The PopCulteer
July 12, 2024

As I briefly mentioned Wednesday, this weekend I am headed back up to the The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum for a special toy show/memorial for Roberto Ligotti, a beloved member of the MEGO collecting community known to his friends as ‘Berto. This event is not private, but having come together in mere weeks following ‘Berto’s passing, it’s not expected to be heavily attended. However it is open to all MEGO collectors who would love to pay tribute to our fallen friend. You can buy a ticket in advance or at the door.  Admission also gains you entry to the wonderful Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum, which hosted MEGO Meet for its first ten years.

Because of this quick trip and some outside deadlines, today’s PopCulteer is a simple photo essay…one that I’ve been keeping up my sleeve for four weeks now.

Four weekends ago, when Mel and I drove up to Wheeling for the annual Marx Toy & Train Show, we made a side trip to the FiestaWare Factory Store in Newell, WV. It was not our first trip. This is sort of like visiting Mecca for Mel, only with much more colorful plates.  Since I’m going to try to write this blog four days in advance to accomodate the trip and the magazine article I’m working on, you will get to take in the bright, shiny and color images from our latest trip to Newell.

Enjoy…

I just realized that I’m going to have to come up with captions for almost twenty photos of brightly colored dinnerware. Forgive me if I go a bit off the rails.

Here are the bowls alongside one wall. Note how they are arranged by color.

On the opposite wall, across the store, we find plates, rammakin-thingys and assorted crockery.

A trick of perspective: These covered baking dishes are not actually bigger than the tiny people in the background.

A fine assortment of particularly short and stout teapots. And mugs.

An attempt to combine artsy with just the right amount of fartsy when playing games with perspective.

The light blue bowls in the front row here are the new “Sky” blue color. People are enthusiastically looking at the Sky.

Seeing Halloween plates in June made me think we were in Cracker Barrel for a moment.

More cool printed plates.

I can’t BELIEVE they retired the freaking TRIVETS!

They had a healthy supply of recently retired colors in place settings, but this photo is here because you can see Mel’s car out the window. Hello, Mel’s car!

Sadly, they retired this cool sugar skull print on Twilight, but I hear they may still be doing it on Foundry, which should look pretty cool. This photo is from the second Seconds room, by the way.

This is the first Seconds Room, where major discounts spring from tiny imperfections.

Had I not been standing so far away, you could see how great the bargains are!

Of course, you sacrifice a little in terms of presentation.

I should also point out that the Seconds Room is usually way more heavily-stocked than this. We were there a day or two after an outdoor tent sale had ended, and collectors descended on the place like locusts.

Also…the Seconds Room can be dusty and grungy. You’re gonna want to warsh this stuff before you eat off it.

The butter dish bin is here.

We leave you with a colorful bin of bowls.

That is this week’s PopCulteer, check PopCult for all our regular features, with fresh content every day, even if it’s prepared a few days in advance.