Lumberton Toy and Comic Show draws hundreds of people, features childhood memories

LUMBERTON, NC (WBTW) – Nostalgia was the name of the game during the biannual Lumberton Toy and Comic Show held this weekend at Biggs Park Mall.

“Toys from your childhood,” said Sean Morse, the event’s promoter. “If you were born in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s or 90’s, we have the toys you played with when you grew up.”

Morse said the two-day show drew hundreds of people. They saw special appearances, live comic book designs and toys, collectible cards, and comic book crate cases.

“There are different types of collectors, I’ll put it that way,” Morse said. “Some are very methodical. They come to me and have a list, either on paper or on their computer, and they look for very specific items.

Morse said such buyers can run into thousands of dollars for the right supplier. The price of collectibles has skyrocketed over the past 20 years, in part thanks to the reboot of classic franchises, he said.

“I think a lot are coming back, like Netflix has a new He-man cartoon, so all the vintage stuff just goes up the way people want it,” Eric Dellinger of House of Heroes Comics and Collectibles in North tells Myrtle Beach.

“We love to do this show,” Dellinger said. “It’s a good time and we do it every year.

Shaun Thornton, owner of Lumberton’s only comic book store, Crime Alley Comics and Collectibles, said his store wouldn’t exist without the show.

“I got a table, literally took my personal collection and brought it in and sold it and got the money to buy new things and open my store,” Thornton said. .

“It’s a huge hobby right now,” Morse said.