An 18-inch Popeye the Sailor Man figure squints at Vinny Cuadrado from a shelf on a recent Thursday afternoon.
The King Features toy has been with Cuadrado since he was 4 years old. He is now 46. After his wife and kids, Popeye is one of the most important things in his life.
“My parents bought it for me,” he said. “My family knows that if the house is burning down, grab Popeye. Toys come and go, but the original stuff I owned, that stuff is close to my heart.”
Little did Cuadrado’s parents know when they bought him his Popeye, that their son would one day become a toy collecting titan in Tucson.
When there is a mega-toy or comic collection looking for a new home, he is often the one people call to buy it.
“I’ve been fortunate,” he said. “I’ve purchased thousands of toys at a time; 25,000 comic books; three truckloads of action figures.”
Cuadrado even started his own toy show, the Attack Toy & Comic Show, which returns to the Fraternal Order of Eagles No. 180, 1530 N. Stone Ave., this Saturday, April 17.
The show is modest in size when compared to the Tucson Toy Show, held annually at the Tucson Expo Center. That show, originally scheduled for March, brings in thousands of buyers and was postponed until 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Attack show can usually accommodate 60 tables and about 500 buyers at a time, but is being scaled down this year for COVID safety reasons to about 40 tables and 100 customers at once.
The event promises a mix of toys, from the newer collectibles, Marvel Legends, Funko Pop figures and pieces from the Star Wars Black Series, to the vintage stuff from the 1980s and before.
Prices are at the discretion of the dealers, but Cuadrado said there should be something for everybody. He calls it a buyer’s show.
“I start from $1 and go maybe up to $500 at my tables,” Cuadrado said. “I don’t tell sellers what they can bring or how much to charge. It is a toy and comic show. If they have some of that on their table, we will be OK.”
Cuadrado said he is planning several more small-scale Attack toy shows this year, including one in June, one in October and a two-day event set for the weekend after Thanksgiving.
This Saturday’s show runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and admission is $2. For more information, visit the Attack Action Toys Tucson And Comic Klub page on Facebook.
