This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey, what's up? It's Mario Lopez. Back to schools, an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming, and kids may feel isolated. A vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit.
Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions, whether you're a parent, teacher, coach, or neighbor. Check in. Ask questions. Stay connected.
Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to report at dhs.gov/slash blue campaign. This is Justin Richmond, host of Broken Record. Lexis is a company that believes in the importance of setting a standard, which I can appreciate as someone who holds themselves to lofty if not ridiculous standards, especially with the car I drive. The standard Lexis has set for themselves is to experience amazing.
Lexis measures success by the feeling and emotions evoked in a driver, like exhilaration and joy. Amazing can only be achieved by knowing people on a deeper level. The standard of amazing results in a feeling in drivers that their car was built in anticipation. of them. Machines that make you feel more human.
Because a car that doesn't make you feel something is a car that stops short of amazing. Experience Amazing at your Lexus Dealer. Ugh. Come on, why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient.
Still using yesterday's tech? Upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity with Intel Core ultra-processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance that keeps up with your business, not the other way around. Whoa, this thing moves. Stop hitting snooze on new tech.
Win the tech search at lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, powered by Intel Core Ultra Processors, so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. I'm Scott Hanson, host of NFL Red Zone. Lowe's knows Sundays hit different when you earn them.
We've got you covered with outdoor power equipment from Cobalt and everything you need to weatherproof your deck with Trex decking. Plus, with lawn care from Scotts and, of course, pit boss grills and accessories, you can get a home field advantage all season long.
So get to Lowe's, get it done, and earn your Sunday. Lowe's, official partner of the NFL. Abercrombie's coziest sale ever means 20 to 50% off all sweatshirts and sweatpants. And iHeart listeners are getting an extra 15% off almost everything with code iHeartAF. Matching sets and Abercrombie's iconic soft day of fabric were made for fall.
Shop the sale in the app, online, and in stores. 20 to 50% off all sweatshirts and sweatpants is valid in the US and Canada through 10-13-2025 excludes clearance online price reflex discount. Use code iHeartAF for an extra 15% off almost everything through 10-13-2025 in US and Canada. Exclusion supply, see details online. This is our American stories, and our next story: well, we love.
This kind of story, it comes to us. from the Toy and Action Figure Museum. in Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. That's right, the Toy in Action Figure Museum. Its founder, Kevin Stark, says it's the first museum to be entirely dedicated to action figures.
Take it away, Kevin. My name is Kevin Stark. I am the curator and executive director of the Toy and Action Figure Museum and also the founder of the museum. And I got started. Yasha started collecting toys a long time ago, back in 1986.
The girlfriend I had at the time drugged me to an antique flea market. And I didn't really want to go spend the afternoon looking at antiques, but... They had all these cool toys and they were cheap. And so I came out with an armload of toys and I said, Wow, that was fun. When are we going back?
She said, well, it happens every month. And I was like, oh, cool.
So I started collecting toys and I amassed this huge collection. But even as a kid, I had convinced my parents to let me clean out our basement so that that could be my private play area. and I shared a room with two brothers.
So when my brothers found out that my parents thought that was a great idea, You know, they were a little upset with me over it, but my dad said, hey, he came up with the idea and he cleaned it up, so, you know, get lost. And I had gotten a job when I was like 10 years old. in order for me to be able to go and buy my own toys.
So I've actually been collecting, you know, really since I was 10. Ha ha ha ha ha. But I've just always been attracted to toys. I've always enjoyed them and liked them. And then when I'm...
You know. when it became my business to actually design them. All the better. In 1990, I got a call to design toys. It was actually a guy I went to school with, and he calls and says, How would you like to design toys for the teenage mutant ninja turtles?
And I was like, You wouldn't believe what I'm sitting around right now.
So I'd already been collecting for four or five years. He didn't know I was a collector. You know, I didn't know he was a designer and so we just got together and He said, can you be in LA on Monday morning at 9 a.m. for a flight to LA? And I was like, you bet I can.
He had been working for small toy companies. And every time their toy companies got bought out, he lost his job.
So he decided to start his own company. that would do design work, but mostly write copy. For the action figures and toys and create the accessories that go in them. And that's a lot of what we did. create sewer maps for the turtles, a lot of the extra things that went in with the toys.
We worked for a lot of different toy companies that don't have an in-house design team. Big, huge companies like Mattel and Hasbro and Kinner. And so a company would come to us and say, We need this designed or we need Like in the case of Tunnelsylvania, that we did for Spielberg and Toy Island. Or it's like We need you to design this line based on a cartoon series. And so that's what we did.
We would look at the characters and come up with different Ways that they could make toys. Everything from plush toys to wind-ups to action figures to play sets. And of course We would come up with it. You then had to send the drawings over to the company. They would say yay or nay, or they'd make changes here and there.
A lot of times we didn't have a lot of time to do it. The deadlines, a lot of times, were really quick and really short. One toy line in particular, the mummy we did for the Universal Studios movie. We had, I think, two weeks to design and get some sculpts done. before the New York Toy Fair.
They kind of went for a long time, no, we're not going to do toys, not going to do toys. And then two or three weeks before, they said, Oh, we're going to do toys. Can you guys knock this out? And so we were working twenty four hours a day taking like little cat naps on my couch in my office and You know, getting up and doing more drawing.
So sometimes it's very fast work and Other times you have lots of time.
So, you know, it just varied with the project. I point out to people that come here, there are a lot of doll museums and there are a lot of toy museums, but we are really basically an action figure museum. Our focus is the design and sculpting. and art of action figures.
So even though we have toys too, most of them relate somehow to action figures. you know, in the way of play sets or vehicles or things like that.
So that's what makes us different and we have over 13,000 action figures in the collection. Most of the collection, 90% of what you see in the museum is from my private collection. but we do get some things donated. You know, a funny thing is people say, oh, you must do eBay a lot. I never do eBay.
I mean, very rarely have I ever picked anything up on eBay. I personally prefer to go out and see the things I'm purchasing. I like to. hold it in my hand and say, is this what I want? and purchase it like that.
That's just what I prefer because to me I like the hunt.
So really, I go on what I call toy safari. We got a call from a lady in Arkansas one time. And I didn't talk to her, but one of our board members did. And so he calls me up and he says, you want to go on a road trip? And I was like What are we talking about?
Well, this lady said she had this toy collection she just wanted to donate to the museum. And I said, Well, what are we talking about? He said, Well, He didn't really know. He said he tried to get her to send pictures. And she didn't really know how to do that on her phone, so she only sent like three or four pictures that were.
Um These little tiny figures on shelves, you know.
So we just hop in my Toyota 4Runner and drive all the way to Arkansas.
Well, she had so much stuff. that we piled it all in my car. drove back to Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. Rented a huge U-Haul truck. and went back, still filled that up and my car again.
'Cause we had no idea what we were getting into. It was her husband's collection and he had passed away and wanted this stuff donated to the museum and We were like, are you sure you want to do this? Because, you know, we told her she could sell this stuff on eBay or whatever. And she said, no. She said, I'm actually a very minimalist person.
I just want all this stuff out of here. And it was funny because the whole house was packed with toys. And she was telling me she liked to live very Spartanly. My wife and I went to a garage sale one time here in Paul's Valley and The family, it was just, you know, the couple, they had a daughter. And we were mostly going to the garage sale for my wife.
You know, she was checking stuff out.
Well they had all these cool Boy toys. I'm talking about great stuff that was worth a lot of money. And I was just putting everything in my arms trying to, you know, pick it all up and my wife was clear across the way visiting with somebody and I was like, come here, come here. I said, we need to get this stuff.
Well, it turned out that the father always wanted a little boy and he got a little girl.
So he was just buying her boy toys too, you know, and I think because he liked them.
So I just picked up a lot of really great stuff for next to nothing for garage sale prices. and was very happy to get them and they're all in the museum right now.
Some of my favorite exhibits in the museum deal with my favorite character, which is Batman. In fact, we have a whole bat cave devoted to just Batman.
So, there are a lot of figures there. And we created a World War II display, which we had both the European campaign and the Pacific campaign. All done in 12-inch tall action figures. But we built buildings and everything in order to create a diorama. Of these action figures and recreated the World War II scenes.
Well, The older generation of people who would come in here, they loved that because they could relate to that and a lot of old World War II veterans. And in fact, we had one guy come in who These figures we used are not G.I. Joe's specifically.
Some of them are from other companies that are very much. Accurate. figures from World War II. Anyway, this one figure has a shoulder patch on it. which was a paratrooper outfit, paratrooper unit.
Well that that guy, that was his unit.
Okay? He couldn't believe that we had an action figure of his unit in World War II. He was just blown away and we had a great time talking about it. Most everyone finds something that they can relate to. And that they're amazed at.
We have people who come in and think, why do I want to be in here? I'm only here because my husband's here or whatever. and then they see stuff they had as a kid. And really, we're less about toys and more about nostalgia, more about your childhood. People come in here, they almost always leave happy, you know.
So that's always a great thing. And you've been listening to Kevin Stark and he is the founder of The Toy and Action Figure Museum in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. His story, the story of a museum of a man's making, here. on our American story. Hey, what's up?
It's Marla Lopez. Back to schools, an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit. Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions, whether you're a parent, teacher, coach, or neighbor. Check in.
Ask questions. Stay connected. Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to report at dhs.gov/slash blue campaign. Ah.
Come on, why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech? Upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity with Intel Core ultra-processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance that keeps up with your business, not the other way around. This thing moves.
Stop hitting snooze on new tech. Win the tech search at lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon powered by Intel Core Ultra Processors so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. The day begins at the Chase Sapphire Lounge by the club at Boston Logan Airport.
You get the clam chowder. In San Diego, it's tostadas. New York, espresso martini. It's 10 a.m. Why not?
It's the quiet before your next flight, the shower that resets your day, the menu that lets you know where you are. This is access to over 1,300 airport lounges and every sapphire lounge by the club. And one card that gets you in: Chase Sapphire Reserve, the most rewarding card. Learn more at chase.com/slash Sapphire Reserve. Cards issued by J.P.
Morgan Chase Bank, and a member of FDIC, subject to credit approval. Can small acts make a real impact in the world?
Sometimes a small thing has the power to become more, something big and meaningful. And when it comes to helping children, no act is too small. When you fill up at the Purple Giving Pump at Shell, a portion of your purchase will be donated to support charities in your community. The Giving Pump. Easy to stop, easy to donate.
From 9.125 to 10.31.25, participating shell stations will donate a minimum of one cent per gallon of the fuel pump from the giving pump, or a minimum donation of $300. Zaksaw Fifth is your secret to fashion's most wanted deals at up to 70% off. On the hunt for designer steals that'll turn heads and leave a trail of envy, uncover Gucci, Valentino, Versace, Stuart Weitzman, and more, with new arrivals dropping weekly at prices too good to stay confidential. Luxe layers, statement boots, and tailored essentials from Sacks Off Fifth will put your wardrobe on the most wanted list. Head to SacksOffFith.com or Sacks Off Fifth store near you for a style lineup you won't want to miss.
This is an iHeart podcast.
