ABOUT
VINTAGE TOY RIOT
What would the vintage toy show we’d actually want to attend look like?
That question is where Vintage Toy Riot started.
Vintage Toy Riot started with a simple idea.
We wanted to create the UK’s first vintage-only toy show with a clear pre-2000 rule, a strong identity and a focus on bringing together the best vintage toy sellers in the country.
We love old toys, but we also felt there was room for something with a stronger identity — a show built specifically around vintage toys, great dealers, a great venue and a day that feels like more than simply walking around another hall.
So rather than wait for somebody else to make it, we decided to build it ourselves.
WHY “RIOT”?
The name isn’t about chaos for the sake of it.
It represents the idea that a vintage toy show doesn’t have to look, sound or feel exactly like every other collectors’ event.
We want strong artwork. Proper promotion. A memorable venue. Great dealers. A clear identity.
Vintage Toy Riot is our way of doing things a little differently while keeping the most important part exactly where it belongs: the toys.
NO ORDINARY TOY SHOW.
WHY VINTAGE?
Because a show with a clear focus is a better show.
Vintage Toy Riot is centred on toys manufactured before 2000 — the toys that filled bedrooms, toy boxes, catalogues and Saturday mornings for generations of collectors.
Keeping that focus means visitors know what kind of room they are walking into before they even arrive.
WHY BOURNEMOUTH?
We didn’t want the first Vintage Toy Riot to take place in an anonymous hall on an industrial estate.
Bournemouth gives the show something different.
The Pavilion sits right between the town centre and the seafront, with the beach, pier, Lower Gardens, restaurants and hotels all within easy reach.
Add the late-May Bank Holiday weekend and suddenly a toy show can become part of a proper day — or an entire weekend — by the sea.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND VINTAGE TOY RIOT
Vintage Toy Riot is organised by two collectors who have spent years buying, selling, travelling and being part of the vintage toy community.
COLLECTOR. CREATOR. TOY HUNTER.
Lewis runs Toy Overdose, a YouTube channel built around vintage toy shops, fairs, private collections and the hunt for the toys we grew up with. Over the years he’s travelled to toy fairs and collectors’ events in the UK and overseas, picking up plenty of ideas about what makes a great show. Vintage Toy Riot grew out of wanting to bring some of those ideas together and create the kind of vintage toy event he’d genuinely want to spend the day at.
COLLECTOR. DEALER. VINTAGE TOY ENTHUSIAST.
Matt is a longtime vintage toy collector and dealer with a broad knowledge of toys from across the decades. He’s spent years buying, selling and exhibiting at toy fairs, and has a good understanding of both the collector and dealer side of the hobby. Vintage Toy Riot gives him the chance to help shape a show that puts good toys, good people and a strong vintage focus at the centre of the day.
WE BUILD THE ROOM.
THE TOYS AND THE PEOPLE MAKE THE SHOW.
Vintage Toy Riot is being built for collectors like us — people who still get a kick out of finding something they haven’t seen for years.
DISCOVER THE SHOW →