures to 10p each....

 

[chipsteak]

Speaking of Glasgow, here's the Kebabish on the South Side's Victoria Road.

In 1980 this was Babyland; a long standing pram shop which, by then, had devoted half its shop to toys. I bought my first figure here - a Vader which I remember coming on a Palitoy 12 back because I poured over that rear artwork. I remember that being quite common in the early 80s where the SW characters were still on the old SW cards.

 

[Twin30mm]

I remember frequenting the London Forbidden Planet (Denmark St, I think) in the late 80s/early 90s.

The used to have big plastic bins chock full of MOC ROTJ figures, reduced to a few quid to sell.
Bought four figures and intended to go back for the rest, at some time.
Never happened.
Oh for a time machine.


Any sci-fi geek from Bristol would have visited Forever People on Park Street.

A dark, dingy shop that had the welcoming nature of a down-at-heel crack den.
It had three floors of books, comics, posters etc., but it was the little side room that held my interest.
Chock full of vintage SW, it was a glory to behold.
Pride of place went to a boxed Tyderium Shuttle, which even back then was way above anything I could afford.

Apparently, Simon Pegg worked there at some point. Who knew.

Happy times.

 

[roundster]

Hereford used to be full of places to pick up Star Wars toys, but the main one for me was chadds.
It was a locally owned department store and the toy dept rocked. Even had darth Vader visit in the early eighties. Still remember seeing him come out of the lift which felt bizarre! Real life and Star Wars meeting in my 5 year old brain!
Other shops were the big stores Tesco, Woolworths, Merritt s and John Menzies
There was a place called goldings which had a good selection but burnt down in the early eighties taking al load of vintage with it!
I remember getting walrus man and hammer head from a newsagent called centre news in town too!

 

[tobedesu]

Zodiac Toys.
Orange one still full of Action Man figures.

 

[chipsteak]

Those bags remind me. Has anyone else bought carriers and other ephemera from toy shops past ? I suspect someone has because the first John Menzies carrier I saw on eBay went for about fifty quid! Thankfully the second one I saw went for a quid ( to me ).

 

[Cymonguk]

Honestly have no idea where I bought them from! I used to go to Middleton or City Centre Manchester so I imagine it was from shops there. I am going to guess at Menzies and Smiths, although I do remember getting other toys from C&A and more strangely a Coop in Oldham I think. So its possible that I got some out of there. Around 85 my Mum regularly picked up cheap figures for me (I remember those big stickers on the front). However I really don't remember where I ever saw them?

I also remember buying a Slave-1, but can't remember where I got it, it was the only big ship I had until I bought up other kids old collections.

 

[x-pack]

My childhood shop for Star Wars was Toy & Hobby, Standishgate, Wigan.

My brother says he bought our 1st figure Princess Leia back in 77-79 in Dolgellau, Wales while on holiday. Most likely in this shop or whatever came before this shop. Link below.

http://prntscr.com/fpa09w


Any information anyone might have on this shop, I'd be interested.

Toy & Hobby Preston and Chester I knew well. Did not know Wigan had one

 

[laurencedyer]

Zodiac Toys.
Orange one still full of Action Man figures.

Very cool carrier bags.

 

[laurencedyer]

I looked a while ago at the old toy shops in Leicester and one of them was a Zodiac toys which is now a Tesco Metro, there was also a Dominoes Toys which had a revival a couple of years ago but is now closed again, the other place my toys came from was Tescos at Beaumont Leys in Leicester which is still a Tescos (rather unsurprisingly)

There was also Alpha Toys on Churchgate.

Dominoes was the main one for me, a Leicester icon.

 

[Gaz46&2]

I remember frequenting the London Forbidden Planet (Denmark St, I think) in the late 80s/early 90s.

The used to have big plastic bins chock full of MOC ROTJ figures, reduced to a few quid to sell.
Bought four figures and intended to go back for the rest, at some time.
Never happened.
Oh for a time machine.

It was on New Oxford Street around August 89. I only remember that as I went there when Tim Burton's Batman came out.