Tintin shops: Ottakar's

Has anyone been to their local Ottakar's? All the major branches have great sections on Tintin.

Being rather on the poor side (I'm only 18), I have been gradually building up a collection of Tintin postcards which I frame and put on my bedroom wall.

Has anyone else out there got any stuff from Ottakar's? If you've got postcards, which are your favourites?

My local Ottakar's had the rocket spinner display stand, with most, if not all, of the books (they had Soviets, but not Alph-Art), all of the 3-in-1's, and some Snowy plush toys. I felt I had to get a Snowy plush toy ... he stands on my shelf, at the end of my Tintin books. And I got one for my sister as well :-) But there were no postcards in that branch.

I live in Norwich and there aren't just postcards-there is loads of stuff! They've got bigger cards (eg birthday card size), snowy plushes, keyrings, figurines, pencil cases, all kinds of stationery, t-shirts, crockery, mousemats, DVD and videos, wall posters, umbrellas, rucksacks, audio tapes and telephone and address books. They've also got all the books (the stories, non-fiction ones and sticker books), and probably some other stuff that I can't remember. They even sell the stories in French! And I'm not a big fan of Jo, Jette and Jocko, but those are also in stock.

On their website they actually sell Hergé and Tintin Reporters', which I think is really rare. I'm pretty sure that all major cities have a section like this in their store.

8 Sep 2013 15:45 - Merged topic:
Tintin shops: Ottakar's (UK)

This post is inspired by Richard and jockojungle's discussion of Ottakar's. Is this a Tintin shop? I suspect not because of the reference to visiting it some time ago as a boy (unless you are quite a lot younger than I suspect ;) ).

Ottakar's is a UK book-shop chain, which is named for the Tintin story. As a result, they often have a specifically Tintin section, which may carry other gift lines than just books - the cars have been available in some, for example.

The guy who founded it was a big fan of Tintin, and that's why he chose the name Ottakar's.

They also sponsored the 'Tintin on Sea' exhibition in Greenwich last summer.

Wow! How happy you British must be to have a *chain* of bookshops founded by a Tintin admirer! On my side of the pond I have a hard time finding anyone who has heard of Tintin, let alone takes him seriously.

And by seriously, I mean with serious joy.

My nearest branch, in Wells, has a pretty good range of Tintin stuff, including some Snowy soft toys in various sizes, the cars and little plastic figurines (for some reason they always seem to have loads of the Thompsons in their Blue Lotus gear and hardly any others!) Last time I looked the latest additions were some nifty, if overpriced coffee mugs with the design taken from Crab's opium-filled tins - I'll have to get one of them!

Someone there seems to take care to put the books on the shelves in the right order too - just wish they'd get a few of them in hardback!

From what I have gathered about other branches of Ottakar's, I think that my local (Norwich) has a far greater selection than most. Correct me if I'm wrong here! I guess Norwich is a more major store, and there are only a few like it, those being in big cities like London, Manchester, Birmingham etc.

It has all the stories (some in french), the reference books and sticker books, about 8 different plastic figurines, mugs, pretty much every sort of stationery, posters, postcards and greetings cards, rucksacks, Snowy plushes in different sizes, model cars, housewares, zippers, fridge magnets, videos and DVDs, T-shirts, ties, address books, jigsaws and other stuff which I can't remember off the top of my head! It even has Chronolgie d'un oeuvre in there, which amazed me because I thought it was something that you would only be able to find in the official Tintin Shop.