The Entertainer

The Entertainer is a toy shop found in Cardiff’s St David’s Centre. Actually, as far as toy shops go, this is the Wonka Factory of toy stores.
Found on the ground floor, The Entertainer has everything you could ask for from a toy shop; namely a massive selection of toys. This was my idea of paradise when I was a youngster and I would regularly drag my folks in here for hours at a time while I frantically darted around the store like a sniffer dog on a drugs raid.
While I haven’t been in the shop for years, I am sure not a lot has changed since then. As long as they still stock a wide variety of toys, kids will still love it and adults will still reluctantly shell out over-​the-​odds prices for plastic symbols of parental love for their children.
A great shop that should be the first stop for any parent who is Christmas shopping.

There aren’t many toy shops in the city centre since Toys ‘r’ Us moved so I am quite glad that The Entertainer is still here because it makes Christmas shopping that much easier.
The Entertainer has a good range of toy from pre-​school up, including lots of board games, lego and more specialist toys like Hornby trains and Scalextric’s. The people who work here really know their stuff too. I was totally lost about what to get a four year old, and they were more than happy to give me a few suggestions in different price ranges.
I really like that you can see what your buying here and get a feel for it. Its a really good place to shop, I only wish it was even bigger!

I really don’t like The Entertainer. The whole place seems really scummy, and despite the fact that a lot of the toys here are top of the range and top of the Christmas list for children everywhere, something about this shop gives everything in it a cheap and nasty feel, even though the toys actually aren’t.
I don’t know if it’s the lighting, the dirty carpets, the sign on the door, it just feels like it should be in some run down building at the back of a dying shopping centre. I always expect the toys to be covered in grime, or cheap rip offs, or to get stabbed and left to die slowly in the corner.
In actual fact, there’s a good selection of toys here, ranging from the current in thing to cheap pocket money tat that children insist on buying at the annoyance of their parents.
There’s usually a good range of Star Wars toys here, though, which does help this place to redeem itself somewhat.
Buuuut, appearance counts almost as much as content, and call me a snob if you want, but this place is just too grubby and depressing to call itself a decent toystore.