Tat’s Bizarre Travels

Ballard, WA - My 1^st and 4^th day stops on my Seattle tour were to the always incredible, always awesome Archie McPhee store. I’ve been shopping their online store for years and and was a ball of nonstop excitement about visiting the real life place. It is the rubber chicken and bacon floss mecca of the world. I was in heaven.

When you first enter the store you’re assaulted by a sheer wall of crazy plastic bits hanging from the celling, tacked to the walls and in bins for your buying pleasure. They have a section of wallets, shelves bobble heads, a wall of Jesus’, wigs, masks, urine specimen kits. The place is a wonderland of junk, and yes it seduces you into buying it. I mean really, who doesn’t need a glow in the dark squid?

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Moundsville, WV - When you go to visit the Official Marx Toy Museum get ready for an education. This isn’t a museum that you got to just to look at toys, it’s one where you get to learn about them. You can’t play with them, but considering some of the toys can bring in as much as $14,000 on the collectors market I guess that makes sense. So basically it’s the opposite of every principal a child holds dear. Well, at least it’s a fun education.

When you first come to the museum you’ll be met by the owner, Francis Turner. He has a whole schpeal that lasts a good half hour and includes a little ten minute video that tells you the rise and fall of the Marx empire. I happened to show up at the same time as some other visitors so we got the tour all at the same time, but something tells me he’ll give his talk to as few as one visitors. He’s an expert on the Marx toys and Louis Marx himself. And with thousands of toys that span the 60 years of Marx rule, you can understand how he could get a little attached.

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