Turnout gear in lockers around the truck bays reminded shoppers they were in a working firehouse.
Review & Onsite Photos by Madelia Hickman Ring
NORTH FRANKLIN, CONN. — Temperatures were seasonally low the morning of Sunday, March 9, when about 40 sellers set up folding tables in two spaces in the Franklin Volunteer Fire Department’s (FVFD) firehouse. So, just a few of those shoppers who showed up for the 9 am Early Buying waited in line, while the rest of the more than 50 waited in their cars for the doors to open. Once through the door, visitors saw table after table, laden with antique, vintage and collectible toys.
“We were very pleased,” shared Alison Dvorak, the FVFD’s secretary, when Antiques and The Arts Weekly reached her after the show. “It went well, we had a great crowd, everyone seemed very happy and it went smoothly on our end. We had a few three-generation groups come through, grandparents and grandchildren, which was nice to see.”
Dvorak did not have specific attendance data but thought they’d had “at least two- if not three-hundred people, which was about the same number we had [in 2024.]”
In the first room, the department’s event coordinator, Jodie Hanks, was selling tickets and was accompanied by the department’s new mascot, a three-month-old fainting goat named Penelope, who is owned by rescue lieutenant Laura Burke. Penelope was decked out in a red coat that matched ones the department’s volunteers wear. Burke runs Mountain View Equine Farm where she does equine assisted therapy with three horses and five goats.
Jodie Hanks, the department’s event coordinator, with the department’s mascot, a three-month-old fainting goat named Penelope.
Tables next to Hanks were set up with boxes of Department 56 Snow Village pieces; Hanks explained that a local Franklin resident had given the department more than 200 individual pieces, all in their original boxes and Styrofoam packaging. The FVFD was selling them at flat recommended donation rates: $5 for small pieces, $10 for medium pieces and $20 for the large pieces.
Raymond and Desiree Cooper came from Yantic, Conn., and have been doing the show all three years since it’s been an event. A roofer in his day job, Raymond and Desiree scour yard sales and flea markets in their off hours. They were offering a flywheel train they’d found at an estate sale, Snoopy and Mickey Mouse phones, boxed games, a Texaco Fire Chief’s hat, a Robo Force game, Barbie’s Friend Ship and Country Camper and a REMCO Coney Island Penny Machine.
Wolcott, Conn., residents Karen and Jerry Guerra have been collecting toys for about 40 years, but also specialize in movie posters. An accordion playing clown was accompanied by a monkey with cymbals shared table space with a musical marching bear, a Cataplane, a Spiderman and Hulk game and a mechanical shuttling car. While we were examining their wares, a shopper negotiated the sale of a tin airport with an airplane.
The Guerras’ neighbor was Gary Perreault, from Colchester, Conn., who centered a 30-car boxed Hot Wheels Garage that he said he’d purchased from a woman in Canterbury, Conn., whose nephew was a “toy car hoarder.” On the adjacent table were eight vintage lunchboxes, a Nylunt Aerial Hook-N-Ladder and a Japanese Showboat.
Reference books and price guides are a dealer’s best friend. Michael Kinsley was double checking the value variations of a Lionel train station on the table in front of him. Hebron, Conn.
Trains are the specialization of Michael Kinsley, a Hebron, Conn., resident who grew up in the train yards in Boston. He was looking up prices of a Lionel Train Station in a price guide while we came through. For those whose interests follow the skies rather than the rails, he had a P-51D Mustang plane model leaning against a corner.
Across from Kinsley, Robert and Maria Bareiss parked two vintage Schwinn bicycles next to a table loaded with model Volkswagens, steel cars and wooden trains. The earlier of the two bicycles was a green 1968 banana-seat Schwinn Sting-Ray with tall handle bars and whitewall tires. The other bike was a 1971 silver Grey Ghost; both bikes had been restored.
While most of the sellers were from eastern Connecticut, there were a few from adjacent states as well. Coming from West Warwick, R.I., Estelle and Lou Verte were returning to the show for the second time. At one end of their booth, two Tru-Action Electric football games shared space with a Keystone Packard WWI army ambulance, while at the other end, cast iron vehicles held court.
North Franklin residents Clay and Mary Smith are Das Bulli Haus and will be familiar with readers of our Brimfield show coverage; they have set up at Hertan’s (now Brimfield Antique Shows) for years. Pressed steel, tin, wood, paper lithographed, cast iron and Steiff are among their areas of expertise. Tables holding Steiff toys, Japanese robots and a German doll carousel was the backdrop for two mechanized store display figures that had been constructed from dolls.
Clay and Mary Smith, center and right, are Das Bulli Haus. They were showing store display figures from the 60s and 70s.
Mark Nall is a retired chief of the FVFD and his booth near the door had a diverse selection, from a 1960s GI Joe Jet Helicopter made by Hasbro, to a Johnny Lightning 500 Rocket Le Mans racetrack, to cast iron and tin vehicles, to PEZ dispensers.
The department’s truck bays were mostly evacuated for the rest of the show’s vendors to set up their tables. In the cavernous space, which gave sellers lots of elbow room to spread out, one heard snippets of conversations, about tires, paint jobs and chassis, which applied to both the full-sized vehicles in the department or the miniature versions for sale.
Jeff Doe’s father owned a hobby shop and he told us that he was buying and selling toys when he was five years old. Vehicles are his thing: model cars of every make, model and size, including NASCAR and Formula One racers.
Colt and Meganne Duckworth are other out-of-staters, traveling about 60 miles to the show from Seekonk, Mass. Original vendors now in their third time doing the FVFD show, they brought pieces Colt had restored. Among them was a Keystone Army truck made in Boston around 1930 that he had found under a porch in Bristol, R.I. He fabricates parts so if you have a toy that needs a little TLC, he might be able to help.
Colt Duckworth restored this 1930 Keystone Army truck. Colt’s Collectibles, Seekonk, Mass.
“The difference between a collector and a hoarder is the space they have,” quipped Larry Eiden. The Oakdale, Conn., seller was at the show for the first time and said he brought stuff he’d collected over the years, because “it was time to let someone else play with it.” Large Ty stuffed animals, Playskool Lincoln Logs and a Superman flying plane shared space with a Hostess Twinkies maker in its original box.
Another first-timer was Spencer Bauch, whose hobby is trains. “My wife said I needed a hobby when I retired in 2018, so I went to the Big E train show and joined a local club. Before you knew it, I had a 9-by-16-foot layout in my basement. I used to come and shop this show but decided I’d try it out. We sold like crazy this morning!”
Ed Bernier and Karl Hansen shared a booth. Bernier, from Lebanon, Conn., had a Willie Tyler’s Lester ventriloquist dummy he’d found at an estate sale, and a 28-inch Chris Craft cruiser. Hansen was offering American Flyer train transformers and tracks.
Jim Sinkowski’s father Joseph Sinkowski, worked at the Mystic River Sales Company, which made Thunderbird Junior cars, and he is always on the lookout for surviving examples. The Groton, Conn., dealer also likes trains, and, for the past 30 years, has been attending the nearly week-long York, Penn., Train Collectors Association meets, which he said attract 10,000 people.
Jim Sinkowski had vintage Märklin train set pieces marked down for the day. Groton, Conn.
“Tractors have been the most popular thing for me,” said Patrick — no last name given — who lives in Pomfret, Conn., and works for Electric Boat in Groton. Few other sellers at the show had many vintage John Deere pieces, but he had a good selection to choose from.
Brothers John and Bill — last names withheld — came from Colchester and Norwich, Conn with a selection that ranged from Tinkertoys to Teletubbies.
The Fourth Annual Franklin Fire Department Antique & Collectible Toy Show will take place on Sunday, March 8, 2026. Dealer space is available, with the $20 booth space benefitting the FVFD. For information, contact Jodie Hanks at eventsfvfd@gmail.com or 860-966-7612.
