ONTARIO — Toy Hunters celebrated its grand reopening Friday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its new location, 2032 W. 4th Street.
City and county officials – even Batman and Spider-Man – made an appearance.
Guests admired the vast collection of action figures, comic books and video games that could be found inside the store. Some took their picture in a 1966 Batmobile, owned by Jim Hedges of Galion, which was parked in front of the building.
Toy Hunters was originally located at 1058 Park Ave. West in Mansfield (across from Empress Express), but the need for additional space prompted a move to West Fourth Street.
“We thought this would be a good spot,” said Tony Cambarare, who co-owns the store with his wife Haizhen Zhang. “It’s kind of a gateway to the mall and all these retail locations, so we thought we’d get better exposure.”
Toy Hunters is a pop-culture collectibles dealer.
“We deal in everything from vintage 70s action figures to current action figures,” Cambarare said. “Anything that has to do with comic book superheroes to Beetle Juice to horror, sci-fi, fantasy, Transformers, G.I. Joe – all that fun stuff.”
Cambarare has been buying, selling and trading collectibles for the past several years.
“As a kid from the 80s, I grew up on He-Man and Transformers and G.I. Joe, so I was really into those cartoons and toys, he said.
“I had a lot of hand-me-down He-Man toys and stuff (as a kid), but I could never get the Transformers, so as an adult I started buying Transformers and then I started selling them.”
He and his wife decided to open Toy Hunters about three years ago, and it’s been doing well ever since, Cambarare said.
“I’m looking forward to having more people come in and feel that special nostalgia,” he said.
Toy Hunters is open seven days a week:
- Monday through Thursday: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Sunday: 12 to 5 p.m.
