The Adventure of the Toy Shop
In which I lament the loss of a childhood haunt...
I was sad to learn recently that the Toy shop, imaginatively named 'Toys', in my home town is closing down. The shop opened in the same year I was born so in my eyes it's always been there. After thirty years of trading the owners are retiring but I will mourn the loss of that shop.
There are a handful of places that meant so much to me in childhood and Toys was one of them. Whilst you could go to Toys R Us for a much wider selection and probably better prices, Toys felt much quieter and calmer. It felt old-fashioned in the best of ways, it was comforting in the same way a grandparent is. As long as I can remember it's always looked exactly the same with the same signs on the outside and exactly the same layout inside.
My earliest memory of the shop was popping in every Saturday morning when I was pretty young. I'd take a look at the various toys on the shelves as I made my way around the shop but my goal was always the spinning rack which housed the Thomas the Tank Engine trains. Each week I was allowed to purchase one and I'd always check out the list on the back of the packet to know which one I needed next. I regularly got to the point where I owned all the engines and then I'd have an agonising wait for the next batch to be released. Every week I'd be there to check and would sometimes have to take the consolation prize of a Hot Wheels car but that was just not the same.
Somewhere in my parent's home exist the purple plastic box of Thomas the Tank Engine trains. They are not in what you would describe as 'mint condition' as I'd play with them loads, moving them along with great force so that the wheels would often end up wonky and crashing them into each other, chipping off bits of paint work as I did so.
Eventually I grew out of Thomas the Tank Engine but the toy shop was still an exciting place to go. Despite feeling old-fashioned they were always completely on top of the latest trends. When squishy aliens that resided in a plastic eggs were inexplicably the must-have toy, it was Toys I bought by alien from. When yo-yos that lit up were the best toy ever, it was off to Toys. When glorified spinning tops known as Beyblade were the must-have thing, it was Toys I went to. Every few months something new was the talk of the playground and I'd always feel like the last kid to have one but eventually the toy shop would supply me with what I needed.
There would be times when I'd been given money for a birthday or Christmas or perhaps just saved up a few weeks' pocket money. It would feel like it was burning a hole in my pocket and sooner or later I'd demand to go to the toy shop because I just had to spend it. I'd usually find something to spend my money on, often a Lego set. Sometimes I'd be with my parents when they had to buy a present for someone else's child (they'd invariably buy a boardgame) and the mission of these extra trips was to try and find a small toy that I could convince my parents to buy- "you might as well, it's only 50p". Often this would be a bouncy ball- I spent a lot of my childhood throwing around these rubber balls and then being heartbroken when they got lost (and devastated on one particular occasion when one got run over).
When I was about eleven my grandmother had made a rare trip down from Birmingham and had promised she would buy me something. I didn't know what I wanted but I knew where I'd find it so I quickly dragged her to Toys and went to find something. In the end I ended up buying a couple of Harry Potter action figures and this electronic dualling game. You'd attach the figures to the game by their feet and by some electronic magic the game would know which figure it was. Then two characters would dual and a little bit of plastic with lights on would swing back and forth between them giving a very cheap spell effect. For the next few months my main purchase was more figures and have them dual, even if it made no sense like Harry Potter in school uniform vs Harry Potter in quidditch uniform.
Eventually I grew out of toys I'd be more likely to go to Woolworths to buy a CD instead (that's a sentence that is ridiculously dated now!). But then the time came when I knew people with kids and had to buy presents for them and I knew just the place to go. Occasionally I'd need to buy something to use in a lesson and knew I could buy it there. Even as an adult the magic of the place never left. You'd open the door and the bell would give it's familiar jingle. Just inside the door would be the action figures of whatever was on trend at the time. You'd walk up the aisle, going past the latest Lego sets on your left. At the far end of the store was the outdoor stuff and you'd then go back down the other aisle, past the two spinning racks of Thomas the Tank Engine trains and Hot Wheels cars with loads of board games shelved on your right. Near the till were all the really cheap toys, the sort of thing you'd fill a party bag with. There stood behind the till would be the same man who was always there, who'd serve you with kindness and a smile.
To know that this shop with some many memories will no longer be there is heart-breaking, even if I can't really articulate why that is. It was just a lovely place and was consistently lovely no matter how old I was. The world needs more places that make you feel like Toys did.
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