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.

Top 5 at the Dick Tracy Headquarters

Previously:

Top 5 at the CRC Car Show

Top 5 at the Banjo Museum  - -  Top 5 at the Harryhausen Exhibit

Top 5 at the Oklahoma History Center  - -  Top 5 at the Museum of Osteology

Legendary lawman Dick Tracy originally flowed from the pen of Pawnee, Oklahoma native Chester Gould.  The creation of the prolific cartoonist started in the funny pages but ended up on radio, TV, movies, and tons of toys & memorabilia.  Pawnee celebrates their favorite son with a annual festival and a museum on the town square.  Since I stopped by recently I thought it'd give it the ol' "Top 5" treatment so here's the Top 5 pieces of memorabilia on display at the Dick Tracy HQ:

5. Dick Tracy NES Game

I'm not a big video game guy but I did have a Nintendo back in the day.  This guy is from 1990 and seems like it would tie in to the Warren Beatty movie but according to a 30 second Google research session, it was more about the comic strip.  There were car chases & crime solving aplenty in 8 bit glory as Tracy joined Mario & Link in the NES pantheon.

4.  Secret Code Maker

Tracy saw way too much action for his team to rely on just a Decoder Ring.  This vintage beauty let Baby Boomer kids create uncrackable codes to update their crime fighting friends and bedevil their felonious foes.  Imagine what little Ralphie from "A Christmas Story" could do, locked away in his bathroom, with this thing!  Little Orphan who?

3.  Pawnee Police Dept Patch

According to Dodie, the nice lady working at the museum that day, the town's police actually do wear this patch as a part of their uniform.  It makes me wonder if there are other police departments in the country that have a fictional character as a part of their uniform.  I'd like to think Pawnee's finest like the idea of continuing Tracy's work.

2.  2-Way Wristwatch

Dick Tracy's #1 gadget is the 2-Way Radio Wristwatch.  It's one of the first examples of a recurring tech gadget in popular fiction and the museum staff is happy to point to it as a precursor to the Apple Watch.  Other than the hat/coat and square jaw, it's probably the most well known part of the character.

1.  Chester Gould Original Art

If you're going to celebrate an artist, you're gonna need some art.  The HQ has several examples of it on display.  They've also got original newspaper comic strips, old sketches and other examples of Gould's creativity.  It's a great way to get to a good look old school Oklahoma artwork.

Crime Busting Collection

One of the more unique museums in Oklahoma can be found in Pauls Valley.  The Toy & Action Figure Museum houses every kind of super hero, villain, monster and cartoon character that has ever been immortalized in plastic.

It's also home to the Oklahoma Cartoonist Collection which honors the surprising number of cartoonists and comic book artists that were from (or lived in) Oklahoma.  One of the most famous honorees is Chester Gould, creator of comic strip character Dick Tracy.  At my last visit they had a small exhibit dedicated to Dick Tracy memorabilia:

The character has been around since the early 1930's and has appeared in numerous different types of media ranging from newspaper strips to film serials to animation.  The character's biggest hit was probably the 1990 Warren Beatty movie.  A lot of this collection was released in conjunction with that film but there are some other older pieces as well:

    

 

Dick Tracy has been around long enough to be one of those characters that has staying power.  And with the constant rebooting and rehashing of franchises, it's only a matter of time before this hero with Oklahoma origins returns to a screen near you.