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Which shop was better for Airfix models?


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Redgates was much cheaper than Beatties that is for certain. But I mostly bought Airfix kits from Barnards at Manor Top. I seem to recall than many local toy shops had a good range of Airfix kits. So you didn't need to spend bus fair to go to town for them. What the local shops didn't have were the more expensive models, such as model railways and Britains toy figures. Both of those shops also stocked the continental model kits like Revell and Frog. I remember getting a kit of Mr Spock fighting a giant snake from one of those. Can't remember who made the kit, but it wasn't something you got from a local toy shop. 

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G.E.M. Stores on Attercliffe Common in the sixties, Marcway Models on Attercliffe Road in the seventies.

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when I started building them it was Hunters Cycles on the Pavement at Park hill flats. Redgates was another.

There was also Wilson Gumppets in Fitzallan Square. I can remember when small my dad took me in another model shop up past the Cathedral, can't recall it's name. Beatties was good, and the shop near Castle Market too.

 

Marcways [worked there part time in the 70's] is still there and thriving

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I bought my first Airfix kit from Woolies back in the early 1950s. Seem to think it was the Golden Hind. It came in a plastic bag ….and then you had to find a shop which sold polystyrene cement since fish glue didn’t work very well,!

 

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On 26/04/2018 at 00:34, History dude said:

Redgates was much cheaper than Beatties that is for certain. But I mostly bought Airfix kits from Barnards at Manor Top. I seem to recall than many local toy shops had a good range of Airfix kits. So you didn't need to spend bus fair to go to town for them. What the local shops didn't have were the more expensive models, such as model railways and Britains toy figures. Both of those shops also stocked the continental model kits like Revell and Frog. I remember getting a kit of Mr Spock fighting a giant snake from one of those. Can't remember who made the kit, but it wasn't something you got from a local toy shop. 

Barnards on the Manor for me . King of shops 

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As I recall ,Frog was a British kit manufacturer which started out wIth near scale ,ready to fly ,rubber band powered ,balsa model aircraft. Kenyons at Firth Park stocked them….my first plastic  Frog kit being that of a Miles Master.

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I used to go to that shop on Church Street to get bit for slot cars, they sold Riko ones as well as railway stuff and Airfix. I think it was called 'Gordons' but could be wrong.

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I seem to think I knew it as Joel’s….. they had a basement outlet and as you went down the staircase ,at head height ,was a O gauge model railway.

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On 25/04/2018 at 20:05, Sheffield History said:

Redgates.jpg

Beatties Sheffield.jpg


Which shop was better for buying your Airfix models?

Redgates or Beatties?

With due  respect to the more specialised and  yes, equally great, Redgates and Wilson Gumpert.....Woolies was without a doubt the best for Airfix in 50s/60s......they seemed to have all the range and all the new releases.....couldn’t wait to run in with me half a crown every Sat! (Although non-specialist, the store also had a very respectable general toy department with great things  for both sexes though as a lad, I particularly recall, Lone Star, Crescent, Mettoy etc....simply great  memories of more innocent, care -free times.

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On 28/12/2021 at 16:43, Lemmy117 said:

I used to go to that shop on Church Street to get bit for slot cars, they sold Riko ones as well as railway stuff and Airfix. I think it was called 'Gordons' but could be wrong.

No...you were almost there....‘twas Gordon and Joel ( in fact two of you nearly got it right ). Before “I became too old “ (!) my favourite modelling haunt ...for a quirky, small place they stocked  many lines from the plain Britains/ Herald figures to ( then) sophisticated Wenmac control- line and other free-flying ( and sailing ) models.
Loved descending the small, dodgy staircase to the delights of the basement.
Trains, balsa wood, the little ‘jet engines’ (who’s makers  name I now forget).
Paradise at the top of Church Street.....when I last saw - estimated, the site it’s presence completely erased by a  boring redbrick office block  of someone or other. Sad. (Like the once famous  ‘ Pram Shop’ opposite  side of the street and (now just below TKMaxx entrance). Also the small but stately premises of Munks + Varley, Civil  and Military  tailors  whos bespoke garments would literally last a lifetime...in such ironic proximity and contrast  to an empire specialising in ‘in at the moment’/ chuck away next month’, fashion items. How times have changed.

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IF you are thinking of the small  solid fuel jet engines they were called 'Jetex'. Lost count of the number of times I burnt my fingers on them. Had them on some balsa planes and boats, which occasionally caught fire, great fun. Of course they wouldn't be allowed today!!

Nigel L

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I would have thought Hobbies on St Paul’s Parade might have been in with a shout, I know they were mainly into balsa wood kit but I seem to remember they had a good stock of plastic models, Airfix, Revill etc.

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My personal choices would be ;

Woolies as  the place for Airfix 

Redgates for stuff for my Triang railway

Westons on Change Alley or Wilson Gumperts for Dinkies and model soldiers 

Small shout out for Kenyons on Bellhouse Rd . A treat to visit on a trip to my Grandmas at Firth Park.

Even just standing and staring through the window was a joy

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On 13/07/2022 at 16:39, Lemmy117 said:

IF you are thinking of the small  solid fuel jet engines they were called 'Jetex'. Lost count of the number of times I burnt my fingers on them. Had them on some balsa planes and boats, which occasionally caught fire, great fun. Of course they wouldn't be allowed today!!

Yes, those were they, I recall now, well done!
Well, smarting fingers or not, they were only like many items we could, even legitimately,  acquire and amuse ourselves with not so many years ago...yes with attendant hospital visits .....and fortunately, fairly rarely, one- way trips to the mortuary for  those who really diced with death.... but in the main, if ‘we lived to play another day’,such experiences taught us respect of one sort or another and I very much doubt that the child’s world’s so much of a safer place for all the nannyism of the intervening years.

( Thanks for takin that negative earworm away from me....Jetex...Jetex...Jetex!)

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I built a beautiful Keil Kraft kit of a Jet Provost..bought from Hobbies ….suitably fitted with a Jetex …but , sadly, with insufficient asbestos paper for the “ jet” ….Its  one and only flight on the “Brook” ended in a spectacular flame and smoke fashion……Almost as good as the guns we made out of conduit pipe using a Penny banger and a nail.
 

So much for Elf n Safety. Ah! Ah,!😊

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