Nostalgia filled the Tucson Expo Center as collectors sifted through vintage action figures, comic books and die-cast cars during the 37th annual Tucson Toy Fair, one of the nation’s largest gatherings for toy enthusiasts.

The March 1 show featured more than 100 vendors and roughly 500 tables filled with toys, collectibles and comic books. Organizers say the event is the third-largest toy convention in the United States, behind events in Chicago and Ohio, drawing sellers and collectors from across the country to buy, sell and trade rare items.

David Crowe, the show’s manager and vendor liaison, has been with Arizona Toy Con, the company that organizes the Tucson Toy Fair, for just five months. But he has been part of the toy industry since 1991, buying and collecting rare action figures.

Crowe said the Tucson Toy Fair fills a niche that few other shows in the western United States can match.

“There’s no show bigger in California,” he said. “We can do it in Tucson because of its unique qualities.”

He said that for a show of this size, Tucson is one of the few places with enough venue space available at an affordable rate.

Arizona Toy Con hosts two Tucson Toy Fairs each year and also organizes smaller conventions in Mesa and Glendale. Crowe said vendors travel from across the country to sell at the event.

“This has the most vintage stuff that you will see outside of going all the way to Chicago,” he said. “We have dealers who come in from as far away as Rhode Island and even Canada to sell. It’s vintage stuff that is just not found anywhere in the Southwest normally.”

The fair includes modern favorites such as Transformers, Star Wars, Funko Pops and Hot Wheels, but it also draws collectors searching for Golden Age comic books and toys from the 1930s and 1940s, including Roy Rogers guns and Shirley Temple dolls.

Many of the vendors behind the tables are collectors themselves, longtime enthusiasts who have spent years buying and trading the items they love.

Vendor Toby Gray has been buying and selling comic books for 10 years. He said it all began with his personal collection of Jack Kirby comics.

When a friend asked him to join a vendor table, he jumped at the opportunity. In the decade since, his small side venture has grown far beyond what he ever imagined.

“It’s the biggest show in town and they just expanded to doing it twice a year,” he said. “It's a great buying show.”

He said his experience at the toy fair opened the door for him to sell comics at Midtown Mercantile, an antique store on Speedway Boulevard.

Another vendor, Greg Davidson from Albuquerque, started selling two years ago but has been frequenting the fair for more than a decade. He said the event gives him the perfect opportunity to sell collectibles from his store.

“It’s the biggest show west of the Mississippi,” he said. “I can carry everything movie and music-related here.”

Beyond the business of buying and selling, nostalgia is another reason vendors come to the Tucson Toy Fair. Bob McLemore said he hopes his booth of vintage Star Wars figures and pressed steel die-cast cars reminds people of their childhood.

“It accumulates after a while, so we try to sell some stuff and are always looking for odds and ends,” he said. “You constantly hear, ‘I had that when I was a kid. Oh, I remember having that. Oh man, my mom threw it away.’”

For McLemore and his wife, it’s not just an opportunity to clear out their garage but to take people down memory lane as well.

Arizona Toy Con’s next events are scheduled for June 27 in Mesa and Nov. 15 at the Tucson Expo Center.

Crowe said the events offer collectors something many people didn’t realize they missed.

“You can expect to find your childhood and revel in nostalgia,” he said. “If you only attend one toy show, this is the toy show to attend.”

Elias Bonilla is a journalism and political science major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact him at ebonilla1500@gmail.com.

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