Where we bought TFs in ye olden times

[Philip Ayres]

See also:

Argos Catalogue Nostalgia

Dec 30, 2013 14:27:57 GMT legios said:

2. "The Transformers" (Yellow) Cliffjumper - the day after boxing day, at Tattenham Corner shops I was siezed with an urge to spend what remained of my Christmas Money. I already had an Evil Decepticon to terrorise the Earth, so I needed a Heroic Autobot to even the odds and take a stand in defence of the helpless human populace. The thing was I didn't have a great deal of money left, certainly not enough for a Bluestreak or a Jazz. But there was enough for a Mini-bot, and there he was on the spinner rack glowing in his yellow glory, his bio gave me the impression of a brave but rash warrior - one who would take on a Decepticon who out-massed and outgunned him without a second though. So Cliffjumper joined my collection, and he has survived through thick and thin, with his only damage to date being the loss of a single tyre back in '85.

Awwww, do you remember the toy/model place at Tattenham Corner Kaptain? It had some fab old stock in there. I used to work at the bottom of the hill in Epsom and would occasionally drive up there of a lunchtime. Not a word of a lie I went in there c1998 and they had Action Force roboskulls on the shelves along with third rail lego electric trains. Wish I'd loaded up at the time!

I've been in a toy master in Sutton but it's in a newish shopping centre.

[legios]

Dec 30, 2013 16:38:16 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Awwww, do you remember the toy/model place at Tattenham Corner Kaptain? It had some fab old stock in there. I used to work at the bottom of the hill in Epsom and would occasionally drive up there of a lunchtime.

I believe that is the very place that I got Cliffjumper! We didn't go down to Tattenham Corner much bit I have very clear memories of the inside of it from that Christmas. I think that it is still there - I only glimpsed it from a bus when I was on the way back to my mothers' from Epsom but I am pretty sure that it is still in business.

Not a word of a lie I went in there c1998 and they had Action Force roboskulls on the shelves along with third rail lego electric trains. Wish I'd loaded up at the time!

I've been in a toy master in Sutton but it's in a newish shopping centre.

Ah, that must be a new location - the one I remember was on the main street, further down from the Railway station and past the library (which I believe has also moved).

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

www.mastersofepsomonline.co.uk/

[legios]

And they have a web-presence as well! How fantastic. When I am next down there I am going to have to pop my head in the door for old-times sake I feel.

Karl

[Shockprowl]

Jul 28, 2014 14:03:09 GMT Pinwig said:

Imagine next year being able to walk into a supermarket to see which combiner limbs are on the pegs... how awesome would that be. 1986 all over again. Just not going to happen here.

Ahh those were the days. Shame they wont happen again.

[Pinwig]

Mind you, saying that, were Transformers in supermarkets in 1986? I only remember buying them in toy shops and large newsagents. Oh, and Argos. Were supermarkets still just supermarkets in those days?

[Philip Ayres]

Some of the first out of towm stores might have had some

[Bogatan]

My Ratchet came from Sainsburys, but the next time I remember Transformers in a supermarket was Actionmasters in the Sainsburys in Meadowhall.

I think Superion and Menasor will turn up or at least half of them. We have gotten the first wave and maybe a bit of the second for FOC and Generations. Before that we got most of it.

Just so long as Amazon US continues to provide them at below UK prices it doesnt really matter, but I would like to be able to go into a store and just buy some Transformers again.

[Jim]

Jul 28, 2014 20:18:49 GMT Pinwig said:

Mind you, saying that, were Transformers in supermarkets in 1986? I only remember buying them in toy shops and large newsagents. Oh, and Argos. Were supermarkets still just supermarkets in those days?

First place I ever saw Transformers was an ASDA (Spondon, for the record) which continued to stock them for as long as we went shopping there, around the time of Headmasters. That was about the time my Dad got a Makro card, and they had Transformers too, by the pallet!

-Jim

[kayevcee]

I got the original cassettes and some Minibots from Asda in Croftfoot Road. It closed when I was fairly young and most supermarkets we went to weren't big enough to have a toy department. There was a really big Boots in Glasgow city centre that did well for TFs at Christmas- I saw the only combiner giftsets I ever saw in the wild in there, and to this day they're the only place I saw the Technobots. John Menzies was the Scottish equivalent of WH Smith and they did TFs right up till the Micromaster era- it's where my parents got Countdown for me for Christmas 1989. That was the same year I found Hound in an enormous Tesco when I was visiting my uncle Brian in Perth.

Man, that was a fun trip down memory lane. Glad you brought it up, Pinwig

-Nick

[Philip Ayres]

We used to have a larger Tescos in Kingston Town Center which is where, c82/3 we got our Micronauts Giant Acroyear and Hornetron from. But very much the exception to the rule where supermarkets are concenred.

Interesting you should mention Menzies/WHS becuase I remember the WHS in Kingston having TFs at times: 85/6 jets, Pretenders, Micromasters and nthey being very expensive. I recall buying a load of Action Force cheap in nthere when they sold them off.

[Dezzeh]

I have some very well detailed memories of a trip to carefors (sp) in Eastleigh and seeing a mountain of Scorponoks.
WHS in Winchester having combaticons and duocons (at the same time) and Beatties.. well, I loved that shop, had an entire wall chocked full of transformers right up until '90!

[Shockprowl]

We were living in Norfolk in the 80s (having left God's Country for some insane reason). Toy shops seemed few and far between, and Transformers would pop up in lots of smaller shops. I seem to remember an independent toy shop in King's Lynn which had tons of TFs. Astrotrain, Shrapnel, Ramjet, Thrust, Mirage, Tracks, Blitzwing, Hoist, Inferno, Wheeljack, Jazz and Prowl all bought from there. Wonderful times.


Hey do these trips down memory lane need their own thread? Been great to read through peoples experiences.

[Llama God]

Damn, this is really taking me back. Back to a time when I only ever saw Transformers in Woolworth's. (Oh Woolies, how I miss you...) Given my parents were massively averse to travelling, the only supermarket we ever went into was the Tesco on Cosham High Street - which these days only merits being called a "Tesco Local" (or something like that - it was small). The Woolies on the High Street was the only place I ever saw toys. Until a Toys 'R' Us opened up in Southampton in '88, or thereabouts. That was glorious. But still too far to visit regularly. How times have changed...

We actually had a John Menzies in Cosham, too. But it was, again, too small to carry toys, and was basically our local equivalent of WHSmith. Which we had in Portsmouth, but not out in the suburbs. These days, there is no Menzies in Cosham, but there is a tiny WHSmith. I don't understand this strange new world...

[Philip Ayres]

Second syphoning for some of these posts!

I've got a feeling this subject has come up before. I'll try to find the posts and merge them

[Philip Ayres]

It's come up a few times during Top 5 Toys but especially Karl & I reminisce about Tattenham Corner tmukhub.proboards.com/post/167103/thread

Meanwhile Matt D and I have a similar shopping experience.

Zodiac featured high on my seeing TFs for a long time.

The first place I saw them was an independant toy store in Ham called Apple Town. Then the old Bentalls toy department in Kingston.

[Toph]

I remember when i was real little, finding all six seekers in a hardware store. My grandmother got me one, but i cant remember if it was ramjet or thundercracker.

I also remember getting First Aid from Albertson's.

[primenova]

Wasn't it around 92 when supermarkets started getting toys in stock? At least now you have Morrisons with sale son & picking up £25 Kreo Bumblebee toys for £2. But we had high street stores like Toymaster & the small toy section in woolworths & co-op chemist. But we had no shops like homebargins,B&M, factory outlet.

[Philip Ayres]

My recollection of Supermarkets and toys is that it started with the out of town stores.... which in turn depended on when you first got a big out of town store!

You're right about the discount stores, and can throw TK Maxx into the mix too. Discounting is partially how the Entertainer and Toy Stack (which iirc split from The Entertainer at some point) got started.

[Stomski]

Beatties model shops??

[Dezzeh]

Indeed! The Winchester one had two floors. Downstairs was all toys (that glorious wall) and upstairs was Scalextric, Hornby and etc

[primenova]

Jul 29, 2014 12:16:11 GMT Stomski said:

Beatties model shops??

I went in the one at Blackpool which I think then became a toymaster - but not sure on that. Doncaster has a Toyworld shop now which is very good & feels like toymaster of old [closed down in Wakefield but one open at M62 J32 & also in supermarket in Sheffield]. A real toy shop not like toysrus.

I miss Starstore which closed in sheffield around 2001. That was jammed packed & you had to watch not to kock stuff over while walking around. I remember Zodiac but it was down where you normally didnt walk.

[Llama God]

Jul 29, 2014 12:16:11 GMT Stomski said:

Beatties model shops??

Oh, yes, Beatties! Portsmouth had one, too. It was where I met Darth Vader at the tender age of five and got my first lightsaber! Damn, I miss that place. That was also where I got Action Master Bumblebee and Shockwave. Good times.

[legios]

When I lived in Wales the only places you could get toys in my small town were a newsagents/stationers/tobacconists, and a small toyshop in the high street (which tried to tell me that Britains Space figures were Star Wars toys *shakes head at memory of adult white lie he can recall* ). A much larger toyshop opened in what had been the Spar and that carried pretty much everything from Penny Racers through Star Wars and Action Force to, when they launched Transformers.

When we moved to Stirling in 1985 the Tesco there - full-sized but by no means "out of town" carried a lot of Transformers. We also had a very large Toymaster store which carried TFs, the Macross stuff which came in one year, and later on the Diaclone carded stuff. Boots and Woolworths also carried large numbers of Transformers (Boots was the source of both my Metroplex and my Skorpornok).

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

I too can remember buying several Acrion Masters from Beaties. I saw lots of TFs in there but I more remember buying Action Force and Star Wars in there

[Philip Ayres]

I do remember Beatties from BW times, especially getting lots of first series basics towards the end of 98

[Shockprowl]

Jul 29, 2014 9:45:10 GMT Llama God said:

...Oh Woolies, how I miss you...

I miss Woolies as well. I'm sure many of my childhood TFs came from them. But also, by the time of 'Classic Heroes' and Action Masters I was buying TFs by myself, and the Woolworths in Skipton had a good supply.

[Dezzeh]

I remember when the first wave of beast wars came out, I would attack woolies and Argos every week to get stuff to trade with some American guys, completed the whole transmetal and fuzor releases for about £60!

[Pinwig]

Seems I'm very close to you Llama, in Havant. I think Portsmouth was always the place to go before the rise of the internet, but I don't specifically remember buying any Transformers anywhere there. Except perhaps for the Argos before Havant had one.

My most vivid memories of TF buying back in the day were at the large newsagent in the middle of town, which eventually became a John Menzies. They always had some in, but mostly Havant could boast an independent toy shop called Connells which had three different locations in my lifetime - the last of which was a purpose built shop that had bikes downstairs and toys upstairs. These days it's a pet shop.

My first memory of that place was getting a die cast Star Destroyer, followed by a lot of Star Wars figures. By the time Transformers came the shop had moved to its second set up and that was where my pocket money mini bots came from. I was still buying there in the late 90s because my Beast Wars figures' backing cards have the price labels on (Deluxes £9.99). Think it was soon after that that Connells closed and my allegiance switched to the new Toys R Us in Portsmouth, and from then on anywhere I ended up at the time.

[Pinwig]

Jul 29, 2014 15:39:14 GMT Llama God said:

Oh, yes, Beatties! Portsmouth had one, too. It was where I met Darth Vader at the tender age of five and got my first lightsaber! Damn, I miss that place. That was also where I got Action Master Bumblebee and Shockwave. Good times.

Heh. I still have a signed copy of the first film novelisation from meeting Peter Mayhew at the Portsmouth Bookshop (now destroyed by the Wilkinsons in Arundel street).