Locally, the county historical society put on a "Trees and Toys" exhibit for the Christmas season. It was '80's-themed on the toys. I'm partial to that, but you likely know that.
On a pure constructive note, it had a museum vibe to it, the main display of the trees and toys were in the back hall, which seems to be used for temporary exhibits. Prior to the "Trees and Toys," the last exhibit I went there to see may have been the life size Tonka tow truck that also featured many Tonka toys on display.
The "Trees and Toys" exhibit featured the rear hall with trees fully decorated and lit nicely flanking both walls for the entire length, however my main interest was to see what toys were on display. The displays for the toys were all under glass boxes on white display boxes, a very museum-almost-art-show like set up. I didn't know what to expect, but for what it was, it was pretty decent. Something like this might be small potatoes if one is from a larger city, or attends toy shows (you're lucky that you have them near you, if you do) on the regular. So, really there wasn't a lot of toys on display is what I'm saying, I have about 3/4 of the entirety within just a few pictures here.
The biggest "remember this" item was perhaps the Masters of the Universe display. It doesn't seem like it was really all that long ago to me, but I had both Snake Mountain and Castle Grayskull and the Fright Zone. I had traded mine into a local small shop to buy some G.I.Joes about 15 years ago, so seeing this set up really brought some of those, I guess I would say, childhood memories. So many accessories missing, so this is really someones childhood collection pulled from the attic or wherever, or at least not a very active current collector.
And in tune with the upcoming Star Wars movie, Star Wars got the biggest chunk of real estate overall. I guess I see this as an "Original Trilogy" display here, which is actually the most amount of those classic Star Wars toys that I have ever seen in person at once. ROTJ toys were pretty much done by the time I had any type of awareness of these back in the day, and we were living in a very middle of nowhere place at that time, too.
Each box on display separated in down by movie, which was really fun for me, and made no impression on the "junior joes" who, of course, accompanied me on this venture.
And the Return of the Jedi.
There was a Micromachine set up, but really, other than the brand name, and me having about 10 of these little cars at one point in my life, I wasn't really feeling the nostalgic here.
There were some Barbies, but here's a display of things I haven't seen before. A "Barbie" for the G.I.Joe scale?
And then we come to the meat of what drew me to attend the event: G.I.Joe (You likely guessed that.). I didn't know what to expect, and even with what little bit of a G.I.Joe collection I have left here at that HQ, I wish I could have contributed to bump up the volume of things to see at that very least. I only knew of the event a week before, and without the benefit of a Facebook group for the historical society, I would have not known at all.
The G.I.Joe display came with a bit of the kick to the gut for me, too, as, well, the G.I.Joe display is on display here for the memory of a person (as is the Star Wars). I never knew him, born in 1970, sounds like a guy I would have liked to have known. So when I was looking at the figures here, the spread of figures from the years really took on a different presence than just a bunch of G.I.Joe figures standing in a box. This display of G.I.Joes were Shad Milands G.I.Joes. I never knew him, but consider he was born in 1970. Consider he had Star Wars stuff and likely progressed right into G.I.Joe.
However, no vehicles. This makes me wonder how much more we maybe don't see that he had? Take a look at the spread of figures here, do you think straight-arm Clutch (with VAMP?) was his first G.I.Joe? Mailed in for Cobra Commander? Maybe Major Bludd was acquired next through that early 1983 mail-in order? Soon followed up by Ace with the Skystriker? As I look at these figuresI guess I feel a little more of a persons history here, rather than a random assembling of what really amounts to just stuff. This display had a little more personable feel for me, despite not being a big, huge, diorama-filled set up.
And standing all the figures up without battle stands takes some time. There's no telling what treasures are hidden in that display case. With the lack of vehicles, I wonder if they were perhaps discarded by Shad himself, or if they are in boxes somewhere nearby, or better yet, displayed proudly on a shelf by family? Perhaps all the figures that are left all came from in that display case?
I would say Budo or Storm Shadow are the newest figures in this collection, so into 1988 there was some collecting bug still in this person around the age of 18.
Interesting to see THAT Storm Shadow backpack on THAT Storm Shadow, though, don't you think? But no 1984 Storm Shadow in the case...., perhaps a "replacement" figure for the old one, old one discarded? And why is this 1988 figure the only figure in the case that really has any accessories?
What else can one say about this set up? Did I count these right?
2-1988 figures
4-1987 figures
21-1986 figures
16-1985 figures
8- 1984?
....?
