Blast From The Past: Folks Relive Youth at Toy Show

If you drove by the  on Sunday, you may have thought we were being invaded ... by fictional characters. Or that those comic books and DVD's (VHS?) lying on your shelves sprang to life and decided to come to town for a few hours.

For children of the 70's and 80's, Sunday was a day to relive their youth, as the hotel hosted the first annual Long Island Toy Show. It was Coronet Toys (how's that for a blast from the past) time warped to the present. Action figures, comic books, collectibles; a room full of them, as a banquet room was magically transformed to a playroom of Transformers.

Toy shows were plentiful on the Island in the mid-90s, before vanishing. David Trustey is a local collector, and decided it was time to resurrect them, and created this scaled down version of Comic-con, the massive toy and comic convention held at locations around the globe.

"You like to remember happy times in your life, when you're a little kid and you open those presents Christmas morning, you were very happy," Trustey said. "Remembering getting that [action] figure, playing with it, how much joy you got, and when you see it again, it brings you back to that memory."

By all indications, a lot of folks were looking to relive those memories. Every vendor table was full, with both private collectors and store owners buying and selling a plethora of pop culture merchandise.

Classic movies, TV shows and cartoons have produced a wealth of material over the decades, and if you were one of the lucky ones to hold on to your stuff, and it's in decent condition, you have a mini-treasure chest on your hands.

But the toy show is more than just putting a price tag on Legos and Lord of the Rings. It's an experience, as many fans come decked out as their favorite superhero, or supervillain. Ghostbusters, Supermen and Jokers all paid a visit to Plainview on this day.

"It's really awesome, there hasn't been a Long Island toy show in a really long time," said Dennis Carter of Roslyn Heights, dressed as Ash from the Evil Dead movie trilogy. "It's great to have one back here again, and see toys from all sorts of eras."

Of course, no toy show is complete without Star Wars, which set the gold standard for movie merchandise. Members of the Rebel Legion and 501st Legion show up at comic shows and charity events dressed in full Star Wars regalia (good and bad guys respectively). Want to have your photo taken with Darth Vader or a Jedi Knight? They're happy to oblige.

"It's really incredible, the kids go crazy, they think we came right from the movie," said 'Stormtrooper' Chris Feehan of the 501st. "Even the adults, sometimes they'll say the picture is for the kids but it's really for them cause they still have that child inside them like we have."

And that's what the L.I. Toy Show is all about. Children of the 70's and 80's bringing their kids to, well, show them what they played with when they were kids (everybody got that?)

Now if you'll excuse me, the 'inner child' in me is going to figure out exactly how much those Star Wars toys my folks threw out are worth today. For everyone else at the toy show, may the force be with you.

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