Macungie Toy show

The Macungie Toy Show is a two day affair for me. On Friday the outside vendors set up.  In the past the dealers were not able to set up until after three. That changed when the field the outside vendors were setting up was purchased by a church for a new building. The outside vendors were moved to an abandoned industrial site which was a mile from the show. The result of the move was to lose over 75% of their outside vendors. One bright spot was the dealers were able to set up earlier.  Last year the outside vendors were moved to an upper parking lot area near the Eyer Junior high School, where the indoor toy show is held.  The dealers are able to set up 9:00AM or earlier.

I went over on Friday morning and found about two dozen dealers set up,  so I took a look at their merchandise. I stopped at  a couple of old friends and found  some Atlantic Western figures, a Crescent wagon and some Johillco western figures. I checked the other dealers and while they had some great items, I found nothing I could use for resale or for the collection.  I  spent most of the time talking to people see how they were doing and talking about the hobby.  One party sold two Playmobil buildings in the box for $60.00. This was a very good price, but I passed as the sets are too bulky to ship.  After about two hours, I left and got ready for next day.

Saturday morning Percy had me up early, so I took the boys out for their walk. As we were out on their walk, I noticed that it was starting to drizzle. I felt this was a bad sign for the show, I still decided to go over.  I was going over to the show two reasons, one the weather might better and two  I wanted to do the inside show. The Macungie Toy show started as an inside show and grew to have an outside show as well.  As I got to the show, it continued to drizzle. I  saw that the number of dealers double in size.  I stopped and said hello to various friends and checked how they did yesterday.  I  walked down the hill and ran into Steve Savino of Toy Hunter, who was set up. Steve was not happy with the weather and was planning on leaving. I talked to Steve on various things, before heading on. At the bottom of the hill was Gerry Watts and Chris Lamont. I stop to talk to them. Chris told me of going to an auction which had action figures. One of the trays had fifteen He-Man loose figures with no weapons.  the bidding opened at $200.00! Chris and his friend had to check the tray out. In the bottom of the tray was a Wonder Bread He-Man. This figure was supposedly given out by Wonder Bread, but no one can find any documentation to prove that assertion.  The tray went   for slightly over $300.00. A friend of Chris came up to the table so  I decided to go down to the building.

The inside toy show is held in the Eyer Junior High  school. The show has been at the school for at least 40 years. The school’s cafeteria was remodeled, so most of the vendors were there with extra dealers in the hallway.  Most of the dealers were automotive toy dealers, but if you carefully look over the tables you can find some treasures.  At one table I found two bags. One bag had two Ideal tire Jacks that I can resale, the other bag has some Marx figures. This second bag I saw a Marx African native drummer, two Marx Tom Corbett figures,  a Marx 60mm gas station and a Marx 60mm warehouse man. The last two  figures I did not realize were there until I showed the bag to Gerry. I also got an Ertl 54mm farm hand for my collection.

Walking around the building, I saw some Star War Figures on the card, but no playsets. I saw Bob DeAngelo walking around , he had gotten a few items yesterday, but nothing on Saturday when I saw him. I walked around some more  and saw two interesting Tootsietoys items; one Tootsietoy  vehicle on the card had Timmee army, the other Tootsietoy item had a copy of  Britains Herald Cowboy with lasso in brown with a possible copy of  the Marx 30mm steer running.  Nice items, but they were not something I could use.

I stopped at a source and was able to pick up a nice lot of  Marx pieces for EBay, but I did not find anything else so I headed back up the hill to the car. I stopped at Chris and Greg then went over to Wil a young dealer, I had met through Chris and Greg. He had a number of items I could used including the Astronaut for the Ideal Astro Base. This was a toy I had as a child , so I know the piece.  From Wil, I headed back up the hill and said some good byes before heading home.