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What are you Watching: The Great British Toyshop Tour

For this instalmant of What Are You Watching we jump the pond and check out the new travel show ToyShop On Tour.

Toyshop on Tour comes to us from England, more specifically from Leicester, UK. Even more specifically from Leicester Vintage & Old Toy Shop. The show is hosted by/stars Joe and Gav who the world first met on their episode of A Toy Store Near You from the Nacelle Co. 

Note: Leicester is pronounced Les-ter.

A Toy Store Near You started as a way to help out toy stores during the pandemic. With that there was no way for the crews at the Nacelle Company to send people to the different stores an film. The answer was to have the shop owners record their own footage and interviews. It really shows through on the different episodes as we can see what toy stores have video experience. 

Joe, the owner of Leicester Vintage & Old Toy Shop recruited his pal and toy collector Gav and another friend Matt who has a proper career in video production to help produce his episode. Well, apparently the system worked, or maybe Joe and Gav got hooked on being in front of the camera talking about toys, because shortly after their episode of A Toy Store Near You debuted they announced a kickstarter to rase money for a trip to the United States when the pandemic was over. 

Ya see, it is not as easy to get vintage toys in the UK, so a trip to the US would let them find tons of toys and figures to fill the shop in the middle of England. All of the money raised would go towards travel costs and production of the show documenting the adventure. Of course they reached their goal, of course us at Toy Store Guide participated, and of course the pandemic has stuck around too long for them to come over. So, they put the US tour on hold and put their efforts towards a more local version… so now we have Toyshop on Tour.

Toyshop on Tour follows Joe, Gav, and Matt the cameraman as they travel all ove the United Kingdom, visiting over 30 different toyshops. Check out the trailer below…

Click Here to watch full episodes of 
Toyshop on Tour

Episodes will be released weekly and we are already a few episodes in so feel free to start bingeing. 

What’s more exciting is that Nick Bartley from Hunting Nostalgia and I got to talk to Joe and Gav about the show, the adventure of shooting the show, and what’s next. 

The crowd funding was raised specifically to visit the USA so that is definetly still on. First we get Toyshop on Tour, then another yet to be announced show coming out later this summer. The guys were mum on what specifically that show would entail. They must have known not to tell us because Nick is bad with keeping things hush hush.

 “Every shop was different from the last…” – Gav

We interviewed the guys right after episode 4 was relaesed. For that episode they visited 4 stores in one day. To illustrate how different each store is… That day they visited a newer store that was tiny and specialized in LEGOs and another store that the owner opened in dedication to his brother. 

The show is really about the toy shop owners, their love of the toys, what made them open a shop and what keeps them doing it. It is a real cast of characters in every episode. I get the same feeling everytime I visit a store or go to a toy show, often the people you meet are the real show. 

Here are some highlights from our talk with Joe and Gav…

Joe says that “Toys should always be FUN.” That outlook always comes though the screen when watching Toyshop on Tour. But Joe also believes that shop owners take on alot of responsibility. They buy toys from one person and sell to another. Those toys come with memories and people often share those memories. Joe feels like he becomes the custodian of those memories, transferring them from one person to the next. People might sells their toys but they never forget the stories. 

The guys are over excited about the US tour, and talking to Nick and other Americans only hypes them up even more. I hope we can live up to that hype when they get here. I’m sure they will find a boatload of toys driving across the country, they will need a boat to get it all home.

For us the best part of Toyshop on Tour is that they have done the leg work for us at Toy Store Guide. Thanks to the guys over in Leicester we will be able to bring you a bunch more stores in the UK. 

Some of the places they visit were already profiled on the international section, like Vintage Toy Monster and Toy Planet. We will be reaching out to every store they visit in hopes to share them.

We’re excited to watch the rest of Toyshop on Tour, and even more excited to see the next show and for Joe, Gav, and Matt to visit America. For now though one thing is for sure, between Toyshop on Tour and Toy Store Guide you should be all set to plan your next trip to England!

Be sure to subscribe to the Leicester Vintage & Old Toy Shop YouTube page. So you dont miss an episode. “Just click stuff” as Joe says.

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Written By: Dave at ToyStoreGuide

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