I was the little boy who stopped on his way to school, to look in the Hobby Shop window, and was told off by teacher for being late. Through the misted up glass I could see lots of model aircraft and airfix models.

I used to go in the Hobby Shop every week with a friend of mine the late Roy Hayes who always seemed to have enough money to buy Dinky or Corgi cars, which were half a crown in old money, I remember him buying the new James Bond car that came out, it fired bullets and had an ejector seat that fired the plastic passenger up in the air. We also looked in Coventry's shop window, at all the model train sets, but we were more into war and motorcars.

Throughout the year I watched all my favourite toys disappear one by one, as other children in the town had birthdays, or Christmas came and went. Tears filled my eyes because I came from a very poor family that couldn't afford toys.

I always wanted an electric racing car set or a fort I'd seen with civil war soldiers and wagons and cannons and red Indians it cost ten shillings in old money, but we could never afford it. My dad gave me some old football coupons and a biro to play with, but it was never the same as having real toys