Father’s Day Toy Show

Yesterday I took the boys to the Father’s Day Toy Show in Mullica Hill, NJ. It’s a nice switch from the usual shows we’ve gone to, as it’s outside. Sure, it was a little hot in the sun, but almost all of the vendors are in shaded pavillions.

This show is one of many put on my ToyShows.org. I got to wondering about the first show I ever took them to, and it only took me a few moments in Photos on my iPhone to find out: It was in Mount Laurel, NJ, on January 11th, 2011. That particular show really stands out in my mind for a few reasons. I’m sure part of the reason was that it was also my first show; I’d never been to anything like that. I remember being utterly awed at the volume of tables out with stuff on display, and the amount of stuff on display. We walked all around one large room in a hotel conference space, only to realize there was another large room full of tables. It was really big, at least as I recall it.

Subsequent shows were never quite as large as that one, at least in my mind, although there were plenty of good ones. They seem to have settled, for the most part, at the Nur Shrine Center in New Castle, Delaware. These shows have a fair bit of the things the boys like to collect (fairly modern, highly articulated action figures from a variety of manufacturers), but skew now towards antiques and other items. This makes them somewhat less likely to result in big "scores," but that does happen.

Increasingly, the boys really like NJ Collectors Con, which is always in Cherry Hill, always very good, albeit pricey to get into. Another favorite is the toy show that FarPoint Toys hosts on Memorial Day weekend, called "It’s a Toy Show," after their original retail location in Richland, NJ, which was called "It’s a Toy Store!" This was one of their favorite haunts (and mine) for a long time until the boys had generally found most of the older toys they might want, and it became easier to find new toys on Amazon and other online retailers.