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What was your favourite toy shop as a kid?

  • 21-06-2011 7:59pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,009 ✭✭✭✭


    Graces in Dunlaoghaire near where Marcellas chipper is now was mine, they had everything from Matchbox cars to 00 Gauge train sets. :)

    I guess it would have been the early 70's when they closed.


Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,595 ✭✭✭bonerm


    A place call "Clarkes" in Swords. Don't know if it is still there. It was basically a newsagents with a toy section in the back. I think it was part of the Toymasaters group.

    Also there was an old-style newsagents near where I lived called "Kellys" that sold Matchbox cars. I used to get a lot of stuff in there when I was a nipper.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,009 ✭✭✭✭Run_to_da_hills


    bonerm wrote: »
    A place call "Clarkes" in Swords. Don't know if it is still there. It was basically a newsagents with a toy section in the back. I think it was part of the Toymasaters group.

    Also there was an old-style newsagents near where I lived called "Kellys" that sold Matchbox cars. I used to get a lot of stuff in there when I was a nipper.

    My aunt had a newsagent in Abbeyfeale Co Limerick, she also stocked a number of matchbox cars, we use to take them out of the boxes and play with them, she didn't like us doing this and put them on a higher shelf. :mad:


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,360 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    "The Early Learning Centre," loved playing with the train set they had out.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 644 ✭✭✭filthymcnasty


    Not quite a toy shop but can anyone recall the toy catalogues that used to come through the door at xmas time in the 80's/early 90's and i think were free in newsagents-- 'toymaster' or something.
    Nearest thing to porn in my pre-pubescent years.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,577 ✭✭✭lord lucan


    Barratts(the one in the other thread) on Mary Street would've been mine. There were no big toy stores like Smyths when i was a kid so Barratts was toy nirvana.

    Honourable mention to Lego World every xmas in Arnotts.:)


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 392 ✭✭Fionne


    As I grew up in a rural area, the nearest to a toy shop was the village drapery, which had a small selection of toys that were displayed at ground (child) level in glass cabinets, - so tantalising! At Christmas we went to Noonans shop in Charleville, which was like toy heaven to us (deprived) country kids.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,701 ✭✭✭Sids Not


    Terry's in Lower Georges St .....Bamba in Capel St....


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,993 ✭✭✭Soups123


    Argos, loved going through the catelog for hours, would always grab one when going by in town even if it wasnt the new one!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,186 ✭✭✭Niles


    Not quite a toy shop but can anyone recall the toy catalogues that used to come through the door at xmas time in the 80's/early 90's and i think were free in newsagents-- 'toymaster' or something.
    Nearest thing to porn in my pre-pubescent years.

    I don't know if they still do them but they certainly persisted in sending them out into the later 90s at least, sometimes there were even supplements. I think there was also a summer version that showed things like slides, swings, etc. My mother used to have hide them before we got home from school!

    I didn't get brought to many toyshops when I was younger (lived in the middle of nowhere) but seem to remember Banbas, Paddy Barretts in Dublin and a place called Fitzmaurices in Waterford as offering a greater range than the local ones down the country.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 71,130 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Banba Toymaster when the upstairs was practically all Lego and they did everything down to the specialist sets.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 912 ✭✭✭chakotha


    Eason's in cork. Lego and Airfixes galore.

    And Binchy's in Clonmel.

    And Hanley's in Fermoy.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,140 ✭✭✭gipi


    Due to a recurring "dislocating arm" injury to my Crolly doll as a chisler, the "shop" I seemed to spend most of my childhood in was the Doll's Hospital on Mary St (I think?) in Dublin!!

    Roches Stores and Woolworths toy departments get honourable mentions!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 518 ✭✭✭Ironman76


    Has to be Paddy Barrets in Henry Street. I remember there was a wrestling craze in our school and word got out that Barrets had all the figures, books etc and I begged my mother to take me in. It was months after wrestling was first shown on Sky Channel so he was obviously a smart guy capitalising on the latest craze.

    I still think the smaller toy shops back in the day had far more charm than the big boys today ie Smyths etc.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 656 ✭✭✭Bearhunter


    Bridge's of Wexford was a magical place for a child. AND in Enniscorthy there were a couple of goodies where the toys were hidden away in a back room, Charlie Cullen's and PJ Murphy's.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,959 ✭✭✭gugleguy


    Hobby Horse Rathfarnham Shopping Centre which is now EBS funnily enough the place where I take out my wages. Hobby Horse was like Marks Models except Hobby Horse catered for all ages, boys and girls, young and old, rich and poor, jolly or cranky.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,492 ✭✭✭Thomas828


    Leisureworld in Queen Street in Belfast. It was the only store in Belfast exclusively for toys (and arts and crafts). And for me, it was the best place in what was a seriously troubled city.

    The toy department in Anderson & McAuley's in Donegall Place was another favourite haunt of mine, well into my teenage years, as was the toy department in the Co-Op in York Street.

    This was in the 1980s. All three of those stores are gone and nothing of any worth has replaced them.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,252 ✭✭✭✭stovelid


    Hector Grays on Henry Street and Eason on O Connell Street. Both Dublin.

    Both stocked the Palitoy Star Wars toys when I was a kid and as such were a mecca.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,784 ✭✭✭Superbus


    Nimble Fingers in Stillorgan, their selection of Lego regularly hit the spot.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,091 ✭✭✭furiousox


    Schwers in Drogheda anyone?
    Dickensian! :D

    CPL 593H



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,797 ✭✭✭ChopShop


    Was a Toymaster very local to me when i was growing up in Swords.

    Not the biggest, or most well stocked, but it usually had most of what i was looking for..and i had a LOT of toys as a kid.

    Like just about every Toymaster, it's long gone at this stage. Just an ordinary newsagents now, i think.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,766 ✭✭✭squeakyduck


    stovelid wrote: »
    Hector Grays on Henry Street and Eason on O Connell Street. Both Dublin.
    .

    My dad still fondly remembers Hector Greys every time he's in Dublin. My older brothers and sisters used to always get a present from Mister Grey when dad came home! :D

    Toymaster was big when I was small (the catalogue used to always come out just before Christmas and all us kids would have them in school with us picking out our Christmas presesnts!)

    Ken Blacks and Smyths toys were kind of new when I was small :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,797 ✭✭✭ChopShop


    Toymaster was big when I was small (the catalogue used to always come out just before Christmas and all us kids would have them in school with us picking out our Christmas presesnts!)

    Ken Blacks and Smyths toys were kind of new when I was small :)

    I've lost count of the amount of time i wasted as a kid gawking at product catalogues, toy store or included with a toy.

    The expansion of Smyths coincided with department stores rolling back their toy depts, and Toymaster becoming less of a presence in this country.

    On the one hand, you now have massive toy stores dotted around the place.
    On the other hand, if one of the volume retailers doesn't order something...good luck finding it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 418 ✭✭careca11


    Graces in Dunlaoghaire near where Marcellas chipper is now was mine, they had everything from Matchbox cars to 00 Gauge train sets. :)

    I guess it would have been the early 70's when they closed.


    Mcknights Toymaster in Newry ,a Lego Mecca , also was a great store for Subbuteo products ...................ahhhh the memories


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,959 ✭✭✭gugleguy


    wernstrom! wrote: »
    I've lost count of the amount of time i wasted as a kid gawking at product catalogues, toy store or included with a toy.

    The expansion of Smyths coincided with department stores rolling back their toy depts, and Toymaster becoming less of a presence in this country.

    On the one hand, you now have massive toy stores dotted around the place.
    On the other hand, if one of the volume retailers doesn't order something...good luck finding it.


    The modern toystore in Ireland has the same attitude as the Video game/ Games console retailers. Order in the well known titles in volume only and order in some bits here and some bits there of anything else bearing in mind here that Video game retailers keep lists of the top 10 Games due out for PS3/Wii/Xbox/PC.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,239 ✭✭✭✭WindSock


    Probably Pride and Joy in Donaghmede was the closest to me and the only one I remember. I loved Switzers at Christmas though.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,644 ✭✭✭cml387


    Woolworths for Airfix.Our own in Mullingar was too small to have much except at Christmas,but a visit to Dublin was wonderland.There was one in Grafton St.,and I think in Henry St.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 68,401 Mod ✭✭✭✭Grid.


    A few around Dun Laoghaire.....there was Let's Pretend at the top of the shopping centre and Quinnsworth toy section in the basement , both were great for action figures and accessories. Used to buy Airfix in a shop called Dixons which was where Readers bookshop is now, Shaws would also have a great Christmas shop where many a time I would have to be coaxed from.:D

    Bought my first Monchichi in a shop called Froggats or Froggies(I think it was) in Glasthule.... not sure what year it was though!!:o Anyone remember that place??


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,892 ✭✭✭bizmark


    Noddys in the queens old castle cork - used to be a few pillars in there that hide you from the cashier so you could um reappropriate some toys....


    ...Dont judge was the early 90s i was lucky i had shoes


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,346 ✭✭✭borderlinemeath


    Hector Greys and then Apollo1 (the prototype for pound shops/euro shops!). They were the places I used to spend my pocket money as a kid, and if I had any left over it was into Easons for fancy paper and pretty stationary.

    For Christmas it had to be downstairs in Roches Stores and over to Arnotts. That's where you picked out the big presents Santy was going to bring. :D


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 15,515 ✭✭✭✭admiralofthefleet


    the banba on talbot street beside lenehans hardware


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