No short supply of nostalgia at the Butler Area Toy show
CENTER TWP — Clearview Mall was provided with extra security on Saturday, Jan. 26, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. as several costumed heroes from popular culture roamed the shopping center.
The heroes, who varied in age and size, had a special mission for the afternoon: to find a good deal and have fun.
“I’m here looking for Funko Pop and action figures,” said Mason Masiaud, 11, who said he was attending his third Butler Area Toy Show. “I bought a big Groot action figure.”
The fourth Butler Area Toy Show hosted vendors from across the country who sold items like video games, Legos, Matchbox cars and even Nerf guns. Toy collectors gathered to share their fandom, cosplay as their favorite characters and look for missing items for their collection.
And some came just to relive moments of their childhood, according to Robert Craig, of Butler, one of the owners of KRG Entertainment, the company responsible for hosting the show.
“I consider nostalgia as a time machine,” Craig said. “You walk in here and you see one of the toys and it’s a time machine. As soon as you see that toy from your childhood, it instantly sends you back.”
According to Craig, the toy show started in July 2022 at the General Butler Vagabonds Center in Butler, but due to its popularity, the show has now moved to Clearview Mall.
“We need at least 10,000 square feet for all the vendors,” Craig said.
He said the toy show has been popular for people of all ages.
“We let people who are 12 and under in for free,” Craig said. “We have school kids in here and then you have adults. I think the oldest person that I know that was here was 74. He was looking for Matchbox toys.”
Brothers Grant Meyer, 8, and Lincoln Meyer, 10, of Slippery Rock, said they were enjoying their first time at a toy show.
“There’s a lot of stuff that interested me,” said Lincoln.
And no toy show would be complete without patrons participating in their favorite cosplay. Luca Praiti, 8, of Shaler, came dressed as his favorite superhero, Miles Morales.
“He was my Halloween costume,” Luca said.
Ryan Brown, of Butler, who is a regular cosplayer, was in attendance at Saturday’s convention sporting his Dwight Shrute costume from the popular NBC show “The Office.” Brown travels the country selling “The Office” memorabilia and signing autographs.
Brown said the rise in popularity at comic book and toy shows has a lot to do with how inclusive the shows can be.
“It’s a lot more socially acceptable,” Brown said. “Everyone here has something they are interested in. It brings a sense of community and people here are very welcoming.”
Sean Morton, a vendor from Maryland, specializes in selling vintage toys from the 1970s and ’80s. He said the growing popularity of toy conventions has a lot do with people associating toys with a “much simpler time.”
“I thinks it’s because there is an appeal to reliving when you had these toys,” Morton said. “Being an adult can be a lot of work, and you’ve got to pay taxes and go to work and you’ve got to take care of the kids and the wife.”
The next Butler Area Toy Show, also at the mall, will be held in July.
