Memory Lane: Part 3 - Toy Shops In The Steel City Part 2, & A First Contact With Lead Dollies

 Well, after a 15 minute ride on a 47 bus, we have arrived in Sheffield's Haymarket and two shops beckon which, directly led to me getting into wargaming, although there are also a couple more smaller places in the market itself, but they only have the odd diecast car and Timpo Swoppets copy, so we'll not waste time there today as my nan has to do the weekly meat and fish shop, and I reckon I can get her to spend some money on the family's golden-haired-first-born...

Actually, once I ntroduce a location, it may be best if I move across the mutliverse to offer snapshots of how it was but also look at where a place tied into my hobby. Feel free to ask questions in the comments if you wish. 

Sheffield market had an area known as The Gallery which was two stories up, a quadrangle of shops comnnected by aerial walkways, which also connected to Woolworths, British Home Stores and several other larger businesses, but the reason I liked it (Woolworths will play it's part later, so remember the back entrance if you will) was because here, you would find Hopkinsons Toys, a double frontage shop unit, literally crammed from floor to ceiling with toys of every kind, and when I say crammed, I mean crammed. a 24 inch walkway was about as good as it got - and you could still trip over a Hornby 'Victoria Station' if you didn't keep an eye open.

Now, my nan was also well in with Mr Hopkinson, so again, we got special treatment , when it came to my Hornby trains fetish, because Mr Hopkinson would sometimes find an old and rare piece - like the aforementioned station - and would stick it to one side and give my nan first dibs. He also had some interesting Action Man stuff, but primarily I was in there for the Mobile Action Command range of toys and Hornby and Lima products.

It was in Hopkinsons in 1981, that I first found Citadel and Ral Partha miniatures on a steel rack in baggies. And this was the store, which, took my virginity and launched me into a life of pleasant penury.

I was with my mum and nan, in the school holidays, having one of the rather excellent sausage butties (with ketchup of course) in Woolworth's cafe. I was bored, and asked if I could nip out the bacjk entrance onto The Gallery and down to Hopkinsons, and was accorded that permission.

I went in, looked around, said hello to Mr Hopkinson and his son and drifted around. As I did the circuit, returning to the front counter, itself buried under product, my eyes alighted on a wire rack with loads of little bags, each containing what looked like my old lead soldiers, only smaller. My interest was grasped like Vinnie Jones attaching himself to Gazza's knackers (I apologise for the football reference - It will not happen again, as I loathe such sports) and then I saw that they were dragons, knights, dwarves and goblins, plus loads of stuff I had no reference for. 

I was particularly taken by a pack containing two Dwarves, carring a slain comrade on a makeshift stretcher. It was 75p - not a cheap purchase when you got £3 a week spending money. So, it was back to mum and nan, application of some choice pleading and my famous 'Bambi eyes' and I got £1.

I raced back, grabbed the pack and with the 25p left from the £1, was able to also get a Ral Partha 'Galactic Grenadier, prone with sun gun'. I had no idea what a Ral Partha was, but I knew a spaceman when I saw one and I could imagine what the power of 'sun gun' would be. And what I didn't spend may get put back into a purse again, so best I spent it. It's funny, I remember this as clearly as my first fuck a few years later, so it must have been as good as sex

I didn't know at the time but there was a shelf of roleplaying stuff in Hopkinsons, that GW had obviously talked Mr Hopkinson into, but which he had no idea of, thus he put it somewhere dark  and sort of forgot about it. 

I took the models home, and 'painted' them using my enamels and brushes normally used on larger model kits, and I think I got the paint in approximately the vicinity of the models. And, as I type this, I recall that I made a small diorama (these were models, and so that was what you did if you were a 'serious' modeller wasn't it?)  of snow and bare trees, a bloody area where the slain Dwarf lay, and his colleagues grimly heading towards him to collect the body. I used a lot of red paint on that one. The Galactic Grenadier was painted in I think some spare metallic blue enamel I'd picked up cheap in Redgates a while before.

And then, I sort of forgot about finding out what a Ral Partha was, and what these models were for, for a few months as I began the 4 years of horror that was comprehensive school, until the first half-term in the Autumn.

More of that later...

The other toy shop of note in the Haymarket was actually the Cooperative department store, with it's cutting edge (and now listed) 60s building and staircase, and a respectable toy department which had a mass of Lego and Airfix.

It was here that I'd generally go with my Nan and grab a box of HO/OO toy soldiers (Redgates was better but that was a weekend job, requiring parents or my paternal grandparents when they visited from their new home in Preston, a region of Mordor (more of this horrific turn up for the books, anon) or some Lego, which, I was addicted to. I could and would build some amazing shit, and devoured the first book of plans in the late 70s, coinciding with the first space themed stuff.

Speaking of space, I was obsessed with space travel as a kid and it was from the Co-Op that I bought all my Airfix NASA kits. I was always loyal to the store I first purchased a particular product from, so while I bought my space kist here, I would buy my 1:32 Airfix figures from Redgates, Matchbox 1:76 kits in the Haymarket and back to Co-Op for HO/OO figures.

Beatties, on Pinstone Street changed that pattern, and it's there where we will head next time.

It was also in Co-Op that I first discovered the EAGLEs action figures and Starcruiser 1 model kist, both also Airfix product lines, but I was forced to also go to Redgates for the EAGLEs as it seemed both places sold differing parts of the line.

Starcruiser 1 was a Gerry Anderson line and remains to this day something which still makes my spine tingle when I think of it. They were snap together model kits which could also be played with:

EAGLEs were a series of action figures with no particular theme other than adventure (edit: They were sort of based on emergency response services so generally wholesome), and on your shelf, they could have been mistaken for Village People action figures, but, they had amazing vehicles, equipment and accessories, and despite having rubber clothing (see what I mean about Village People?) they were the best articulated action figures after Action Man who was three or 4 times the size.

Each figure came in it's own box and there was a corresponding adventure set for each:

 

I was an addict and had the lot, including the Capture Copter...

So, as you can see, I was heading towards a life in wargaming, with the influences found in Sheffield's toy emporia, but I was still missing a few pieces in the jigsaw.

Next time, we'll go further into to town, so let's lose my nan, and head for the bus stop and cacth the free, City Clipper (service 500) up to Pinstone Street and Beatties model shop...

TTFN