Collectables fair comes to Oakura
It was nostalgia for his childhood that sparked Sam Westlake’s toy collecting and now he wants to share the feeling with others around Taranaki.
Westlake has been building his own stash of Power Ranger figurines, Pokemon cards, comic books and more for three years but, after visiting a toy expo in Whanganui, realised there was nothing like it in the region.
So he decided to make his own event. After six months of planning it’s finally coming together, with 57 tables set to be filled with displays at Oakura Hall Collectables Fair on November 26.
‘‘We don’t have too many shops here that you can buy collectables as such, which is the reason why we thought we’d do this,’’ he said.
Westlake’s wife is also a collector and together they want to make the collectors’ event an annual one.
‘‘I’ve not done this before and Taranaki hasn’t had something like it, so I really have no idea how it will go, but I’m excited; it’s going to be awesome.’’
There will be vendors selling or swapping their collections to interested buyers, who can have a look around for a $2 donation.
All the door sale proceeds will go directly to two chosen charities, youth mentoring programme Big Brothers Big Sisters and parenting education and support charity Flourish.
There have also been giveaways leading up to the event and on the day people can get involved in raffles, and cosplay costume competitions.
The day will run from 10am and finish at 4pm, so people have time to travel around the mountain for other events that same weekend, including the Christmas parade, Stratford A&P Show and New Zealand Tattoo & Art Festival.