Find out all about the Krackers- A landmark shop in Taunton

“Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

"Wouldn’t you like to get away? Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came...”

Yes, of course it is Cheers. And the line of ‘Where everybody knows your name’ is what it is like for many customers who go in Krackers in Bath Place, Taunton.

Krackers has transformed since it first opened, in 1980, in East Reach, when it was a joke shop, to moving to Bath Place where it sold comics, computer games and had arcade games at the back of the shop to now, selling items which are linked to television shows, movies and anything linked to popular culture.

It is a shop where you can feed the ordinary shopper but it is a place which will nourish the geek (nerds welcome as well).

The dynamics of what a nerd is or a geek is have shifted over the generations.

Using the word geek or nerd in the 1980s would have been something which was derogatory, much like saying that person was bookish, a book worm or a swat.

But thanks to television shows like The Big Bang Theory, the world of comic books and sci-fi shows has become part of a generation’s every-day culture.

What was deemed weird and a bit strange has become mainstream enough to be on several television shows or movies which are followed intensely, like Iron Man, Spider-Man or The Avengers to name three.

It is an ever-changing world - and that world changed very quickly in Krackers.

The store, which is owned and run by Anthony (Tony) Peach, is one shop in Taunton which many 25-30 year olds make a B-line for every week.

They are not alone, as they are joined by others aged as young as five and up to 50, but each will be buying different things.

Those toys, games or comics are ordered by Tony, who uses his ‘ordering bible’ which shows him what could be the big thing in the next two or three months.

He said: “What we try and stock is things which people are talking about.

“With all the games, films and games there are lots more options out there than ever before.

“The Big Bang Theory made shops like this more acceptable for a lot of people who might have been scared to have come in as it was full of geeks or nerds.

“What made a big difference was the film Iron Man, which was well cast and a great film.

"It has all changed as children as young as five watch YouTube and enjoy things like a box opening (a box of a toy/ game etc is opened by someone online and tells you all about it).

“A number of shows which were big in the 1980s have been brought back and have been huge like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man and Thundercats.”

Tony explained there were some figures, made by 3A’s, which cost over £400.

This included a Transformer which had magnetic bits on it so you could attach items and alter its appearance to a spaceman, which was a skeleton in a spacesuit made with real padding, and a cowboy zombie.

All of it to scale and all of it looks very realistic and the quality is unbelievable.

He said: “If I had a big store and glass cabinets then I would have more on display.

"Taking these figures out of the boxes makes them seem real, they are amazing toys.”

Among the toys which can cost a lot of money are board games or War Hammer products.

The shop had a game called Fallout which came into the shop and was sold for £60, even before it had been unpacked form the delivery box.

A board game called Gloomhaven sells for £140 and takes two years to play it to get to the end.

One of the people who works in the shop is Jason Bailey.

Jason started off as a customer in the shop as a place to hang out in between jobs and gradually ended up working in the shop 19 years ago.

Jason said: “I got into all this via Japanese Anime which I discovered in the 1990s.

“This was at a time when not a lot of people in this country knew anything about it. It did not catch on until 2000 in the UK.

“I used to collect board games and action figures. I grew up with computer games and I felt at the time (he was born in 1976) ‘these are not going away’.

“One of the biggest things which drives it is nostalgia. Those aged between 25-30 years-old are collecting things from their childhood.”

Krackers at is open Mon-Sat: 9am5.30pm; Sundays: 10.30am-4pm. Email e@ krackers.com or phone 01823 335057.