Hey Kansas City, toy museum needs your Care Bears, Smurfs & other 1980s playthings
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Museum requests 1980s toys for upcoming exhibit; donations by April 30.
- Collections committee reviews gifts for rarity, history, origin and condition.
- Donors must email objectdonation@toyandminiaturemuseum.org; no drop-offs.
If you’ve been putting off cleaning out your basement, the garage and all your closets, here’s some fun incentive.
The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures in Kansas City needs donations of toys from the “golden age” of 1980s Saturday morning cartoons — Care Bears, My Little Pony, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Smurfs, Rainbow Brite, Transformers, Masters of the Universe and the like.
The museum, at 5235 Oak Street on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus, needs them for an upcoming exhibit. Donations will be reviewed by the museum’s collections committee for possible inclusion.
If you can ‘bear” to part with them.
For Gen X and early millennials, Saturday morning cartoons were must-see TV — along with a bowl of cereal. The goal of many of those shows? Sell toys.
But it’s not just plushies and action figurines the museum seeks.
“Do you have a special memory of, or photograph with, the toy? Even better! If you’d like your toys to find a permanent home in the museum collection, please reach out,” the museum said in a statement this week.
Here’s the information the museum needs: Your contact information, any history you have about the toy and its original owners, photos showing all sides of the toy and any maker’s mark.
Email this to objectdonation@toyandminiaturemuseum.org by April 30.
The museum typically considers donations six months out of the year, which lets staffs work on other projects the rest of the year.
The museum’s collections committee, according to the website, considers such factors as the rarity of the donation, historical significance, origin and condition. Typically, they like toys that people played with; they collect memories from donors to share with visitors.
The museum doesn’t accept unsolicited drop-offs, so it’s best to send an email.
The museum is home to the world’s largest collection of fine-scale miniatures and one of the country’s largest collections of historically significant toys from about 1690 to present day on public display.
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