Well, with over 26,000 hits on this blog last month, I suppose I better say a big thank you, and get cracking on September... Saturdays were always fun, once I hit my 14th year as I was given a key to my parent's home and was allowed into town on my own, without question. Of course, normally I would be with Alan  and latterly Alan & Craig 'Stav' Stainrod - more on this individual at a future time. I would sometimes bump into my parents in the city centre as they did their shopping, but generally I was in a world of my own, exploring what was a seriously interesting underbelly of what was, back then a great city.   In the very early 80s, we still had proper youth tribes. Whilst there was not the gang violence we see today, it was 'exhilarating' just getting around town as I have mentioned in previous posts in this series. Alan and I were finding our feet as 'Rockers' or as many of our school colleagues would have it 'Fuckin' Hippies'. Alan...

 So, we've seem so far, that I had a lot pf places to get my 'fix' of toys and models, and as you will recall from the first instalment, it was one of these lifelong (well I was only 12 going on 13  after all) haunts which gave forth my first whiff of wargaming models, and I was now buying the odd pack of figures (not blisters, but the baggies used by Citadel for trade stockists) and using my model paints - enamels back then - to give them rudimentary paint jobs. I was going into Beatties and Redgates and looking at the boxed games including War Of The Ring, D&D and Sarforce: Alpha Centauri (a scenario from which had of course, given the name to the Sheffield synthpop pioneers 'The Human League') but I could not make that link between the miniatures and these strange new products - and it was frankly a little fucking frustrating. I was looking everywhere, even in Sheffields 'Underground' book store 'Exit Books' just down from West Bar... I knew i...

 And so, we head towards the end of the primer on the toy stores which directly and indirectly led to my entry into gaming, in all it's forms. Leaving Redgates, we head now to the Moorfoot, the location of the current Games Workshop, but we are disregarding the Johnny-Come-Lately because it's not my Games Workshop, neither is it where we are heading. We are instead heading to Marcway Models, a compact two floor model shop where many good things can be found.  Now, Marcway was very much at the extremes of the Hides zone of control, but it had some great stuff. I still preferred Beatties for most of my stuff but it would be Marcways where I would find, in the mid-80s a stash of Macross kits, during... Well, let me jump the Shark a little and tell you what the situation was with regards to Macross kits.   The Macross range of anime themed giant robot kits were new in the mid 80s, and Darren Ashmore (now a tenured Pofessor of Giant Robots and Puppets at ICLA in Japan, no less...

  We probably all know of the London toy store, Hamleys, but those in Sheffield will wax lyrical about Redgates. Let me assure you, that when Hamleys opened in Sheffield, killing Redgates, it was a case of Southern bullshine, obscuring solid Northern gold.  Any child who remembers Redgates will tell yanyone who cares to listen, how truly brilliant that store was. Four floors of quality toys, usually the entire range of any product line, and many ranges which would not become fashionable for 2 decades. They were ahead of the curve in so many ways. And so, having been wowed by Beatties and these newfangled fan tasy games in the glass cabinats in the RC car section, lets walk 500 yards down the road and perhaps back in time 4 years or so. Redgates was the best prof of life test a child could ask for. If your pulse didn't quicken as you passed the large glass windows of this department store dedicated to the edification of children, you were dead. It was that simple. Now,  Re...