Your PopCulteer is back from a trip that included a day at the Marx Toy and Train Collector’s Show , which is held each year at The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum in Wheeling. Your humble blogger and his wife had a great time at the show, and I brought you a small batch of photos yesterday, but today we’ve got a couple dozen more, and you can probably expect even more pictures, plus video, later in the week.
I want to take a moment to thank the folks at The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum for putting on such a cool toy show each year. Mel and I are planning to return there next month for an exciting new addition to the museum that ought to bring more folks to this gem of a toy and pop culture mecca, tucked away in Northern West Virginia.
I do have to confess to something that I was keeping quiet at the show: I was not at 100% for this year’s show. It’s been hotter than usual over the past week, and that heat instigated one of the worst Myasthenia Gravis flare-ups that I’ve had in some time. I had to miss most of a really amazing Show and Tell at the hotel Friday night because the extra meds I had to take made me fade pretty fast. Next year I plan to try to videotape that meeting, if they have one.
On top of that, a couple of months ago my left knee got into a serious disagreement with gravity and a car door, and as such, was pretty much held together by Salonpas and Kinesiology tape. I’m fine if I can stay off my feet…which isn’t going to happen at such a cool toy show.
Despite that, I had a great time catching up with old friends, meeting new ones and buying really cool toys that I don’t have room for in the house. In a few day’s I’ll show off what I got (with one preview below) but today we’re going to look at some of the people I saw and a few of the cool toys for sale.
On Saturday we bypassed the second day of the show to do a little retail adventuring around Canton, Ohio. I will tell you about this later in the week, but I don’t have a lot of photos to share from that part of the trip. I decided to do most of it as a civilian. However, I made a discovery there that will likely neccessiate a return trip with cameras rolling later in the year.
For now, while I’m still recovering from the trip, here’s a batch of photos from last Friday at The Marx Toy & Train Show, devided into two catagores…
PEOPLE
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0003-1.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
Super-Johnny West Collector, Terry Ryder, shooting me her “If you take my picture I will kill you” glance, at the table behind some of her awesome “bronzed” Johnny West figures.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0010-1.jpg?resize=676%2C847&ssl=1)
Mark Hegeman, who always has tons of cool vintage toys for sale…more than we could fit in our car.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0009-1.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
It was great to see Grayson and Lee Bowling back at the show this year, seen here trading something with Professor Jim Fuller.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0008-1.jpg?resize=676%2C663&ssl=1)
A legend in the world of custom action figures (and Captain Action accessories), I finally got to meet Wes McCue, after being online friends for close to twenty years.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0007-1.jpg?resize=676%2C748&ssl=1)
We even took a selfie (this is the one Wes took, my selfies tend to suck).
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0006-1.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
The man behind the much-missed Marx Toy Museum (which you can still visit online) Francis Turner, with Lee Bowling and Dave Roth in the background. I didn’t get to catch up with Dave much this year, but I’ll see him at the Kentuckiana GI Joe Toy Expo next month.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0005-1.jpg?resize=676%2C580&ssl=1)
Here’s Dave making a sale.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0004-1.jpg?resize=676%2C547&ssl=1)
It’s always cool to catch up with James Wozniak and his astounding assortment of repros and new plastic wonderments. I’ll be telling you about something really cool that I picked up from him later this week.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0014.jpg?resize=676%2C503&ssl=1)
The admissions table getting ready for another wave of attendees.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0013.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
We are now in the “random photos of folks whose names I didn’t get” portion of the photo essay.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0012.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
These folks had great stuff and almost had me ready to stop resisting the urge to collect Shogun Warriors that I’ve been fighting since 1978.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0011.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
Guys inspecting a playset, while astute readers may notice Mel’s hand hold the video camera in the background.
TOYS
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0025.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
Colorful ways to send in the troops and artillery.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0024.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
I’m never going to pass up a photo op with a triplane.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0023.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
Stuff I would’ve bought if I had more room in the house to display it.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0022.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
Incredible custom Marx/Johnny West critters.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0021.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
More cool plastic.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0020.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
These guys were at the table that Wes shared with Bill Nestor (who managed to escape my camera). I really should’ve bought that Green Lantern.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0019.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
I met Tom Krakovsky, who had these astounding hand-made, playset-sized Civil War warships at very reasonable prices. You can contact Tom at p2jgtomkrakovsky@gmail.com if you’re interested, but he was telling me that these are difficult to ship.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0018.jpg?resize=676%2C440&ssl=1)
These were museum-quality displays, and if you’re into Civil War or Revolutionary War playset displays, they are simply amazing. You can also find Tom’s 1/6 scale Military work at the private Facebook Group World War Too.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0017.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
Over in the train room, I don’t know for sure what the hell this was, but I was disappointed that they didn’t have it hooked up to run. Man it looks cool.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0016.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
More coolness in the train room.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0015.jpg?resize=676%2C508&ssl=1)
Obligatory Warbonnet picture.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0026.jpg?resize=676%2C466&ssl=1)
I was able to convince Mel to drag me away from this before I was captured by its siren song.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0027.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
No such luck with this tub filled with Aurora Model Motoring vintage track, which I happily snapped up from Mark Hegeman without haggling. Slot cars are my weakness.
![](https://i0.wp.com/popcultblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/0028.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
And today’s last image, just to bring us back to Marx is a stack of primo vintage playsets.
0 Comments
1 Pingback