The Queen of Vintage Toys Kelly's Toy Stop

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: I've had the store now for 27 years and I think the last time you guys were here was seven years ago and a lot of things have changed the business has changed everybody's collecting different stuff now and so here I am hi I'm Kelly from Kelly's Toy Stop and we're in my store right now in Huntington Beach I've had the store for 27 years we were in this location for seven and we were in another location in Anaheim for 20 so we've been around for a while I've been doing this for 35 years I was working at a law firm and I was selling and collecting and I had horrible bosses and I just one day said I don't want to do this anymore and I had mall spaces I had a few around and I just decided one day I called my husband and said I want to quit he goes I told you to go ahead so I quit and within a year I had my own store and I worked for someone else for a while I was a partner there and my partner wasn't a very nice person and I thought this is toys it's supposed to be fun I don't want to do this so I ended up walking next door and I rented a space right then and there so yeah I love what I do I'm so glad I took that step 28 years ago I was a little hesitant to quit actually the place I was working but when it came to like actually doing it I didn't have a business plan I didn't have like a nest egg for a business I just did it it worked out but I think it's because I really wanted it I just love what I do and so it made it easier to do what I needed to do and we're still here and I've met the greatest people along the way and like I said I still collect that's the biggest part it's fun to do it because then you can pay for your collection that was a lot of it in the beginning as well if you're looking for barbie vintage it's all mostly all vintage we do have some collectibles but I prefer vintage so the vintage dolls the vintage barbies the vintage gi joe and I mean vintage as in the three and three quarter inch mostly 80s right now 80s is the most popular stuff right now but we also have things that are older like little kittles a lot of people don't even know what they are but we do and people see them and they go oh my gosh you have little kittles every once in a while I'll have an old battery op toy or a wind-up I like that stuff but it is kind of becoming obsolete nobody really looks for it much anymore I know there are people and the people coming out I like to keep a case of it because I want people to see where it all started how its toys were back then this is a museum in a sense that there's a lot of things here you can see that you don't see other places but you can purchase those items as well there's a few things in here that I don't have for sale that I really like to look at myself and I keep them but other than that most everything is for sale in here so some of the challenges are first of all financially nothing's free and nothing's cheap you know rents nowadays are crazy I found a place I'm very happy at right now and it's a great location also finding things I think there's always going to be toys out there but it does get hard you know I rely on people bringing things into the shop pretty much that's most of it I mean you hope there's no drama because this is fun and you hope people are happy and when they come in so that usually isn't an obstacle or a problem but finding things mostly you know getting insured is another thing because they think we're a toy store for kids and you tell them it's adult toys and they think their mind runs wild with that as well so let's see what else I think pretty much though it's I mean if you put your mind to it you can do anything it's really weird at Christmas it gets very slow which is a weird thing you think but also during covid you know we were closed for a while I just want to say though I had some great people that really were so kind and wanted to help the store and send me a box I'll give you 200 bucks just send me a box of anything it was just people were great but for the most part sourcing is a thing finding good stuff is a thing you know a lot of people don't understand they don't collect they don't understand what we're looking for if you say barbie I get a lot of calls for new barbies I get a lot of calls for new stuff I get a lot of calls people wanting me to come out and look at stuff and when I get there I try to get them to explain it now I'm having them send me pictures and if not if it's something I'm not into I'll try to always help them out and turn them on to somebody else you know there's always somebody looking for that you know but it is hard to find good stuff very recently I had a transformer collection come through it didn't come through all at once it came through probably over three to four months and the girl called and said I've got this collection it's my uncle's and I thought you know whatever they usually a lot of times it's new and I said okay well just come down and she walked in and she placed like 10 g1s in the boxes on my counter and I was like wow and so I paid her and I paid her very fair she was very happy and I got another call a week later and so on and so forth until the collection was I think I pretty much got almost all anything g1 related and some g2s it was we had to start another case it was so much stuff it was great stuff though that's probably one of the better ones because it doesn't happen very often but I had some actually I did have some maquettes which is a from Disney and they're very rare what they did was they used them for the cells in the beginning when they would make the cells they would use these pieces and they're amazing and they're very rare and I had a stromboli and a hyacinth and the lady came in and it was the really weird thing she was like this was going to be my trip to Hawaii and then my husband didn't ask me for help and I guess he dropped the box when he was getting it out of the attic hyacinth took some hits she she was a little broken but I have a really good friend and he refurbished her stromboli on the bottom it says to return to Disney production blah blah blah but it was number one and my husband and I found a picture of Walt Disney at his desk with my stromboli on his desk we're not 100 sure it's the same one but because it was number one I kind of like to think it was one on his desk they're amazing actually I still have them if anybody's interested I have them at home and I kind of like to look at them so I think there's something here for almost everyone I believe there is I mean people do come in that don't collect but they'll see something like a keychain or something they had when they were a kid I did have a guy walk in one time and he doesn't collect but he bought a stormtrooper a vintage stormtrooper from star wars because he had one when he was a kid that wasn't a cheap buy either so you know you just never know but we do have key chains we have Disney pins we have you name it and sometimes it just takes them remembering something about their childhood for them to connect with it and a lot of times they'll take something home it does happen that's my main thing I do try to have a little bit of everything if I don't have something I'm like oh I gotta find strawberry shortcake or I need more Barbies you know or whatever it may be kittles or we need more girl toys because we do have a lot of boy toys I do get people that surprise me sometimes people you would think would collect something like Joe's or he-man or something and no they're over here in the Barbie section or paper they like paper you know paper dolls or just something everybody collects something I knew someone that collected toilet paper from different countries you just never know you know and hopefully unused yeah she had a whole book of it she literally had a book of it yeah you know there's so many things that if I don't have it we try to find it I mean I like to try and find things people get connected to things and they want what they want and you just hope that you can find it for them there are some requests I can't find I'm just there's things out there that are still hard to find but we keep looking we keep looking a beach and ball store was the OG you know that was my beginning and I learned a lot there and I was there a lot of the time I was there by myself but it was not a very good neighborhood either so I did get a lot of riffraff into the store seemed like there were times when there was a lot of stuff coming in though I don't really miss that store that much I have some good memories from it but I when I drive by it I get anxiety because it was it got really bad the new store though I love the location it's very comfortable and just like airy and breezy I like that I like it here they do events it's kind of nice because they do events and there's people that come in they're not always looking for toys but it's something fun for them and you hear people oh I thought I remember when I was a kid that's always fun this location though I just I don't know I feel more comfortable here I feel safer here for sure I think people feel safer coming here and it's just really comfortable people come and they'll hang out and eventually I want to do a little show outside it's coming I'll let you guys know it's funny things come and go so quickly all the good stuff just rushes out the door we do have a large collection of Disney stuff and I've had some really good Disney pieces right now we have some really good Planet of the Apes I'm always looking for Migos Migos are my favorite I love Migos so we have a few but I'm kind of low on those we have some good Star Wars stuff in right now some good figures right now though we do have some like Sifubi we have some of that not a lot right now but it goes pretty fast or the Godzilla's you know we have like the one Godzilla above my head the Shogun Warriors those are pretty special so I don't know there's so many different things that are good and they do move fast like I said they move very fast if it's something good it goes pretty quick I love that people come here because it's a happy place they get to buy things they're looking for especially if someone's looking for something and we can find it that really makes me happy or if people come in and they go oh your store is so cool and I just love that because it's something that I put a lot into the gentleman that works with me we're both very we're serious collectors so if you ever just want to come in and talk toys please do we can do that as well if you want to find us we're located at 7561 Center Avenue in Huntington Beach we are close to the Bella Terra Mall or right across from the Costco we're in a place called Old World Village which is actually really cute in itself it's a great place to come and walk around we are also on Instagram under Kelly's Toy Stop I'm on TikTok which is Kelly's Toy Stop and we do have a thing on Facebook but who uses Facebook anymore besides me and that I think is under Kelly's Toy Stop as well but if you're looking for us you can always call us message us and we'll get back to you and if you're looking for something special give us a call you never know the most rewarding thing about it is just getting to meet all the cool people that I've met through the years it's always fun to see something you haven't seen I'm getting older so I forget things sometimes and then you go oh I remember that you know that's pretty much it just making people happy I love the making the people happy part but just meeting people that are like-minded that do collect because I think we're a whole different breed a good breed but a different breed show's over come back tomorrow [00:13:39] Speaker ?: We'll see you next time.