About a week ago I had been driving around White Plains, NY, and as I drove by the Westchester County Center, I noticed a sign out front advertising an upcoming Toy & Train Show that was to occur this weekend. I had been at this very same venue a short time ago for a cat show and was looking forward to returning again for this toy & train show. The last show of this nature I attended must have been at least sixteen or seventeen years ago and I also enjoyed going. Most of the vendors at these events specialize in antique toys and usually Lionel Trains, which is the king of toy train manufactuers.
Heading into the show I had no plans to buy anything, but the one toy I always wished I had that I never saw before was a replica toy car from the movie "The Blues Brothers". When I was a kid I would never see a toy car of that nature in either standard toy stores or shows like these. In fact, I wasn't sure they even made them. Parking for the event was the same as the cat show, five dollars, but entrance fee to the event was only ten dollars, which is three dollars less than the cat show was. Children aged twelve years or younger were allowed in for free, which makes sense as children will be the ones inside the place more likely to encourage their parents to buy something. Once I got in I was surprised at the overwhelming amount of tables dedicated towards Lionel Trains versus other types of antique toys. I would say trains dominated the show with a 70/30 majority. Some of the train cars in the original packaging alone went for fifty to sixty dollars, with the engine trains fetching anywhere from one hundred to four hundred dollars. There were also vintage train sets such as the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Pennsylvania Railroad, and even replica New York City Subway trains priced around nine hundred dollars.
Although the prices for some of these train sets were quite high, there lower costing options as well for trains that weren't as in good condition, but still ran fine, that I had to fight the impulse to buy and turn my livingroom into a rail yard. In addition to the trains themselves, there were also accessories such as towns, landscape fixtures, train tracks, train signals, and parts to fix broken trains. Growing up we had many Lionel Trains and there's boxes of them in the attic still, but seeing all the trains at this event brought back alot of memories. I saw ones we used to have and remember watching them make routes all along the insides of the house. As I mentioned before, it was only trains that were on display, there were also old toys as well. One of the most expensive I saw a rock-em-sock-em style Popeye boxing toy that had a price tag nearing three thousand dollars. Another interesting rock-em-sock-em I saw was dedicated to the infamous Joe Louis vs. Schmeling fights of the 1930's. Speaking of dated toys, there were also the Clown Hobo and Be-Bop Jigger units which I think would find protest to being sold in today's toy stores.
Toy cars were also plentiful as in all the classic Matchbox and Hot Wheels that were on display. There too I was able to recognize some that I used to have that are up in the attic as well. One vendor had a tremendous amount of cars and on one of the racks I saw what I always wanted, a toy Bluesmobile from "The Blues Brothers". He also had the Chicago Police car to go with it as well, so I bought them both for eight dollars a piece. I ventured over to other tables and saw items I would've wanted to purchase, but almost all were more than I was willing to pay so I only ended up buying those two toy cars. I was quite amazed at myself for walking out without buying more as there were so many trains, cars, action figures, toy guns I could've easily gotten had I gone another day when my willpower wasn't as sturdy. Feelings of fond memories and delight when I first arrived transitioned into sadness as I was about to leave. Not because I wasn't getting as many toys as I wanted, but because there is a clear difference in the quality of toys made in the past compared to the garbage that passes for a toy these days. The strong die-cast metal, the attention to all the small details, things back then were built to last. What do we have now? Everything is fast, cheap, and either obsolete or broken by next week. This goes beyond toys, its about everything in our society in which quality is neglected and people seem content with mediocracy.
Once I was finished with the show I took my Blues Brothers cars and myself across the street to the City Limits diner to have a small bite for lunch. Unfortunately, it seems everyone who attended the show had the same idea and there was a line to wait for a table. I wasn't in the mood for waiting and it would be ridiculous to take up a whole table when the place was busy, so I decided to sit at the bar. The last thing I had in mind when I entered the place was alcohol, but sitting at the bar and having the drafts displayed in front of me, when the bartender asked if I wanted anything I felt compelled to select one of the drafts, so I had a tall glass of Blue Moon. I didn't have a big appetite, so I ordered some fried calamari with marina sauce to go along with my tall glass of beer. Before eating the finger food, I wanted to wash my hands, so I made my way towards the bathroom. On the way I happened to pass by their dessert section and saw the various cakes and cookies available. I couldn't help but notice the rectangular-shaped pieces of red velvet cake which looked too good to resist. As soon as I was done with my calamari and beer, I made sure I ordered a piece of that red velvet cake and a cup of coffee to combat the possible sleepiness caused by the tall glass of beer. When I got back into my car and was ready to leave the parking lot, a real train, the Metro North, buzzed by on the local tracks.
Later in the day, fueled by flashbacks of younger days from being surrounded by all those old toys, I decided to dust off my old Nintendo unit, which I haven't touched in nearly four years, and hook it up to my large screen TV. I started out by playing the classic Super Mario Brothers, and then spent a few minutes playing some of the other games, but the machine did show the effects of being nearly thirty years old and not used over the past four years, as it kept freezing on me over and over. I'm hoping with more regular use the machine can get back into the swing of things and won't malfunction as much. I tip my cap to it for lasting as long as it had, but it came out after a transitional phase when plastic replaced metal.
I have a feeling if the Nintendo was built in the 1950's, it would still be working fine to this day...
Heading into the show I had no plans to buy anything, but the one toy I always wished I had that I never saw before was a replica toy car from the movie "The Blues Brothers". When I was a kid I would never see a toy car of that nature in either standard toy stores or shows like these. In fact, I wasn't sure they even made them. Parking for the event was the same as the cat show, five dollars, but entrance fee to the event was only ten dollars, which is three dollars less than the cat show was. Children aged twelve years or younger were allowed in for free, which makes sense as children will be the ones inside the place more likely to encourage their parents to buy something. Once I got in I was surprised at the overwhelming amount of tables dedicated towards Lionel Trains versus other types of antique toys. I would say trains dominated the show with a 70/30 majority. Some of the train cars in the original packaging alone went for fifty to sixty dollars, with the engine trains fetching anywhere from one hundred to four hundred dollars. There were also vintage train sets such as the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Pennsylvania Railroad, and even replica New York City Subway trains priced around nine hundred dollars.
Although the prices for some of these train sets were quite high, there lower costing options as well for trains that weren't as in good condition, but still ran fine, that I had to fight the impulse to buy and turn my livingroom into a rail yard. In addition to the trains themselves, there were also accessories such as towns, landscape fixtures, train tracks, train signals, and parts to fix broken trains. Growing up we had many Lionel Trains and there's boxes of them in the attic still, but seeing all the trains at this event brought back alot of memories. I saw ones we used to have and remember watching them make routes all along the insides of the house. As I mentioned before, it was only trains that were on display, there were also old toys as well. One of the most expensive I saw a rock-em-sock-em style Popeye boxing toy that had a price tag nearing three thousand dollars. Another interesting rock-em-sock-em I saw was dedicated to the infamous Joe Louis vs. Schmeling fights of the 1930's. Speaking of dated toys, there were also the Clown Hobo and Be-Bop Jigger units which I think would find protest to being sold in today's toy stores.
Toy cars were also plentiful as in all the classic Matchbox and Hot Wheels that were on display. There too I was able to recognize some that I used to have that are up in the attic as well. One vendor had a tremendous amount of cars and on one of the racks I saw what I always wanted, a toy Bluesmobile from "The Blues Brothers". He also had the Chicago Police car to go with it as well, so I bought them both for eight dollars a piece. I ventured over to other tables and saw items I would've wanted to purchase, but almost all were more than I was willing to pay so I only ended up buying those two toy cars. I was quite amazed at myself for walking out without buying more as there were so many trains, cars, action figures, toy guns I could've easily gotten had I gone another day when my willpower wasn't as sturdy. Feelings of fond memories and delight when I first arrived transitioned into sadness as I was about to leave. Not because I wasn't getting as many toys as I wanted, but because there is a clear difference in the quality of toys made in the past compared to the garbage that passes for a toy these days. The strong die-cast metal, the attention to all the small details, things back then were built to last. What do we have now? Everything is fast, cheap, and either obsolete or broken by next week. This goes beyond toys, its about everything in our society in which quality is neglected and people seem content with mediocracy.
Once I was finished with the show I took my Blues Brothers cars and myself across the street to the City Limits diner to have a small bite for lunch. Unfortunately, it seems everyone who attended the show had the same idea and there was a line to wait for a table. I wasn't in the mood for waiting and it would be ridiculous to take up a whole table when the place was busy, so I decided to sit at the bar. The last thing I had in mind when I entered the place was alcohol, but sitting at the bar and having the drafts displayed in front of me, when the bartender asked if I wanted anything I felt compelled to select one of the drafts, so I had a tall glass of Blue Moon. I didn't have a big appetite, so I ordered some fried calamari with marina sauce to go along with my tall glass of beer. Before eating the finger food, I wanted to wash my hands, so I made my way towards the bathroom. On the way I happened to pass by their dessert section and saw the various cakes and cookies available. I couldn't help but notice the rectangular-shaped pieces of red velvet cake which looked too good to resist. As soon as I was done with my calamari and beer, I made sure I ordered a piece of that red velvet cake and a cup of coffee to combat the possible sleepiness caused by the tall glass of beer. When I got back into my car and was ready to leave the parking lot, a real train, the Metro North, buzzed by on the local tracks.
Later in the day, fueled by flashbacks of younger days from being surrounded by all those old toys, I decided to dust off my old Nintendo unit, which I haven't touched in nearly four years, and hook it up to my large screen TV. I started out by playing the classic Super Mario Brothers, and then spent a few minutes playing some of the other games, but the machine did show the effects of being nearly thirty years old and not used over the past four years, as it kept freezing on me over and over. I'm hoping with more regular use the machine can get back into the swing of things and won't malfunction as much. I tip my cap to it for lasting as long as it had, but it came out after a transitional phase when plastic replaced metal.
I have a feeling if the Nintendo was built in the 1950's, it would still be working fine to this day...
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