Rare, old toys on display at local collection show

The Awesome Toy Collector Show made a stop in El Paso on Sunday.

The state-wide show is open for collectors, of all kinds of toys, who want to show off and potentially sell what they’ve got.

“I’ve been collecting since I was about five. I started with My Little Ponies,” 29-year-old Mia Vasquez said. “I think it’s the fact that you never lose your inner child. That’s what attracts me to them.”

There was a $5 entrance fee, and dealers had to pay $10 for a table.

Bruce Gross, 65, collects toy cars and motorcycles.

“I’ve been collecting toys since 1977,” Gross said. “It’s just a passion that’s there, and I’m not alone. A lot of us weirdos are out there doing this.”

Gross said he goes to different toy collection shows across the Southwest. He estimates his toy collection is worth over $125,000.

“It’s something you get into when you’re young, and if you’ve got the bad DNA for it, it just keeps growing and growing and growing,” Gross said. “It’s in your blood.”

Fifty-year-old John Ortega went to the collection show looking for G.I. Joes. He said he’s amassed a collection of toys that’s worth close to $50,000.

“I had the original ones when I was little, and that’s what kept me kind of going with them,” Ortega said. “I see these old vintage figures, and there’s something about them that just attracts me to them. They’re like a lot — to me — better than the new stuff that they have nowadays.”

Ortega said he views toy collecting as a healthy hobby, although his wife is not a huge fan.

“I go in there and look at them and admire them, and she goes in there and just shakes her head,” Ortega joked.

Ortega said his collection is never complete.

“The fun part for me is the chase. Finding those pieces that you need to complete the set, sometimes it can be really hard, but sometimes it’s rewarding at the end when you get it all put together,” Ortega said.