Hi Moonbasers! It's a sunny Saturday morning here in the UK and that means, yep, Kids TV! Yay! Alas, the superb Batman cartoon series has finished. Currently watching Naomi's Nightmares of Nature! What are you up to?
The TV ads this morning are good too. They're all toy ads! They've got Spy Toys, which the old company Topper could easilly have made; Monster High, which my younger self would have totally appreciated and there's even a new toy out which looks like my old LITE BRITE by Mattel from the mid-60's! Its obviously moved on, the illuminated pegs can be joined together now to make cars, planes and more! Is it weird I wonder to enjoy these ads now I'm in my Fifties?
Watching this morning's ads it's clear there's a new toy shop on the block here in Blighty. They're called Smyths and they already have superstores. Don't know anything about them but they obviously have the brass to advertise heavily on TV. When I was kid in Preston there where two toy shops which provided everything I needed for a happy childhood: Thomas Mears, a brilliant independent family store and of course, Zodiac, the iconic toy chain. Could Smyths be the new Zodiac? I doubt that small independent toy shops are too happy. Have you a toy shop in your neck of the woods readers?
Slurping my coffee I've also been reading this month's Collectors Gazette magazine. Now I often bemoan the lack of a decent vintage toy mag here in the UK, with the loss several years ago of the great Model and Collectors Mart. Recently, however, I have been impressed by the new look of Collectors Gazette. More of a newspaper than a magazine, it now has detailed articles about vintage toys other than plain old die-cast. To be fair, it always had but they are very, very well set out now.
October's issue has lengthy articles with lots of colour pictures on: Bandai's Terrahawks die-cast toys [one for Scoop!], the rarest Action Man toys [apparently the Frogman is the hardest to find complete] and the history of Mars Attacks gum cards, a set of which I was the proud owner of for a short while in the 90's! I'm already looking forward to November's issue, which includes the rarest Dalek toys and the Dr. Who Appreciation Society's Top Ten Who toys.
Nothing can replace the excitement I felt back in 1990 when I got my first Model and Collectors Mart magazine. I was 30 and had just discovered collecting vintage toys. But I have to say that I may just subscribe to Collectors Gazette and once again wait with rapt anticipation for the tell-tale thud of a folded toy magazine landing on the floor!
Are there any vintage toy magazines left in your part of the world?
Lot of questions to answer there Woodsy! What am I doing now- (or will be again in a minute)repairing windows & painting them.
ReplyDeleteIs there a toy shop in my neck of the woods- Yes, Langley's in the Arcade in Norwich, which I went to as a child and it is still going. It has fought off a larger shop (just closed down) and still seems to be doing well. And they still have bags of green army soldiers!
It's 10am here and Beware the Batman is starting. Later I'm going to take photos of my Zero-X.
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