It’s the day before LALD Car Week - I am sure some people are busy getting their material together. As I am long since done, and have a perpetual desire to add to the hoard, I went to the local toy show this morning. I got a few things:
First, some background on the show. It is at Kent Commons, and used to be 3x per year, but is now only twice. I am usually not in the area for the show in November, so this is just an annual event for me (there was also an annual show in Seattle proper, but didn’t take place last year). As these shows are rare here, this one was popular. I went at the “early bird” time, as admission is only $5 more, and I wanted to free up my day. I got there about 5 mins before opening time, and there were about 50 people waiting in line already. All vendor tables were sold out, so the hobby is doing well. I’d say it was about 75-80% diecast or vehicle toys, and rest was action figure, comics, Japanese stuff, etc. A lot of scalper-ish modern material, but a nice assortment of vintage material too. A few views as I was leaving, about an hour into the show, still early bird hours:
Now on to the fun part. It’s probably a bad thing for me to go to a paid admission event, as if I pay to get in, I am not leaving empty handed. Some years have been better than others, this year wasn’t bad at all.
First, I found a nice 80s Siku Range Rover with what looks like a windsurfing board on the roof. Mint, and the seller had it in a neat plastic case. Couldn’t resist it, and the price was right:
Next, another 80s gem, a Majorette 300 series featuring a VW Golf and sailboat. This cost a little more than the Siku, but I couldn’t leave it there - I like the three spoke wheel Majorettes, and these bubble pack cars have childhood memories for me. Probably not going to DLM it:
And the grand finale, a bunch of mint loose Tomica. I had already made my lap around the show, and noted there were some latecomers not yet set up. These were from one of those sellers - he had an assortment of Tomica - some late run carded Pocket Cars not too bad at $10-20 each, a couple of overpriced black box models (a scooter and bus-like vehicle with birds on it I think - $50 each, nope) and a box of wrapped-in-tissue loose mint Tomica at $5 apiece. I couldn’t resist a dozen - here we go:
Some of these are varieties I didn’t have (white Landcruiser, Lotus with wide wheels, RX7 with wide wheels, etc), and some are just castings I like (Toyota 4x4, Gloria, etc). I have an empty box for the Phantom, so I am pleased with that one. A few are duplicates too, so eventually I will have a small sale - I remember someone wanted a Civic, so one, probably the red one (as I think I have one in box), will go to them. The seller had numerous other loose Tomica, all Pocket Cars variants, all duplicates for me, so I called it quits at a dozen. The price was nice, but I don’t need them all.
Funny thing, when I walked up, a guy expressed interest in buying the lot, but said he had to “think about it” and walked away. I then made a beeline for the box, and the seller let me look, but mentioned the other guy. About 20 minutes passed and he never returned, so the seller sold to me and another guy. After I left, I saw the first guy going back. It’s true what they say, the time to buy it is when you see it.
I was nice, too. Another customer walked up as I was digging through the box, and was thrilled with a carded Pocket Cars yellow RX7 for $10. I had two of the wide wheels RX7 in my pile, so I gave him one, he was grateful. Not a bad show this year.
That is all.