I used to get the Toy Shop newspaper, the American vintage toys newspaper. I first got it from Thunderbooks in Blackpool, UK, by post and then I got a few from Millennium, a Sci-Fi and Comic shop in Leeds sadly now long gone.
Toy Shop was a revelation to me. Way before the net and Ebay came along, Toy Shop offered collectors a glimpse at hundreds of different old toys from the States and loads of deals. I discovered the brilliant Toy Scouts Inc. in its pages. They published their own magazine and their founder, Bill Bruegman, is the author of the first and best old toy book I ever bought, Toys of the Sixties.
Alas, with the onset of the net I stopped getting Toy Shop. I believe it reduced in size at some point, from broadsheet to tabloid. Is that true? Did it remain essential reading and is it still going readers?
I do miss it.
Until I read about it here I didn't even know about the Toy Shop. My introduction to toys in general was through 'Plastic Figure & Playset Collector' - PFPC - magazine.
ReplyDeleteeBay killed it, it went from a monthly to biweekly, back to monthly, but with hardly any real adverts , it finally died.
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