The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

Related Photos

  • Matt Gorrie

    Toys

January 26, 2008

Grown-ups get in on toy act

Pair of collectors’ shows attract 85 vendors to the area for the weekend

By Dan Linehan

MANKATO — For a toy show, there aren’t too many kids here. For every child under 10, there look to be 15 or so adults older than 30 wandering the floor at the Alltel Center.

But really, the people here are collectors and hobbyists who are just fine with leaving a prize miniature tractor in its box. The best, most expensive toys aren’t the ones with the most moving parts or glowing lasers or other kid-oriented stuff.

The most valuable piece on Dick Sonnek’s table is a young boy on a cart driving a pair of oxen, with an $800 price tag.

He’s been the promoter of the Farm and Collectible Toy Show for all 30 years of its history, and has written a price guide.

He said many farmers get into it by buying the miniature version of their real tractor, so that when the original is long gone they can “revive old memories” with the toy.

Still, you don’t have to be a farmer to be into farm toys.

Take Rick Miller, who lives in the country near Madison Lake but doesn’t farm.

“You never grow out of liking toys,” he said, adding, “I don’t have to play with ’em anymore.”

He’s the exception in another way, too, as he has 6-year-old son Logan in tow. Logan, who clings to his dad when strangers come too close, still can’t be convinced to leave toys in the box, though.

The show’s 59 vendors sell both new toys straight from their manufacturer, and antiques they acquire.

Merle Johnson, a large man with gray suspenders and wispy peach-blonde hair, is a vendor at 30 or so toy shows each year. He started collecting about 25 years ago when he almost, but not quite, threw out some old toys while cleaning out a shed.

He focuses on antique toys from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, most of them bought within the last year.

The Alltel Center show may have been the biggest toy show in Mankato this weekend, but not the only one.

Sonnek, this show’s organizer, doesn’t want to talk about that other show, the one with identical hours over in the Madison East Center. They just feed off of this show’s advertising dollars, he says with a grimace.

Over at the mall, the story is much the same, though there are only 26 vendors.

The owners of Louie’s Toy Box are operating the long-running second show for the first time this year.

“We’re just one big, happy family,” said Donna Goettl, who owns the store with her husband, Louie.

She’s talking about the all the vendors and collectors, many of whom know each other from their travels on the collectible toy circuit.

Even though there are 85 vendors in Mankato selling toys and hundreds of people wandering the aisles at each event, one veteran collector says recent economic troubles are reverberating throughout the toy industry, too.

It’s down, says Jason Clouse of Silver Lake, a collector of 20 years or so.

“Down big-time,” adds his wife, Vicki.

Still, Jason Clouse says he’s “glad to see two shows in Mankato.”

It’s something different, not your typical entertainment fare.

Both toy shows continue today, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Local News