Jay Hamilton’s collection grew and grew, and then his family started growing, too.
LISBON FALLS – Jay Hamilton IV had to build an addition to his house to fit his collection of vintage ’70s toys.
It’s that big.
A hundred-plus lunch boxes. Dozens and dozens of G.I. Joes. Every old Star Wars play set, figure and ship. A mind-numbing number of Matchboxes. For years they were crammed in every spare spot in his home.
Of course, he could be discreet when he had to be.
“When I met him, the only evidence of any of this was a little pile of naked G.I. Joes at the bottom of the stairway,” said his wife, Rachel, laughing.
All those toys everywhere worked fine until this fall when they got the news: Rachel is expecting twins in March.
The twins need bedrooms.
Toys filled the bedrooms.
Jay got cracking. He’s about finished moving everything. It’s been quite a task.
“I’ve got toys in the attic, toys in the basement … they’re everywhere,” he said.
Rachel motioned to the living room and said, “When the babies come, that’s going to be a toy-free zone – at least his toys.”
Jay, 38, collected anything related to Star Wars, Megos and comics as a kid and shelved them around the time he turned 15, when he said he discovered cars and girls.
Several years later, when he was in college, he got back into comic books to kill time during the long breaks between classes. The collecting started all over again. He only buys things he wanted or had as a kid.
Most of the finds come through flea markets and eBay.
“For years, I used to buy every (Star Wars) collection that was in Uncle Henry’s,” Jay said.
He’d pick the ones he wanted, upgrade if he had the same thing but in worse shape, and sell or trade the rest.
He has set up the first room in his addition with neat, tall shelves on every wall and two islands in the center for more storage space.
Above that is what he calls the “magic room,” accessible through a trap door in the ceiling and fold-down stairs.
“I like the effect of no one seeing it’s here until I pull the stairs down,” he said. Up there, he’s lined about 190 vintage metal lunch boxes along the walls. “Hee Haw.” Yogi Bear. Spider-Man and Hulk.
“I’ve talked him out of selling the lunch boxes several times,” Rachel said. She thinks he would regret it. But, into the future: “He knows if he wants more stuff, something has to go.”
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