JOPLIN, Mo. — You can now head to Downtown Joplin and step back in time to see your favorite action figure, doll, or movie poster.
After having space for several years in the Joplin Flea Market, an area family says they simply ran out of space so they moved a short distance away and opened up G.I. Bill’s Toys and Collectables.
Melba Rigg is the co-owner and says it’s the ideal place to go to locate hard-to-find collectibles, as well as pieces from a collection customers may have lost over the years.
“Lord of the Rings, we have GI Joe, we have Power Rangers, we have He-Man, we have build your own figures, we have Marvel, we have Spawn, we have pieces from old things like the Mach One, we have some car pieces, we have Jack and Sally, we have Batman and Robin,” said Rigg.
A good example is Chelsea Kraft who, along with her family, walked in for the first time and was glad she did. Although most of what she bought isn’t going to her child.
“This place, it’s amazing. We don’t have a lot of vintage stores around here and the collection is just, it’s awesome, I love it. The Star Wars collection she has is nothing I’ve seen in a long time,” said Kraft.
Rigg says that if they don’t have what you’re looking for, they can probably find it.
And, if you have a prized piece that no longer works, she says there’s a good chance they can fix it.
“They come to the store and they say ‘I used to have that, I used to play with that, I wonder where that is now, I bet that’s buried in the back yard,’ things like that. So we get that kind of stuff all the time here,” said Rigg.
And she says she’s pulling out all the stops to get people in to separate them from other collectible stores just a few doors away.
“The fact they put a mannequin on the outside, that brought me in. That was, that was awesome. I thought that was a real person,” said Kraft.