For a pull-quote:

“You wouldn’t think nutcrackers for an 8-year-old, but he loves them.”
Collectors: People and their things
Toy soldiers

AUBURN – When Dillon Rowe brought home a good first-trimester report card last month, Mom and Dad surprised him with a nutcracker. On the spot, it became his new favorite.

There’s a definite risk that the little wooden toy, which blares music and swishes a sword, won’t retain that honor for long. Second-grader Dillon has 68 nutcrackers, little soldiers with wide eyes and painted features. He’s asked Santa for even more.

“You wouldn’t think nutcrackers for an 8-year-old, but he loves them,” said his father, Carl. He and mom Deanna look as surprised as anyone.

Dillon bought his first nutcracker at a dollar store three years ago. Something about it looked cool. He asked for more, he bought more, then Santa brought more, and soon enough the feathered caps, gray beards and jaunty swords numbered in the dozens.

At some point, the pace will slow. “I work two jobs. I’m not working a third to supply his nutcracker habit,” Carl teased. But his parents say they’re having fun with the hobby.

“We get excited because we know he’s going to be excited when he gets it,” Deanna said.

The collection came out of storage after Thanksgiving. Dillon set up the display in the picture window himself, with snowy white matting and colorful holiday lights. The tallest is about three feet, the littlest the size of a thumb. The nutcrackers hold lollipops, baskets of fish, swords, horns and drums.

They get played with. Sometimes, “I put a bunch in a whole line and I have one run on the side and knock them all over,” Dillon said.

Before nutcrackers, he used to collect Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards. Just the other day he picked up the start to what might be the makings of his next hobby. He and Deanna were in Kohl’s when a penguin caught his eye. They brought it home. There’s some hope the two collections can live in harmony.

Dillon’s put a penguin nutcracker on his list to Santa.