Romford Vintage Sci-Fi shop in the 90's

[Joe]

Not sure how many people on the forum might know Romford or visited any Sci-Fi shops in the 90's that sold Vintage there but this always bugged me so here goes..

I have a very vivid memory of visiting one particular shop in Romford that was located inside one of the various entrances to the shopping arcade. The shop had a life size Dalek and quite a bit of Vintage. I was just a kid at the time so I didn't really look at anything else but the box of loose figures they had (all played with and weaponless but £1 each so I used to try and buy 5 each time I visited) was always great to dive into!

One day on a shopping trip to the town I remember being really excited to go in and find some more figures but when we got there the lights were off, doors closed and peering inside you could see most of the stock gone and whatever was left was all over the place, even the Dalek was on it's side!

There were quite a few people looking in the windows at the time and I'm not sure if it was my parents or a family member who said the following (or someone else standing around at the time) but I remember hearing someone say "they hadn't paid their rent and did a runner" (lol). It never re-opened though so whatever happened must have been quite serious.

I know Jason Joiner's off world shop was located in Romford but I'm not sure where or if it was the same shop so any info would be great, I would love to finally know what happened to that place.

PS: There was also a cool sci-fi place in Southend that you could get to from the train station nearest the sea front, anyone know what it was called?

 

[theforceuk]

Nice story, can't help you though.

 

[Dantooine]

I went to Romford market in the late 90's and got some transformers. I remember a woman sold them to me and she was very knowledgable about them. They had a Return of the Jedi arcade cabinet standing next to the entrance that I had a credit on.

It was more of a transformers place rather than Star Wars. I don't recall seeing any carded figures, though they had some loose. Is that the place?

 

[Joe]

Not 100% sure if it was the same place or not, do you mean the small shop inside the shopping hall?:

The shop in the shopping hall isn't the one I am referring to but they used to have quite a bit of stuff too. After a while though it was mostly stocked with other lines and more modern toys with only one single cabinet right at the front full of overpriced loose figures. I remember they had he-man toys at the back of the shop and it was very narrow, almost like a hallway rather than a shop lol

(This was another place on my to do list whenever we visited Romford because there was a computer game place in there where I bought quite a few secondhand mega drive games :mrgreen: )

 

[kenyonchowmein]

This was called "The Androids Dungeon".
I'm trying to find pictures of it and came across this thread.

 

[kenyonchowmein]

Not 100% sure if it was the same place or not, do you mean the small shop inside the shopping hall?:

The shop in the shopping hall isn't the one I am referring to but they used to have quite a bit of stuff too. After a while though it was mostly stocked with other lines and more modern toys with only one single cabinet right at the front full of overpriced loose figures. I remember they had he-man toys at the back of the shop and it was very narrow, almost like a hallway rather than a shop lol

(This was another place on my to do list whenever we visited Romford because there was a computer game place in there where I bought quite a few secondhand mega drive games :mrgreen: )

The computer game store was called "Thatz Entertainment"

 

[Slayer2k16]

I remember such a place it was down what appeared to a youngster a strange grubby building opposite the market? which had a variety of shops/stalls inside. I can still remember the animal or hay smell from the pet shop as it wasn't really a shopping centre like you'd find now.
There was a Star Wars/toy stall inside I remember it had a HE-Man giant figure that was about two feet tall. I'm getting my years mixed up as I can remember going to Romford with the family in early 90/91 but I can recall this stall was selling little squares of a carpet from Episode 1. Some years before there was a catalogue shop that near it had a toy shop that sold Mexican Transformers that were a bit cheaper than the UK versions as there was an advert advising people not to buy them as they were toxic due to lead paint. Still got a Dinobot anyway