I recently became a member of a wonderful website devoted to Zodiac Toys, the iconic UK 60's and 70's brand and chain of toy shops. Set up by ex-employee Roger Jones, it is a fabulous archive of shop fronts, displays and staff memories. The displays section is well worth sifting through for a glimpse of long-lost toys. I remember vividly going to the Preston Zodiac toy shop with my Mum, along with its rival Thomas Mears, looking for my next star buy. I have just one Zodiac - labelled item from my childhood now, a wonderful oversize picture book called Jason and the Golden Fleece, priced 7/6, by Purnell 1968 illustrated by artists Janet and Anne Graham Johnstone who were prolific back then giving a sort of elf-like quality to all the people in their paintings (who along with Pauline Baynes and Ron Embleton are my favourites childhood book illustrators).y
Roger's site is a fine example of what a good company archive by ex-employees could be like. If only similar existed for Tarheel/Empire, T in a Circle, Tri-ang and JR21/Century 21.
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Click on the piccy above (the Luton Zodiac shop) and support Roger's site.
1 comment:
Paul, Thank you so much for endorsing my humble website. It is not difficult to build sites like this if you have the information to put on line. I use www.webs.com - a basic site that can be built in minutes. A site I sadly miss is the Woolworth museum site which was pulled when the company collapsed a few months ago.
A started a thread last year on "Do You Remember" at http://forums.doyouremember.co.uk/toys/3362-zodiac-toy-shops.html
Got some interesting replies and contacts; you may find other toy stuff on there as well.
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