Over the past few years we’ve been working our way around the UK visiting a community of small businesses contributing to our growing toy collections.
Ever since I ‘grew out’ of playing with toys, I’ve been collecting them. I started with a few I had left that were still presentable enough to put on a shelf and continued casually picking up bits and pieces along the way that were related to, or inspired by the media I enjoyed.
During this time I’ve been on a 23 year side quest collecting Pez, turned into a cul-de-sac of buying art/designer vinyl toys (turning back around when it got a bit rich for my blood), before reaching a point of no return around the revival of Star Wars in late 2015 / 2016 when I let loose.
I found a joy in collecting something seemingly trivial and rebelling against myself as I was beginning to become regarded as an adult. It wasn’t that I was shirking all grown up responsibilities in favour of buying toys, more that the irreverence provided an antithesis to the life I was/am somewhat obliged to lead.
Put simply, I was rewarding myself for completing the bottomless list of life admin. The problem is, not only is the list bottomless it also expands in all other directions as the years go on. As such, so has my collecting.
Up until 2021, when the team at Leicester Vintage and Old Toy Shop launched their YouTube series Toy Shop on Tour, I hadn’t quite appreciated how far I was from being alone in this, or the extent of the toy collecting community.
As the world began to open up again in the post pandemic years, Sam and I were inspired to visit the toy shops featured on the show ourselves. While we haven’t set off on a dedicated trip like stars Joe, Gav and Matt the Cameraman, we have been making detours on journeys to seek out these special places.
This is a scrapbook document of vintage toy shops we’ve visited that I’ll update periodically with new additions. (📸 All photos featured are my own)
The Vintage Toy Monster – 337a Copnor Road, Portsmouth, PO3 5EQ (Instagram)
The Spacebridge – 66 Station Road, New Milton, BH25 6LE (website)
The Retro Stash – 14 Forge Road, Port Talbot, SA13 1NU (Facebook)
Leicester Vintage and Old Toy Shop – 9-11 East Bond Street, Leicester, LE1 4AP (website)
Rob’s Retros – 8 Mill Road, Ely, Cardiff, CF5 4AG (website)
RAM Collectable Toys – 27 High Street, Herne Bay, CT6 5LJ (website)
In Demand Toys – Unit 18 Murrayfield Road, Union Park, Norwich NR6 6NQ (website)
Harry’s Toy Chest – 21 Victoria Square, Truro, TR1 2RX (website)
Metropolis – 41B Smith Street, Warwick, CV34 4JA (website)
Space Pirate – 45 Fore Street, Redruth, TR15 2AE (Facebook)
Snoopers Paradise – 7/8 Kensington Gardens, Brighton and Hove, Brighton, BN1 4AL (website)
Retro Bristol – 11 Brislington Hill, Brislington, Bristol, BS4 5BE (website)
Star Wars Man – Afflecks, 52 Church Street, Manchester, M4 1PW (website)
London Toy Shop – Browns Garden Centre, Theobalds Park Rd, Enfield EN2 9DG (website)
Retro by Ronnie – 66 Goring Road, Worthing, BN12 4AH (website)
Dorset Pickers – The Den, Unit 9, 11-15 Francis Avenue, Bournemouth, BH11 8NX (Instagram)
All The Cool Stuff – 64 High Street, Fordingbridge SP6 1AX (website)
Galactic Attic – 22 Royal Arcade, Cardiff, CF10 1AE (Facebook)
My Comic Heroes – 46 Catherine Street, Salisbury, SP1 2DD (Facebook)
SuperTomato – 17 Salisbury Road, Cardiff, CF24 4AA (Facebook)
RIP
Modeller’s Loft – 886 Christchurch Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth, BH7 6DJ
The Toy Planet – Unit 7 Kings Walk, Limborough Rd, Wantage OX12 9AJ
Vintage72 – Windsor Place, Liskeard, PL14 4BH (Facebook)
Liam Toms 