Wired's got a fabulous gallery of photos from the Toy and Action Figure Museum in Pauls Valley, OK -- the metastasized personal collection of one wonderful obsessive named Kevin Stark: "In 2000, Stark convinced the Pauls Valley City Council that the town needed a tourist attraction and the museum should be it. In 2005, it finally opened its doors. The museum seems a little out of place among Pauls Valley's other businesses: a gun store, a couple of gas stations, an insurance company or two."

Giant Midwest Mecca of Nerditude in Oklahoma (Image: Jim Merithew/Wired.com)

  • Clifton

    ‘Major Matt Mason’ Space Station? Oh man… I’d forgotten about the Matt Mason toys. I had one of the figures but my brother had the space station.

  • Anonymous

    It’s all junk! I have to save Toby!

  • Jack

    I think I’m showing my snob-side here, but that is a collection of really lame stuff. It might be related to age, but I saw no MEGO figures or any of the classic army men and other classic Marx figures that were the precursors to the stuff from the 80s and 90s.

    It really just seems like a pile of stuff.

    I’d prefer something with a historic timeline and context. Seeing that mish-mash of a Batman collection was frustrating.

    Get a Japanese toy store owner to help consult on that place and I’m sure you could get a better and more cohesive collection put together.

  • Tiki Wahine

    I dated a guy who’s bedroom looked like this, but the floor was clean and he only had Star Trek figures.

  • Abundando

    A couple of useful links:
    Toy & Action Figure Museum website with its own
    Photo gallery.

  • robulus

    Mike Brown helps his son Marshall, 7, get into a costume in the Super Room. Marshall chose a Spider-Man body with a Flash mask.

    But Marshall, you can’t mix…. oh jeez what the hell.

  • mrhaydel

    I’ve been to this museum before.

    Going up to Stillwater last year, my friend and I saw the billboard and said, we *have* to go to that on the way back.

    We came back on a Sunday, drove into Paul’s Valley, and were shattered to find out we had gotten there 5 minutes before closing time.

    Fearing the worst, we stepped inside and were greeted by a man (I can’t remember who, though it must have been Stark), who told us that though he was closing soon, he wouldn’t charge us the entrance fee, and that we could look around for as long as we wanted to.

    It was completely as awesome as it looks in the pictures, especially the giant wall of figures.

    Overall, a great roadside attraction to be certain.

  • Art

    An amazing collection with a very engaging description: “the metastasized personal collection of one wonderful obsessive”. Thanks!

  • MrFerret

    NEEEEEEEEEErrrrrrrrrdddddddd!!!

  • Anonymous

    Oklahoma is not part of the Midwest.

  • Moriarty

    Every small town should have some ridiculous attraction.

  • Rotwang

    I see he has the ‘Major Matt Mason’ Space Station, which I also had. Good times, good times…

  • cortana

    I was entirely sure this had to be a Danny Choo post, too. Shocked am I.

  • Anonymous

    We live in Oklahoma City and recently took our son to the Action Figure Museum. It is a pretty impressive collection and the owner, Kevin, is a great guy. He broke out the Star Wars Force FX Lightsabers and battled my son for 15 minutes.

  • Hellosluggo

    Burger King alert, lower left of the photo. Wake up with the King, yo.

  • nanuq

    “NEEEEEEEEEErrrrrrrrrdddddddd!”

    Since I can name every frigging one of those figures, I personally can’t throw stones.

  • RedShirt77

    I must say that I object to The Crow toy pictured in the wired photo gallery. Action figures have movable arms. That’s a Figurine Yo!

  • RedShirt77

    Oh wow He-Man’s Robo horse and the spitting snake guy.

    My best friend in elementary school had literally every He-Man action figure and building or vehicle. Skunk man actually smelled funny. What a bad idea for a toy that was. As much as divorce sucks for kids It sure was nice to be friends with a kid whose parents were trying to buy his loyalty.

  • gandalf23

    Does anyone know what the skyscrapers/buildings are in the third photo in the wired article. They look to be the right size for a toy Godzilla to give the smackdown too. For ummm….my nephew to play with, of course. :)

  • claatra

    Hey, I live right down the street about a half mile from the Action Figure museum. I haven’t been back since opening day, it isn’t very large, but most of the toys in it are all from Kevin’s personal collection. Oh, and they used to assign people’s community service as working at the action figure museum.