Zodiac Toy Shops

[sixtyten]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

That ad is from Warlord Comic 1979

[sf1378]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

Zixsby, can you post any Action Man or Tommy Gunn pics? Thanks!

[rossobantam]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

from 2000AD comic, 1987 IIRC

[ziksby]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

Cracking ad .... must have been late '87 as there are 3 stores Colchester, Leeds and Southend listed at the bottom of the page which were not open when I left the company in July of that year.

[Richard1978]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

I remember going in the Stockport one a few times, it closed in the late 1980s & the shop has changed a few times since, I can remember it being a Sue Ryder shop & it's now a salon.

I can't recall seem many other Zodiacs so I was never sure if they were a chain or not.

I did used to think that I could see a Zodiac frontage in the opening titles of Only Fools & Horses, or at least a shop with the same coloured facia as the Stockport one.

Did Zodiac make their own toys at one stage?
My sister once bought a naughts & crosses game from a jumble sale which was branded Zodiac.

[ziksby]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

Stockport was a busy shop despite being quite small. We had a few celebrity events there. I remember Charlie Drake and Ann Ashton being there in 1980 and Les Dawson in 1983.
We had a few shops in the Manchester area, Salford, Stretford, Manchester Arndale, Altrincham as well as Stockport.

I never noticed Zodiac in the Fools & Horses opening scenes, but you could be right as we had a branch in Peckham High Street.

I think elsewhere on this thread I may have posted some photos of Zodiac shop displays which may show some Zodiac items. We had 85 branches by the mid 80s and our buyer was sourcing hundreds of items in the Far East and Europe that could be branded Zodiac.

For a full picture please have a look at my website at www.freewebs.com/zodiatoys
If you do please sign the customer guestbook. Thanks

[Richard1978]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

Thanks for the link to that site.

There seemed to

I had another look at the Only Fools & Horses titles & the shop in question is in the 3rd photo of the montage, next to a Singer shop. The name isn't clear enough to read but the colours (red & yellow writing on a blue background) was similar to the ones used on the Stockport shop.

My memory might be blurred by 20 odd years.

[sixtyten]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

Zodiac Horse Racing Game

[vanhelsing]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

I remember Zodiac Toys in Manchester. Best shop in the Arndale to a kid!!! I seem to remember three hours of getting dragged round the dull grown-up shops (while my mam or Grandma shopped for tights, hoover bags, or hot water bottle ... snore!!!) were eventually rewarded with a mooch round Zodiac Toys.

Quite a small shop, but I always came away with with a box of Airfix 'little' soldiers.

And just outside this toy shop, in the earlier days of Manchester's Arndale Centre, were a large wooden rhino and camel. They were for kids to play on, and had hollowed out 'secret' stomachs to slither through. Hurrah! I miss them! hehe.

They're no longer there and were gone before the bomb went off. That part's all changed now and it's all desigenr laberl, card, mobile phone asnd an Apple shop where Marsden way was. The market's still there.

[Richard1978]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

I remember those wooden animals, the Arndale seemed to be really dark inside when I was young for some reason.

There was a big redevelopment a few years ago & the market was changed about.

The cafe near the bus station looked like it hadn't been done up since the 1980s, until the above work was done & it was removed.

[Chameleon Factor]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

I used to love Zodiac Toys in Bexleyheath.

I remember one day going to the Transformers section and seeing Swoop, the Pteradactyl and rarest of all Dinobots (I don't think he was ever released in the UK). I ran to my Mum and Dad begging for the money to buy him as I didn't have enough pocket money. They came over to see it, and picking it up to show them, I realised it was boring old Sludge in Swoop's box.

Ouch.

[ops2676]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

They're no longer there and were gone before the bomb went off. That part's all changed now and it's all desigenr laberl, card, mobile phone asnd an Apple shop where Marsden way was. The market's still there.

Had my first wander around the Manchester Arndale Centre today in a good number of years and pretty much had a nostalgia filled couple of hours of where shops like Zodiac, C&A, Littlewoods, Argos (the one downstairs near the bus station), Mothercare etc used to be...... *sigh*

[doublecee]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

WOW. Came across this thread via a very obscure ebay item acredited to Zodiac....

My local store was Croydon. I loved that store. Every saturday, I was in there. Action Man, Star Wars...

Clearly Zodiacs influence still has its hold on me as I strive to get my Action man animated project of the ground...

www.project-palitoy.com

Looking forward to browsing the Zodiac site to see if I can find any pics of the Whitgift store.... Ahhhh, the memories.

[sixtyten]

Re: Zodiac Toy Shops

Croydon was my local store too, deffo some Whitgift pics on that site ::
Shame none of the old Model Sports shops though

[vanhelsing]

I remember those wooden animals, the Arndale seemed to be really dark inside when I was young for some reason.

There was a big redevelopment a few years ago & the market was changed about.

The cafe near the bus station looked like it hadn't been done up since the 1980s, until the above work was done & it was removed.

I heard the '96 bomb go off (why very little mention in the media unless it involves London?) and could see the smoke plume from my house.

Know how you feel but you've got to move on.
McDolnads in Market Street had a perfectly good branch until the idiots at head ofice closed it down.
There's a branch in the Arndale food court along with a Southern Eleven (a bit expensive but you should see what they serve), a KFC, SUBWAY, CHINESE PLACE, Pizza Hut, Harry Ramsdens