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Me
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Redgates was a toy shop, the biggest in Europe, as I remember, first on
The Moor, then on Furnival Gate. The Moor incarnation is a half forgotten
dream to me, and therefore the more magical. When they first moved around
the corner to Furnival Gate there was still a way through to the old store
(which then was Lonsdale Universal) and you could look through that opening
and see the ghosts of old toys, old shoppers and old kids wheedling their
grandparents. Redgates' logo was a red gate - an icon of childhood,
freedom and Action Men who would say "Enemy attack: dig in", so
evocative to Sheffielders of a certain age. I bought a record with
the Action Man song on: "The universal fighter who will carry the flag
of justice through; give him a rousing cheer, he's Action Man". I could
accompany this martial tune on my oboe.
We once set up an operating theatre in our front room to remove one of
my Action Men's scars. I think I was put up to this by a girl. Anyhow he
ended up looking really hideous and we had to cut his head off. According
to the Guardian Newspaper's Notes and Queries column, Action Man has a
scar because you can't patent the human form, but you can patent it with
a scar. I like to see our surgical attempt as an early protest again the
absolutism of intellectual property law.
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