70s/80s Toy Shops

This is a post I made a couple of years ago on another thread about childhood memories:

"One of my best memories is actually of a toy shop and it makes me feel quite nostalgic thinking about it. It was in Rayleigh in Essex and it was called Peter Jones. Downstairs it was like Martins/W H Smith - books, stationary etc but upstairs was a big toy shop. I remember climbing up the stairs and as you got to the top there was this huge wall of Star Wars on the left. I used to stand there goggle-eyed looking at it! It obviously seems bigger when you're a kid but there was **** loads of stock in this shop. All the figures hanging on the metal sticks and the ships stacked up at the top. I would winge like **** to get one(a figure) but usually it would be..no not today! Occasionally you could get one and you'd root through to find a good un'. Best memories ever and prob the sole reason I collect now

This thread has made me think about going back to the shop/building that used to be Peter Jones. I'm not sure what it is now but there's every chance the layout of the place is still the same and the stairs still there etc. Would be cool to visit it again, maybe take a few photos or see if I can get any info about the people who ran it in the 80's or some photos of it from that time. It's prob a long shot but even 1 photo of that toy shop in the early 80's or a little bit of info would be amazing to me."

Well, I did go back and it's a carpet shop now. I went in and apart from being full of carpets and flooring it was the same. I went to the back corner and climbed the very same staircase I used to up to the toy shop. Gave me a weird feeling... but at the top alas no Star Wars.

lejackal said:

Cazza said:

GW Hurley in Burnham-on-Sea (still there)

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Get in there to the cellar/backroom/loft :lol:

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Remember that shop well. Lived in Somerset for a couple of years as a kid ( age 8-10 1984-86 ) loved the book section and going there on a Saturday with my Brother ! ! Also remember Burnham being closed a lot !!!!!

I posted ages ago about remembering buying toys from House of Holland, Chingford Mount London - especially a Chief Chirpa figure around 83. Likely to have been my first ROTJ toy.

Also fondly remember Rossi's toys also from Chingford Mount. Not sure when it closed but it's gone now. They had so many toys in such a small shop and a great place for Star Wars figures.

Goodness feels like so long ago.

This is the same shop I had in my local shopping centre, used to get excited just walking past it, I was about 6 I think when I bought a Visionaries figure from there, believe it or not I don't think they had anything Star Wars in my one because if they did i'd have been all over that **** lol. Sorry don't have any photo's of this place just 1 single memory because I was so young, I had no idea what this figure was when I spotted it on the shelf but I remember it like it was yesterday seeing the amazing packaging and the obviously awesome holograms which made me want it. I got my mom to buy it for me and I looked at the thing walking all the way home in the dark, and spent the next few weeks playing with it and looking at it.

Unfortunately it disappeared into history and I completely forgot over the years what that figure was called, what it looked like etc, but I always had the memory of it and always wondered what it was, it's been one of my favourite toy memories ever since and only last year I decided to dig and finally found out what it was called. Looked at a few of them and the second I seen the Witterquick chest hologram I knew that was defo the same one I had, and now I own him again all MOC, he's come back home to pappa lol.

Sorry not a Star Wars memory and don't have any pics of the shop etc, but I only found out about this figure again just last year and this pic might spark some peoples lost happy memories of seeing them in their Zodiac...

Palifan said:

Martins was the toy shop for me in Kingswood Bristol. All of their figures were sold out of a wicker basket so probably had the hanger punch still in them. My first 12 came out of that shop including a large head han and VCJ

They also had both Darth and Boba visit the store and during the early 80's opened a second shop up opposite it. It's sadly long gone but pretty much all my figures and play sets came from there (Cantina and Death Star), so I have great memories of spending hours on a Saturday looking in there with my friend.

Ian

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Remember Martins in Kingswood with great affection. Many a shopping trip spent trying to drag my parents into there.
The Darth Vader store visit is definitely one memory that sticks out (still got my signed ESB novel )
Strangely, don't remember Boba being there.

Although a department store, Fairfax House in Bristol city centre was another source of SW toys for me.
Also a toyshop in Yate shopping precinct that I can't for the life of me remember the name.

Not long ago I popped into what I'm thinking is a Primark or something on Argyll Street in Glasgow purely because it's the site of a big John Menzies which is fondly remembered for having a huge toy section in its basement and whoever managed it knew to give SW a lot of floorspace. It was my Mecca.

Anyway, the basement is now closed off and the two public staircases removed. There were no traces, lay-out wise, of what came before. In town, its toy rival, Lewsis' has been subdivided to the point that it's unrecognisable too.

Twin30mm said:

Palifan said:

Martins was the toy shop for me in Kingswood Bristol. All of their figures were sold out of a wicker basket so probably had the hanger punch still in them. My first 12 came out of that shop including a large head han and VCJ

They also had both Darth and Boba visit the store and during the early 80's opened a second shop up opposite it. It's sadly long gone but pretty much all my figures and play sets came from there (Cantina and Death Star), so I have great memories of spending hours on a Saturday looking in there with my friend.

Ian

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Remember Martins in Kingswood with great affection. Many a shopping trip spent trying to drag my parents into there.
The Darth Vader store visit is definitely one memory that sticks out (still got my signed ESB novel )
Strangely, don't remember Boba being there.

Although a department store, Fairfax House in Bristol city centre was another source of SW toys for me.
Also a toyshop in Yate shopping precinct that I can't for the life of me remember the name.

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Nice to see another local Bristol boy on here.

I don't remember a toy shop in Yate, although I didn't tend to go there very much. Woolworths in Fishponds was another good source of Star Wars vintage and the shop close to it maybe called Miltons or something? They used to sell model kits and records in there but I seem to remember them stocking Star Wars and it's where I bought some Dungeons and Dragons LJN figures from (the last action figures I remember buying as a kid). I think my Palitoy Fist Fighter Spiderman was from there as well so they did stock some good items over the years.

I can't quite remember when Boba Fettv turned up at Martins but do remember them having the second shop so it must have been around the time ESB was released. They also had a Lego building competition in that second shop around that time that I entered but didn't win

Oh those were the good old days.

Ian

Palifan said:

Nice to see another local Bristol boy on here.

I don't remember a toy shop in Yate, although I didn't tend to go there very much. Woolworths in Fishponds was another good source of Star Wars vintage and the shop close to it maybe called Miltons or something? They used to sell model kits and records in there but I seem to remember them stocking Star Wars and it's where I bought some Dungeons and Dragons LJN figures from (the last action figures I remember buying as a kid). I think my Palitoy Fist Fighter Spiderman was from there as well so they did stock some good items over the years.

I can't quite remember when Boba Fettv turned up at Martins but do remember them having the second shop so it must have been around the time ESB was released. They also had a Lego building competition in that second shop around that time that I entered but didn't win

Oh those were the good old days.

Ian

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Gert Lush!

Christ, you've got a better memory than me. Definitely no recollection of the second shop.
Think you're right, the store visits must have coincided with the release of the film/toy line. Roughly summer/autumn 1980.

Happy times indeed.

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.

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...

Ware Toy Shop in Ware, Hertfordshire for me. Almost all of my Star Wars and most of my Empire toys came from there between 1978 - 1983. It wasn't a particularly big shop, and had a really weird layout where the front half of the shop was on ground level, but was for larger display items only, like prams and much bigger toys. You weren't supposed to go in that bit, but instead walked along the right-hand side of the front of the shop, up a very short staircase with a turn halfway up it, and then arrived at the shop proper.

It may have been small, but it was a massive part of my childhood, and is one of the most Star Wars things in my entire memory! Small it might have been, but they seemed to carry the entire original Palitoy line. It was from there I purchased almost all my toys over a period of years (I wasn't rich!); my 12 and 20 back figures, a Palitoy Landspeeder (my first ever Star Wars non-figure toy!), Cantina, Land of the Jawas, Droid Factory, and my all-time favourite toy, the Palitoy Death Star (£9.99 to you, sir!). Back then, I would ask to see the toy before buying, and the lady in the shop (who had terrible Parkinson's) would oblige by opening each boxed item for me with her badly shaking hands. I would marvel at the plastic wonderment contained inside, then pop a few doors down the High Street to the Saffron Walden Building Society, extract the required funds, then return to the Toy Shop and buy the goodness I had just witnessed!

I can't imagine too many shops being willing to do that for their customers these days! :-D

I would LOVE to own a picture of Ware Toy Shop circa 1978 - 1983. I moved away from Ware in 1983 and at some point after that, the shop closed down, as did the Saffron Walden. These days with Google Street view, I can't even be certain which shop Ware Toy Shop used to be :-(. Some day I will make a pilgrimage back to Ware and try to work out which shop it was. If they still have the staircase inside, it should be easy enough! :-D

reddogblues said:

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

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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

Dr_Ball_MD said:

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.

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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...

Bonsai_Tree_Ent said:

Dr_Ball_MD said:

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.

Click to expand...

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...

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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.

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..

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....

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.

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.

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!

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

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 ).