keep the WordPress Classic Editor | The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Greetings vintage mates.

It is with a degree of sadness yet a positivity for the future of my blogging endeavours that I am announcing the retirement of The Vintage Toy Advertiser. At the least it will be a hiatus or very long holiday.

Since 2011 my aim for the site was to create an online resource and archive showcasing vintage advertising and catalogue images spanning the subject of toys, movies, comics, video games, food & drink and much more!

Ten years on – I think I’ve largely done as much as I can and want to do for the time being regarding this. The decision has been made easier by my dissatisfaction with the WordPress drive of switching to blocks. As a paying customer I am no longer willing to part with money for a service which does not meet the needs of TVTA.

My archive (4.5K advert and catalogue images + hundreds of toy images from my own collection + hundreds of comic book and magazine covers) was always meant to be added to and enhanced. Having to edit with blocks is unwieldy and time-consuming to maintain the good standards of my work, and it seems there are far too many hoops to have to jump through just to publish even a simple post these days… when blogging should be easy, quick, and fit for everyone’s purpose?

Another issue is that I will soon reach my current plan limit for image space, requiring me to upgrade to the next and more expensive plan with additional features I do not need. Maybe WP could consider offering one-off extra image space packages for blogs which are picture heavy? I doubt that. As much as I’ve always loved WP, they never seem to listen.

So, onto the future…

I will be launching a new site soon. Likely on WP still, but without the costs I’ve been incurring. The site will be simple. Focussed on writing, art projects, and with the occasional feature on vintage books and comics.

As such, The Vintage Toy Advertiser will no longer be updated, and will be left in the capable paws of TVTA office cat extraordinaire Wooof to curate while he idly munches his way through cat biscuits and re-watches all those VHS films we never returned to Blockbusters.

As for my dear vintage mates here… I intend to very much keep in touch, and I would like to give a HUGE, huge, huge, massive, storming, magnificent, mammoth, mega-big thanks to everyone who has been a part of TVTA over these past ten years. The interaction, inspiration, encouragement, fun and laughs, likes, comments, reblogs, shares and links has quite simply made my days 😊

It’s April, and April is my big TVTA blog anniversary – 10 years old this month! And now a retirement to add to it. Sometimes these things work this way.

I’ll leave you with a quick gallery of a few of my favourite archived images over the years (too many to choose from!!), and I’ll be sure to post the link soon for my new site once it’s up and running.

Adios you lovelies, see you on the other side! 😎

Ford, editor TVTA