Finding Oklahoma: Toy Museum

 Normally, my travels take me across Oklahoma but occasionally I venture past state lines and into the abyss.  When I make these journeys I try to keep an eye out for any signs of Okie influence on these strange new locales.  Such a thing occurred recently when I found myself in the retiree tourist mecca known as Branson, MO.

Road after road, block after block, the city is an explosion of Baby Boomer nostalgia along with the best live entertainment the 1970s had to offer.  Travelers have a variety of options for spending their money and/or wasting their time but it was the World's Largest Toy Museum that caught my eye. 

So I stopped in with the primary objective being to kill some time with a strong, secondary objective of seeing if I could get a blog post out of it by finding anything related to Oklahoma within its colorful walls.  Let's see how I did.

Various Gene Autry Stuff

The Oklahoma Singing Cowboy has an entire city named after him in the southern part of the state and a museum dedicated to him within it filled with memorabilia.  He wasn't shy about licensing his name or likeness (and his descendants seemed to be plenty happy to keep that train rolling) so there's no surprise that plenty of his playthings ended up here.  There's a game, book and wallet in this pic but there were plenty other specimens on display that would have delighted young cowpokes back in the day.

Various Dick Tracy Stuff

The Legendary lawman was created by Pawnee, OK native Chester Gould and just like we saw at Dick Tracy's Headquarters in that little town, there are plenty of pieces from the past that celebrate the top cop's legacy.  And while Tracy's heyday may have been the 40s and 50s, he had a big resurgence in the 90s when the Warren Beatty movie came out.  There was a good mix of old and slightly less old stuff on display here.

Chuck Norris Karate Kommando Action Figure

Karate was big in the 80s and so were Saturday morning cartoons.  Combining them was a no-brainer and high-kicking movie hero (and Ryan, OK native) Chuck Norris fit the genre perfectly.  His animated series involved an (only slightly more) cartoony version of himself leading a poorly drawn team of action heroes against bland bad guys.  Back then any halfway decent cartoon got their own toy line and kids rejoiced at the opportunity to have their very own pocket-sized Chuck. 

Richie Cunningham Mego

In its prime, "Happy Days" was Americana incarnate.  Its popularity guaranteed the arrival of plenty of merch on the shelves like these Mego figures.  I couldn't tell you if these are originals or more modern reproductions but you can clearly see all-American teenager Richie Cunningham right in the middle of the action where he should be.  Of course, he was played by Duncan, OK native Ron Howard whose likeness on the doll is...eh...not as bad as it could be.  Note his steely-eyed confidence even though he's flanked on both sides by a shirtless Fonzie and a shirtless Ralph Malph.  Don't ask me what the story is here.

Lily Sloane Action Figure

Lily Sloane helped the Star Trek crew defeat the Borg in one of the least disliked Star Trek movies ever.  And of course she was played by Tulsa native Alfre Woodard who went toe-to-toe with Patrick Stewart in the scifi adventure.  The museum had a big Star Trek section and this figure stood out to me amongst the many Picards and Datas in their different outfits.

The museum had several buildings in their complex and more toys than you could count.  But with a little effort it's always possible to find a little piece of Oklahoma in the mix.