A short walk to Abbey Road

Posted on August 20, 2023 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Greetings vintage mates. Having just moved house (and country), I’m exploring my new neighbourhood on my weekends off; you might say I’m a bit of a Day Tripper… making the most of things, because you know, Tomorrow Never Knows …

So, Yesterday, early Saturday morning, I woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head, and realised that I only lived a short walk away from the famous Abbey Road in London, where the Beatles recorded their 1969 album Abbey Road, and where they made their iconic walk across the zebra crossing for the photograph which appeared on the album cover.

The Beatles Abbey Road artwork. Image courtesy of UMG. Apple Records creative director Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh’s idea. The front cover is a photograph of the group on a zebra crossing, based on ideas that McCartney sketched, and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Info by Wikipedia.

A visit to Abbey Road has always been on my bucket list, so, please join me, let us Come Together, as your humble vintage editor takes you on a short walk to Abbey Road…

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Let’s Dance! My latest Sunday flea market 7 & 12 inch vinyl record haul

Posted on March 5, 2023 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Greetings vintage mates! I finally found some 12 inch vinyl albums worth buying at my local Sunday flea market. Regular readers will know I often come back from the Sunday market laden with 7 inch singles, but rarely do I come across good albums in good condition and for a good price. Today I found three albums – all in excellent condition, along with three singles and an EP.

Total cost: (with various rates according to today’s XE.com currency converter)

24,00 Euros (what I paid) / 25,55 USD / 21,22 GBP / 34.77 CAD / 3 470,46 JPY

Right, I’m off to dance a little Bowie, enjoy the pics!

First up, AC/DC Highway to Hell, 1979, German pressing. Super pleased to find this in the wild!

AC/DC Highway to Hell. 1979. Atlantic. German Pressing.

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Jesus Kitsch! Another Sunday flea-market 7 inch haul.

Posted on January 29, 2023 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Jesus Kitsch. Dalida. Sonopresse. 1972. France.

Jesus Kitsch. Why? Because Dalida says so. This post is dedicated to my good blogging buddy Jeanine AKA BeKitschig. Why? Because the 7 inch vinyl records I found at my latest Flea Market visit are all a bit kitschy. And kitsch is cool. And we all need some good music to kitsch out to!

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The mysterious case of the pink case, and a 40th Maiden!

Posted on June 19, 2022 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Greetings vintage mates!

What’s in the case??

It’s a rather elegant case…

Compact, a dreamy pink colour…

Somewhat vintage…

But what does it contain?

Let’s open it up to find out…

Holy dinky retro-cool record players in pink cases! It’s a Muse Vintage Collection vinyl record player, a Father’s Day gift from your humble TVTA editor to himself! Thanks me, you rock!

This compact yet sturdy machine is ideal to test out the second-hand vinyl goodies I sometimes find at flea markets. At home I have a sweet hi-fi seperates system that’s packed away due to no space in my teeny-tiny Hobbit apartment, and is a mission to set up. The Muse compact is a blessing for an instant blast.

First 45rpm I tested…

But then…

Along came this…

Yet another Father’s Day treat from myself to myself! Thanks again, me, you really do rock this year!

A 40th Maiden?

The Number of the Beast is 40 in 2022. Was it really that long ago an eleven year-old me was tear-arsing it to the local record shop to buy this amazing album upon its release? And how about my cut-off denim jacket which proudly displayed a full sew-on back patch of the famous Derek Riggs album art? I remember a kindly retired neighbour offered to sew that patch for me. Seeing this record again sure brings back some memories!

Thanks for looking. Happy Father’s Day to daddies everywhere 😎

Comic shop 7″ Vinyl Record Haul!

Posted on January 2, 2022 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Ray Parker Jr. Ghostbusters theme. 1984. 45 tours West Germany pressing.

Happy New Year vintage mates! May love, joy, light and creativity be yours in 2022!

I spent the Christmas and New Year holiday working, with just two days off in between… luckily one of those days involved going into the nearest city for a spot of shopping, where I stumbled across a cool second-hand comic book store which also sold a selection of vinyl records and CDs. I plan to go back again later and grab some of the albums and CDs they had, but for now here are ten singles I purchased.

Format & Era: 7 inch 45 RPM vinyl. One picture disc. 1970s / 1980s. French and West Germany pressings.

Total Cost (Xe converter): 10 EUR / 11.37 USD / 8.40 GBP / 14 CAD / 15.64 AUD

Disc condition: All ten discs minty mint with two having mild surface scratches.

Picture Sleeve Condition: Fair to excellent condition.

My Best Picks: Seeing a Star Wars record always makes me happy to add it to my May The Vinyl Be With You collection! I was also pleased to see the novelty Zorro disc with its still-intact cut-out mask. The Elton John picture disc was a nice find too – Empty Garden was Elton’s 1982 tribute song to John Lennon. (edit: just checked out Thompson Twins Doctor! Doctor! on YT and man I forgot what an absolute 80s classic that is, and kind of sums up that era of music, especially the synths.)

Meco. La Guerre Des Etoiles (Star Wars). 1977. 45 tours French pressing.

Zorro theme. 1985. 45 tours French pressing.

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Another Sunday Flea Market 7″ Vinyl Record Haul!

Posted on December 5, 2021 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five. The Message. 1982.

Greetings vintage mates. Just like in November I struck lucky again at the local monthly flea market, and picked up nine French pressings of vinyl singles released between the late 70s up to 1990.

Total cost: 6 EUR / 6.78 USD / 5.12 GBP.

Condition: All discs minty mint. Picture sleeves fair to excellent condition. Another winning morning I reckon 😎 I was particularly pleased to see the Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five single The Message, The Logical Song by Supertramp, and Fade to Grey by Visage.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five. The Message (instrumental). 1982.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five. The Message (lyrics). 1982.

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1980s music ads from Australia as seen in Federal Comics

Posted on November 28, 2021 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

TVTA is pleased to present an Australian-heavy feature of classic 1980s artists and bands. The adverts were featured in DC superhero comics such as Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Super Powers, and were published by The Federal Publishing Company Proprietary Limited which was granted permission by DC to reprint and publish their titles under the name Federal Comics to Australian readers. To see some examples of the actual comics go to TVTA’s post here

For now, let’s get into the groove…