Blood for the Baron!

As a lad I use to buy all my Palitoy goodies from a magical family run toy shop called Phillips on Dartford high street. It had been around for best part of a century and gave the greatest service you could imagine. The shop Keeper wore a long shop keeper coat and everything was wrapped and tapped in brown paper. Bikes hung from the ceiling and it had a real Aladdin's cave feel to it as the shop was crammed from top to bottom with bikes toys and teddies.
Glass top counters were filled with goodies and the latest Britain's toys with a large shelved section for Action man, Action force, and Star Wars and a dedicated Subbutteo corner. At the back was one of the largest Hornby train sections I have ever been privileged enough to witness. There were girls toys too but it was the boys toys that I recall so vividly. Sorry to bang on but I was looking on line for some photos from the 80s to share but I could only find very old early 1900 ones and the latest was probably the 70's. I feel sad that my kids will never feel or receive the excitement I use to get from these wonderful shops. The Toys superstores of today seem so vast and Clinical with the spotty kid on the till treating each customer as a unit on a conveyor belt.

That's cool, Wolfy.

There are a few shops I'd frequent when I was a kid. I remember the old man taking me into a hobby shop in Rotorua and he said to pick out a couple of Hornby carriages out. I did, and he even bought me a die cast X wing. Back then we weren't exactly rich so it was a very big deal. Not a birthday or anything either.

Another shop nearby was my source of Action Man, Star Wars and Viewmaster paraphernalia. a few years later in Taupo there was this place;

http://www.taupohobbies.co.nz/

For my Airfix and Hornby needs. I remember a toy shop that had a USS Flagg in it. I nearly fainted when I saw it. They were never sold in NZ so I have no idea how that came about. I've wanted one ever since.

Cheers for the nostalgia trip.

My pleasure Chops, its always nice to look back at a time when life felt care free and easy.

Yup, life was nothing but trenches and battles in the sandpit. I'd love to go all Indy on my old backyard.

Lovely stuff. I used to go to a shop in Cleethorpes like the one Wolfforest describes. It was a magical place. It's since been turned into a mini Sainsbury's :/ There also used to be one like that in Wolverhampton until about 10 years ago.
Somehow The Entertainer just doesn't have the charm of those old time shops.