- September 9, 2024
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His 6,000-square-foot building on 17th Street in Sarasota is stuffed full of vintage toys.
Everywhere you look — up, down, ahead or behind — is another toy, with another story, and another memory.
Lakewood Ranch's Richard Pierson is ready to unveil his Sarasota Toy Museum Aug. 8.
Pierson has done much of the work himself, with the help of his sons, Jacob and Zachary. However, other than the extensive work done on the model railroad exhibit by volunteers, Pierson built all the display cases and placed the toys — by either era or subject — himself.
He will be saddened on opening day, though, as East County’s George Borsari, the founder of the Sarasota Bay Model Railroad Society, won't be there to celebrate the opening.
Borsari, who was 84, said in an East County Observer feature in early May how he was excited about the opening of the museum, but died a few weeks later. Borsari and members of the Sarasota Bay Model Railroad Society put together the professionally built HO scale layout that Pierson purchased to be a feature in his museum. Borsari called it a “world class layout” that was meant to be a museum piece.
The layout, which includes 28,000 handmade trees, was in pieces, though, so Pierson sought out model railroad enthusiasts to help him. Borsari answered the call.
“George got his group together and they were the only reason I was able to put this (model railroad layout) together,” Pierson said. “I quickly became close with George because we were on a like-minded mission. He just did it because he loved it.”
Pierson’s love of toys is on display every day. He can’t take more than two steps in his museum without stopping to share a story about a particular toy, its era, and what made it special. His hope is that the museum’s patrons will feel the same.
Pierson’s Moosehead Toys and Comics business will operate the museum. His idea for the museum came during an antiquing trip to Quechee, Vermont, the site of the Vermont Antique Mall. It was there he met Gary Neil, who had been curating a toy exhibit for more than 40 years and whose finds were on display at the mall.
Neil told Pierson that he wanted to retire and was looking for someone who would not only buy the toys but also keep them to be displayed in a museum. Pierson told him of his desire to start the Sarasota Toy Museum, and they struck a deal.
It became an important part of the deal that Pierson’s 20-year-old son Jacob is autistic. All special needs individuals will be admitted free to the museum.
As Pierson heads toward his opening Aug. 8, he noted 10 of the can’t-miss items for those who visit the museum.
1. Big Loo. This toy robot, which made its debut in 1963 for the Christmas holiday season, would shoot missiles out of his arm. Pierson said Louis Marx and Company only made about 2,000 Big Loos. "I love the (smiling) face on him," Pierson said. "It's not your classic robot toy. It's not something you will see." Big Loo was 3 feet tall and had two flashing battery-powered red eyes along with a hand-cranked mechanical voice box that played 10 messages. Big Loo also squirted water from his navel.
2. Fred Flintstone riding Dino. "This is a toy I never had seen," Pierson said. "I like it because it was such a classic cartoon. It also was battery operated to make it move." The 1960s toy was made by Louis Marx and Company.
3. Superman lunch boxes. Made first by Adco in 1954, Superman lunch boxes are extremely rare according to Pierson (online prices soar over $2,000) and one of the most sought-after collector items in terms of lunch boxes. Although he never had a Superman lunch box as a kid, Pierson did have a Kung Fu lunch box, which is represented in the museum along with hundreds of other vintage lunch boxes.
4. Atomic Robot Man. Made in the 1940s by a Japanese manufacturer, the Atomic Robot Man, a wind-up toy, was copied many times over the years. Pierson said it was the first robot toy produced and is extremely hard to find.
5. Snoopy Riding Space Scooter. The catch on this toy made by Japan's Masudaya is that it wasn't a registered "Peanuts" toy. However, the lookalike capitalized on the popular figure. Snoopy fans obviously didn't care as the toy goes for $1,000 or more online. Pierson said the toy is incredibly rare.
6. An HO scale model railroad scene. The scene, originally built by David Frary, is a replica of the Green Mountains of Vermont and modeled after the area around a ski resort in Killington, Vermont. As museum patrons walk around the exhibit, they will see that all four seasons are represented. Members of the Sarasota Bay Model Railroad Society will continue to monitor the exhibit and add to it.
7. Hot Wheels "redlines." Mattel produced the Hot Wheels "redlines from 1968 through 1977 in which the tires on the toys were marked by red lines using Spectraflame paint. Many clubs exist today for people who collect the "redlines."
8. Cap guns. The museum's considerable cap gun collection features models from the 1800s to the golden age of cap guns after World War II. "I love these," Pierson said. "They are so classic and Western." Pierson couldn't put out some cap guns in the collection because he said they looked too real.
9. Hubley metal die cast toys. After reading about the museum in the East County Observer, a man donated many Hubley Manufacturing Company metal die cast toys from the early 1900s. The original Hubley toys were made of cast iron.
10. Superman string puppet. Pierson still loves stopping by the Superman String Puppet, a prototype for stores made to boost sales of the Madison LTD puppet that sits in the middle of the museum. "He still works," Pierson said. "I can make him dance."
