Vancouver Toy Junkies Show 2016

The fall season is in full swing and that means it's time again for my favorite toy show of the year!  I don't go to many "shows" for toys or anything that I collect. We do hit a couple of comic cons and local toy shops here and there but this is the premiere show to buy vintage toys in Oregon. It's the one that I can go to and know that I will be coming home with something that fits my unique interests. There are vendors that sell more modern toys but this is mostly made up of folks that have a big passion for old school items.

The Vancouver Toy Junkies and Record Show is held in Vancouver, Washington at the Pearson Air Museum at Fort Vancouver National Park.  It's about a 90 minute drive north for us but worth the trip. We have been visiting this event for a few years now and attend the "early bird" opening of the show to get first dibs on all the amazing items that many of the vendors have.  Mike McLaugherty is the spearhead of this show.  He has really managed to bring together many of the local toy shops and various private collectors to come to one place in unison.  It's the most easy going and friendly show that I attend.  I'm sure it's not an easy thing to do but it comes off to the patrons as a well oiled machine.

What else can I say about this show?  Well how about some of the great items I was able to find. I am a HUGE lunch box collector.  I look for everything from the super old metal boxes to the newer plastic boxes.  I purchased about 6 boxes through out the day and a couple are below.

I couldn't say more about the lunch boxes.  I believe The Karate Kid is from a short lived cartoon. We all remember Tiny Toons and the Wonderful World of Disney is just pure classic.  I love the old man from the Haunted House attraction.  So old school!  Most of these boxes came with thermoses also!  Anymore the thermoses are harder and generally more expensive than the box itself.

Being a collector in his 30's I think I can speak for a lot of people my age that tend to look for toys that they either had when they were kids or had wanted as children.  You are more than likely guaranteed to find something from your child hood at this show.  An example above are a couple of Terminator 2 action figures I owned as a child.  Their is nothing special about them.  I don't even know how successful the line was overall even.  I ended up purchasing 4 in the set but these 2 are the coolest.  They look as if they hadn't even been pulled from the original plastic shell.

I could go on and on about this show.  It's something I highly recommend experiencing for yourself. In all their is a part of us that still has that child inside.  A part of you that sometimes you want to revisit and connect with.  This show is a place for that.  It's a place to see old friends and make new pals.  It's a place to take your 6 year old son who is only really learning about life.  A place to bring your 22 year old daughter who hasn't quite let go of the child hood spirit we all have.  It's a place to make memories and be fond of for years to come.

**Update 9.28.16 - Check out Krystal D's review of the show by clicking here!  It's a great read!

New Lunch Boxes!!!!!

It has been forever since I have purchased any lunch boxes! It's not that I haven't been anywhere that has sold any but a lot of the time it is either something I am not interested in or they are way too expensive! The past 2 weekends I have had the opportunity to visit the Portland Expo Center for 2 different events. The first was the Portland Antique Show. From what I understand it is one of the biggest antique shows in the USA. Then this weekend I visited the Portland Indoor Garage Sale event. People were selling everything from tools to clothes to electronics. Both shows were very cool and I highly recommend them. For more information you can visit the Expo Center website here.

As most of you know by now I am a huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. I had the chance to purchase a plastic blue lunch box complete with a thermos. It is made by the Thermos brand from 1989. As you can see it is from the cartoon series although I did see another one that was from the 3rd live action film also. It is in used condition but fair overall. I am not a huge fan of plastic lunch boxes but sometimes certain themes are only in plastic.

Next is a He-Man: Masters of the Universe plastic lunch box. It is blue also and comes complete with a thermos. It is made by the Aladdin company and dated 1983. I also own a couple of the metal ones from 1984 which you can see here. I believe the thermos was very similar or identical between both lunch boxes but I am not certain. Still very cool!

Lastly is my ET thermos! I had originally purchased a really nice ET lunchbox but it was missing the thermos. I had looked online and different stores but couldn't see paying $20-$40 for a single thermos. I was in luck this weekend! I found a very clean thermos for $2.00 at the indoor garage sale! Woohoo! The lunchbox below is not mine but one I found online. The thermos is the one I purchased yesterday.

There is the Shelby Collectible Toy and Rose City Collector shows happening in 2 weeks so we will see if I can pick up anymore sweet items in the near future!

New Old School WWF Lunch Boxes

This past weekend I had the chance to visit Portland Oregon's largest garage sale event. It was held at the Portland Expo Center. No one in my group had ever been there before and my brother in law was really interested in seeing if they had some good deals there and asked my wife and I to come along. It was a pretty cool MASSIVE indoor garage sale. Most of the items were set up on tables and ranged from pricey collectibles, small furniture, toys, knick knacks to old clothes and random odds and ends for that special buyer. I was pleasantly surprised at the many little things I purchased. One of the first things I was able to pick up was a 1985 WWF Blue Hulk Hogan lunch box. Talk about cool! The box is in decent shape and the thermos, well, I am lucky that the thermos came with it but it is not in the best of shape at all. I think I stated in on my previous posts that I wasn't going to get into collecting plastic lunch boxes and just stay with the metal ones. Crap! What was I thinking? The next day I am roaming Ebay, big mistake, and find another old WWF lunch box that a lady in Bend is selling. Cha-ching! Now I am the proud owner of 2 WWF Lunch Boxes. Yes, I know. I am a dork. These are the last 2 and the last plastic ones. hahaha Famous last words!

New Star Wars Lunch Boxes

If you read my earlier post I attended Shelby's Collectible Toy Show over the weekend and was able to purchase a couple of vintage Star Wars Saga lunch boxes.  A couple of months back I purchased an original 1977 Star Wars: A New Hope lunch box and thermos.  Since then I have been looking for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi lunch boxes to complete the set.  Their are a couple of problems with this. First of all these boxes were made in the early 1980's and released when the films came out.  Secondly, it is more rare to find boxes that are in good condition.  The boxes that you can find online and in antique stores are generally pretty worn and used and almost always never come with a thermos.  I bought my first Star Wars box in an antique shop and then bought the thermos from Ebay.

I was pretty stoked to find a vendor at the Shelby Toy Show was actually selling both lunch boxes with the original thermos in near mint condition!!  They even have the original instruction still inside!  When I saw them I thought "God these are going to be at least $50.00 a piece".  When I asked the guy how much and he replied "$25.00 each" I almost fell to the floor.  This find was a complete steal!  I could not believe it and feel very blessed to be the new owner of these boxes.  I think that these kind of lunch boxes are unique in the fact that they don't just appeal to fans of old lunch boxes but they also appeal to Star Wars collectors.  In fact the guy I bought them from said he got them from a lot of Star Wars collectibles he purchased from someone.  You can check them out below!

The Last Starfighter Lunch Box 1984

Hey everyone!  Just made it to my local post office this afternoon and I had a package waiting for me. Low and behold it was my newest addition to my ever expanding vintage lunch box collection.  This time around it is a 1984 red plastic "The Last Starfighter" box.  The Last Starfighter was a sci-fi box office smash and continues to be a timeless classic. Did you say a plastic box?  Yes, yes I did.  This is actually my first plastic lunch box.  I have always kind of shied away from plastic because of how easy they can be broken.  I am also not really a fan because the plastic boxes are slapped with a sticker on the face and not lithographed into the tin like the old school ones. Although, I do have to say that for being made in 1984 I am pretty impressed.  I guess it all depends on the person and how well they take care of it.  The lunch box I got today is in good shape.  The sticker is starting to peel slightly on a couple of the edges but overall is probably 99.9% intact.  I expect this from a product that was produced 27 years ago.  Unlike the older tin boxes there is only an image on one side of the box.  Nothing on any of the sides or the back side. The plastic box itself is also in good shape  with no cracks or dings on it. The thermos is in fair condition.  It shows signs of use but not a big deal.  You can recognize the pictures on the side of the thermos with no problem.  I am altogether really happy about purchasing this box and adding it to my collection.  Perhaps in the future I will purchase a few other plastic boxes.  I noticed some of my favorite films such as Back to the Future and Ghostbusters were only made on plastic boxes so I may have to pick up those up sooner rather than later.  You can check out some pictures of my Last Starfighter lunch box below.

New Lunch Boxes For The Collection

Can you call this a collection yet? As I look to my shelf I have exactly seven old school tin lunch boxes mostly dating 1974 to 1985. The more I research these things the more I am appreciating what they are and the fact they are becoming more rare each and every day. I was lucky enough to purchase a couple more this weekend from a local antique store. The first one is another Planet of the Apes from 1974. This exact box was recently featured on the television show American Pickers. The box and thermos was picked for around $40.00 and sold for $100.00. I recently followed an auction on Ebay and a set sold for $500.00. I am now the owner of two of these boxes and hope to add thermoses to them in the future! My second box is from 1977 and features the original Star Wars: A New Hope film. I also was able to purchase the thermos so this is a complete set.

I am really looking forward to finding more old school lunch boxes and who knows maybe I will have a collection like this guy someday?  I am not sure how my wife would handle this though.

New Vintage Lunch Boxes

It all started at Christmas.  My brother in law gave me a vintage Planet of the Apes tin lunch box. From that point on something has began to grow in me.  If you know me, you know I collect vintage 80's stuff.  By stuff I mean 80's movies, movie posters, toys and general memorabilia.  I find, like a lot of people, the older I get the more interested I am in the things I had when I was a child.  I have never been a big fan of the tin lunch box but the more I research the product the cooler they become to me.  They are also not cheap!  Each day, month and year we lose more and more of these cool relics and they only increase in value.  The art in my opinion is amazing and would be awesome if I could find the original art.  Does anyone know where any of that stuff went?  Well, in the past month I have been lucky to purchase a few more and thought I would share them with you.

This ET lunch box is from the original movie date stamped 1982 by Aladdin.  The drawings on all sides are amazing!

One of my favorite flicks from the 80's is Gremlins.  This is from 1984 and made by Aladdin.  I found this lunch box in Aurora Oregon. Aurora is a small town in Western Oregon that caters to antiques and has many antique stores.  It is worth the drive if your looking for antiques for your home or business.

This Rambo lunch box was found with the ET box by my brother in law at a local antique/junk store. It is from 1985 made by Thermos.  It's amazing what treasures you can find hidden in your local junk store. It's also amazing what junk that should be thrown away you find too!  Feel free to email me if you have a lunch box your interested in selling or giving away.

Something new to collect!

Hey everyone!  I thought I would make a quick post about some new stuff I have started to collect lately.  For Christmas I got a 1974 Planet of the Apes vintage lunch box.  It is identical to the one in the photo and amazing it has lasted as many years as it has.  My personal box has more wear and tear as is the one in the photo is mint or near mint condition.  To my limited knowledge about lunch boxes, they do not make them in tin anymore.  I believe they are mostly plastic with a sticker pasted to the box.  I'm curious to know how these old lunch boxers were made.  They were obviously made well to be able to outlast the years.  I also recently picked up the He-Mean lunch box from a local comic book store.  Having looked both of these up on Ebay, they can be a fortune!  I like them more for the movie memorabilia side of things and the craftmanship.  If anyone has any thoughts or info please share below!