Timber Dan Toy Show in Loveland, Colorado

I made the 40-minute drive up to Loveland for the Timber Dan Toy Show, hosted by the local Lions Club. Admission was a very reasonable $5, with an early-bird option of $10 if you wanted to get in up to two hours ahead of the regular crowd.

The show was spread across a fairly large space and covered pretty much every category of toy and collectible you could imagine, although the emphasis was heavily—heavily—on Hot Wheels and other 1/64-scale stuff.

In a lot of ways, it felt like every other toy show I've been to.

There were plenty of older guys wandering the aisles, a couple of intensely focused younger collectors who appeared to have their entire net worth tied up in their collections, the faint whiff of BO from someone who had apparently skipped a shower (or two), and, inevitably, the unmistakable waft of cigarette smoke deeply embedded in a jean jacket.

Quantity was definitely on display. Quality, not so much.

There was a little bit of everything: lunch boxes, Barbies, Legos, and row after row after row of Hot Wheels. If you're a serious 1/64 collector, you could have spent hours digging through the tables.

For me, though, there wasn't much to get excited about. I found only a small amount of 1/43, mostly older Solido and Vitesse models, and appropriately enough a low-cost brand I hadn't heard of before... Denver Die Cast. There were also some rather beat-up boxed Yesterdays models priced at $20. I suspect most of those will be making the trip home with their sellers, too.

The things that seemed to be getting the most attention—and actually drawing crowds around the tables—were the model kits and old pressed-steel toys. Those seemed to have considerably more interest than the older diecast that I was looking for.

Still, there's something enjoyable about walking a toy show, even when you don't buy anything. There's the hunt, the people-watching, and the possibility that something unexpected will turn up on the next table.

Nothing at the Timber Dan show came even remotely close to tempting me, but that's okay. The drive was short, the admission was cheap, and it made for an entertaining morning.

I'll probably make the trip back for the spring show on April 10, 2027. Maybe I'll find something next time.