Gibraltar Trade Center

It’s like ‘Toy Story’ — some toys enjoy a life of playtime with children, while others are collectors items, doomed to live out their fading lives in glass cases.

So it was at the Gibraltar Trade Center. Here, the characters of my youth — Ninja Turtles and WWF wrestlers and Spider-Man — existed in purgatory. Premium prices on shitty quality toys placed in precarious positions.

Consider the Marvel super heroes chained by their Pac-Man overlord to duel with their counterpart villains. Every day. Forever.

Or the poor headless Star Wars figurine ensnared in the jaws of an unforgiving and sadistic toy shark. The horror.

Spider-Man tried to make his escape, and we rooted for him.

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Trains: Blair

Trains In Jackson: Blair

Both sides of Blair’s family have worked on the railroad. He has five family members riding the rails.

“I love seeing my brother drive by on the train,” he says.

Blair’s been collecting train memorabilia since he was young. He has an O-gauge train set at home, and the GTs are his favorites.

He’s grateful for the Central Michigan Model Railroad Club.

“I can’t personally work on the railroad because I’m deaf, so this is the next best thing.”

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Turtle Power

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bandwagon started at just the right time for me, just as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was waning in popularity. As a kid, I needed another franchise: cartoons, movies, toys, video games, the whole thing.

At about nine years old, the Turtles were it. They offered another world to invest in, and boy, did they give it to me.

So when I went to my fraternity brother’s DLux Entertainment Expo earlier this spring, it was slightly weird to realize the Turtles here were not strict about their secret identities.

They weren’t shy about taking off their turtle heads. It was a little bit like the mall Santa taking off his beard in full view of the kids.

But at least they had pizza for lunch, right?

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