MFCA Show and Mart 2016 was held on May 20th and 21th. The show is a two day affair on Friday and Saturday. The MFCA is known for its fantastic figure competition with world class pieces. The Mart has seen better days this due to the fact besides your table rent, you have to pay for a peddler’s license from the township. We have a report from Dan who attended the show.
MFCA Show and Mart 2016 Dan’s Report
MFCA Show and Mart 2016 is in Valley Forge PA where I had a fine time . I was able to make some purchases of Osprey books,paints, tools a Del Prado metal and a couple of Auburn pioneers I had as a boy.There were not many (if any) just plastics dealers. If anyone had plastics they were just lumped all together in boxes with other metal figures. The only two vendors that had multiple boxes of rubber/plastic toys were basically dealers(Hobby Bunker and Rick Eber) selling the standard stuff like Paragon,Replicants,Marx recasts etc. Nothing unique or old and hard to get unless it was sold dealer to dealer when they were setting up.There was nothing like the plastics table set ups (box after box) like the England /Europe toy shows that are shown on the Stads blog. Most of the tables were metals,old Britains (expensive), kits, metal flats, so because of those reasons I didn’t take any pictures, sorry. The other thing noticeable was that the ‘average’ age walking around was probably around 30-50 (many a lot older) not many of the youth age. I will send you a Vendor list just so you can see who was there.
We thank Dan for his report. If you want to see the figure competition you can go to Treefrog forum and in their show section you will see the photos of the figures. If you were there let us know your thoughts and any photos.
Looks like only to main dealers in plastic. Once again shows with plastic are less.
Well least he got some need-goodies out there!!Glad x it.
How different the show seems today from when I traveled from Michigan in the late 1980s or early 90s, and attended it on the Villanova University campus. It was well-attended with both collectors and plastic dealers at that time, including several tables set up by Polk’s Hobby Shop in NYC. My wife and I made a trip out of it and visited Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross house, and Valley Forge, all in one trip — places we had never been to before.
There was another big toy soldier show we attended on a different occasion — the Annapolis, Maryland show, sponsored by the Ship and Sailor Hobby Shop (possibly Soldier and Sailor Hobby Shop) in Annapolis. For some reason that show disappeared. Too bad, because it was right next to the U.S. Naval Academy, which you could tour to see the memorial grave of John Paul Jones, and the colonial capital of Annapolis, with its brick streets, all at the same time. I remember it was where I met Gregg Hahn of Stone Castle Hobbies, before seeing him again many times at OTSN,