ABOUT THE MAGAZINE

AAH is an independent monthly magazine, owned by Ben Morris, a life-long resident of the Horsham District. It is distributed to doors and pick-up points around the Horsham District.

EDITOR: Ben Morris editor@aahorsham.co.uk (01903) 892899

AAH, 2 Viney Close, Ashington, RH20 3PT

ADVERTISING: Ben Morris advertising@aahorsham.co.uk (01903) 892899

ADVERT RATES

Eighth Page: £55 + VAT (93mm x 63mm)

Quarter Page: £110 + VAT (93mm x 133mm)

Half Page: £185 + VAT (190mm x 133mm)

Full Page: £310 + VAT (A4 with 4mm bleed)

Double Page: £520 + VAT

SPECIAL OFFER: Every 6th advert is free of charge, like a coffee shop. We can also design adverts if you need help at no extra charge.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Alan Wright alanwrightphotography.co.uk

Email: alan.wright@alanwrightphotography.co.uk

07747 617387 www.aahorsham.co.uk

Alan works for AAH on a freelance basis and is available for all kinds of commercial work.

AAH is published online on the 1st of each month. Archive editions are online too.

DOOR-TO-DOOR DISTRIBUTION TEAM:

Jacquie Paterson, the Judd family, Hazel Garner, Jill Shuker, the Arliss family, the Bloomfield family, Eve Lovett, Lara Green, the Gavira family, Harvey Dold, Alessandro Cavallo, Jack Nicholls, Charlie Merchant, Harry Baker, the Walker family, Ben Raymond and Joseph Down (all Horsham), Katie Drysdale & William Fuglsig (Highwood), The Chapman family (Southwater), the Palmer family (BBH), Luke Butcher (Mannings Heath), Lynsey

Hare (Billingshurst), Derek Bradnum (Nuthurst)

Note: This month, we welcome William to the team. He will be delivering AAH to new homes in Highwood Village.

AAH SPRING-LOADED STANDS

Thousands of copies of AAH are also available in our stands at local businesses, clubs and shops.

Horsham: Swan Walk (outside M&S), Henry Adams (Carfax), Crates Local (Carfax) Pavilions in the Park, Horsham Rail Station, John Lewis, New House Farm, New Street Butchers, At Home Estate Agents (Carfax), The Holbrook Club, Gwyn’s Bakery (Bishopric) Village Stands: CoCos’ Salon & Beeson House (Southwater), Billingshurst Leisure Centre, Coco’s Salon (Billingshurst) Bluecoat Sports (Christ’s Hospital), Leonardslee Lakes & Gardens (Lower Beeding), Warnham Village Stores (Warnham), Slinfold Golf Club (Slinfold), Steyning Leisure Centre and Cobblestone Walk (Steyning), Spring Gardens Nursery (Washington), Chanctonbury Leisure Centre and Joanna’s Boutique Tearooms (Storrington), The Milk Churn (Rudgwick), Meadow Stores (Thakeham), Golden Plaice (Ashington), Rusper Village Stores (Rusper) Supermarkets: Tesco Extra in Broadbridge Heath, Sainsbury’s in Horsham. Note: New Stands in Horsham, Storrington, Billingshurst, Southwater and Rusper are now in place.

LEAFLETS

We deliver leaflets at a cost of £40 per 1,000. AAH is printed with FSC® certified paper. This means it has been sourced from sustainably managed forests and other controlled sources, and its site of origin is proven and traceable under FSC certification.

For the first time in years – a decade, at least – I found myself walking down Oxford Road in Horsham recently, on route to Blades barbers. St Leonard’s Infant School has long since gone, torn down for housing, but memories from my time there came flooding back. I vividly recall my first day, when I was taken under the wing of a second-year girl with blonde, curly hair. I clung to her as she marched around the playground chanting ‘We Want More Girls’, leading her army of infant suffragettes. Another memory is of my mum picking me up outside the gates and giving me two packets of Panini Transformers stickers. I remember tearing open a purple packet on that particular day, as it contained a shiny, foil sticker of Slag, a Dinobot based on a triceratops. Yeah, I agree, Slag is a strange name for a children’s toy...

I suspect the actual Transformers toys were a bit too rich for my parents, as don’t recall having any of the toys, although did own a couple of Gobots, an inferior yet affordable alternative. Having said that, I wasn’t hard done by, as I did have a Star Wars Millennium Falcon. eventually sold it to a friend for £5, although by then I’d painted Chewbacca silver.

In truth, I wasn’t much of a toy enthusiast. Fads passed me by and the only surviving relics of my childhood is a box of cars, some of which previously belonged to my uncles. Over the years, the box has picked up new additions, including ‘Days Gone’ models of vintage vans. My grandma gave them to me long ago and said they’d be worth a fortune one day.

Because of that, I didn’t try at school or bother with university, as I knew my pension was secured in boxed vans with Shredded Wheat and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes livery! Those vans are now played with by my three-year-old nephew, who finds head-on collisions involving vintage vans most amusing.

Despite my general disinterest in toys that defined the 80s and 90s, I was interested to see some in a pristine condition during a recent trip to London. Killing time before I joined my son on a virtual reality experience, we popped into Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue. I was surprised to see an original Optimus Prime (Transformers) and a Lion-O (Thundercats) figure displayed in a locked glass cabinet, as if they were priceless treasures in a museum. With their packaging still in mint condition, they commanded a small fortune. If the cabinets had ears, I’m sure they’d grow weary of people commenting on how they wish they’d looked after and saved some the toys they played with as children.

Of course though, it would be useless for us all to do that, as there are two key factors to an old toy’s value. One is rarity. If people buy toys solely to collect and preserve them, they will be too abundant to ever be of great value. The second is nostalgia. It is our memories of playing with toys that gives them future value.

If boys in the 70s didn’t engage in intergalactic battles with Star Wars toys, or if girls in the 80s didn’t brush the tails of their My Little Pony collection, they wouldn’t be worth anything now. Whilst we can all wonder what could have been (if only I’d bought a box of the first

Pokemon cards!) would any of us sacrifice the joy given by a cherished childhood toy to see it in a display case instead? A favourite game of my two sons was ‘Against the Wall’, a game they invented. They would push cars along the carpet, getting as close to the skirting board as possible without touching it, with the worst performing car eliminated each round. One of the boys would always play with toys from the movie, Cars, which he loved. He took his favourites everywhere and the idea of him leaving Lightning McQueen and Chick Hicks in their original packaging instead, as they might be worth £50 by the time he hits middle age, seems absurd!

If there’s anyone who might disagree with this sentiment, it could perhaps be the dealers I met at the Ashington Toy Fair, featured on page 51. And yet, that wasn’t the case. I went along to the fair with a teenage nephew who is a model railway enthusiast. One of the dealers was selling off part of his collection and was delighted to sell a Hornby suspension bridge to my nephew, as it was going to a good home and – more importantly – it was going to be played with. Another trader, who deals in highly collectable Hot Wheel Redlines, seemed almost disappointed that one little car, dating back to the late 1960s, had barely a blemish on it. As a consequence, it was worth hundreds of pounds, and yet it was with a hint of sadness that the dealer said: ‘It’s a pity it isn’t more scratched up. It still has its roof, as I don’t think it’s ever been played with.’

Valuable, yet unloved.

A toy’s life, unfulfilled!