Zodiac Toy Shops

[George 1978]

No, I actually meant that Zodiac Toys didn't have a website in the 1980s as it was before the internet was around!

[davidthomas27]

I thought that Zodiac Toys had long gone by the time that the internet arrived.

It had - the website I mentioned is this one: Zodiac Toys | The UK's favourite Toy retailer remembered (1967-1990)

[George 1978]

I thought that Zodiac Toys had long gone by the time that the internet arrived.

[davidthomas27]

Here's the advert - it used to be on the Zodiac Toys website but it seems to have disappeared.
Zodiac Toys 1980's Toy Shop TV Advert

[George 1978]

There was an Anglia TV ad break from 1985 on YouTube which had a Zodiac Toys advert on it. Fisher Price Jack-in-the-Box was being promoted on it.

[absinthe_boy]

I remember Zodiac Toys in Letchworth Garden City as a kid. Could always pop in there for a cheap, small, hopefully fun item. It was also great for little stocking fillers around Christmas time. I am pretty sure that's also where my parents bought my childhood board games. I also remember footballs from the super cheap to ones that certainly looked like the balls you'd see on telly. I had a super cheap one.

Looking at the tribute website, brings back so many memories. Stores like that just don't exist any more.

[70s kid]

'71 to '86 eh? That was indeed the Golden Age of 'imagination' toys, before the dark times, before the empire....sorry before video games and the awful cheap chinese rubbish 80's toys. You worked through the peak of Palitoy and Action Man, Star Wars figures which essentially started the. action figure genre. Matchbox, Dinky , Corgi die cast: licensed to TV and movie franchises like 007, Gerry Anderson. Denys fisher with $6 million dollar man, Spiro 2000 the 70' s reinvented Spirograph and the Cyborg figure line. Yep, you worked in that retail sector during the best time imo when toys were toys and boys were boys.

[70s kid]

Saw this on an ebay listing for a Cherilea jeep.

[Heather74]

[70s kid]

I remember playing SIMON for the first time in Zodiac Manchester Arndale. Circa 78.

[70s kid]

Toy and Hobby was on three floors, which didnt help i guess. Was always rather fond of Zodiac though.

[70s kid]

I worked for Toys R Us Stockport from sept 88 til sept 95. We saw Zodiac off within a year and Toy And Hobby. Sad really.

[George 1978]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

I remember Zodiac Toys too - the Nottingham branch was in the Broad Marsh Centre. I think that it is now a stationery or a clothes shop.

[filmguylee]

Ah, I remember Zodiac Toys! Was telling my girlfriend about it the other day: she originally comes from Wales, and doesn't remember it, but in my home town of Banbury, Oxfordshire we had a Zodiac Toys store - my parents took me there whenever I was going to be treated to something.

Still remember the logo too!

For anybody living in Banbury, it used to be in the top of the Castle Quay shopping center, opposite where Jessops and Gamestation used to be, at the market place entrance part.

Then years later it was a Beatties store, which then moved over next to where McDonald's in town is.

Warm memories...

[Bishman]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

I remember Zodiac and Trents as the two best shops in Swindon when I had to go to town with my parents every Saturday, those sort of shops are what we are missing nowadays!