A niche toy event that helps out local kids and features miniature machines, trucks, and agriculture is back in action.
The Alma Optimist Toy Show and Sale returned Sunday afternoon for the first time after a two year COVID hiatus.
“We believe that toys are for big kids and little kids, so this is such an enjoyable event because it tickles the fancy of all kinds of toy collectors,” said Nick Grose of the Optimist Club.
Nearly 30 vendors and almost 500 visitors were sharing their love of toys.
“It’s a fantastic thing to get into if you like toys, you have to like toys,” said Garry Becker of KGB Toys. “I am never going to grow up.”
Carter Baker, 10, and his dad took three weeks to put together their farm model display for the crowd at the event.
“Just in the nick of time last night we finished up all the details,” said Carter.
Many of the items are hand built by locals.
“There’s over 3,000 toothpicks for the cornfield there,” said dad Andrew. “It’s just time consuming, but you know it’s all worth it. You sit down for a couple hours a night and you hang out and you just chat.”
Alma resident Wilfred Bott is a retired trucker turned toy hobbyist who likes to build what he knows.
“I worked for Husky for 35 years so I knew how to build them in real life,” he said. “So I decided maybe I could build 1/6 scale.”
Each of Bott’s trucks is detailed down to the paw prints, just like his trucks that went on the road with him.
“This one’s got LED lights on it, so that takes another 30 hours to build, so there’s probably 300 hours together in that because I build the wood base and put all the electrics underneath the base,” he said.
Funds from the event are returned to youth in the community.
“This supports things like the Waterloo-Wellington Science Fair program and the Alma Swimming Team,” Grose said.