Anticipation is building for the 23rd annual Chatham-Kent Toy Show & Sale.
The Jan. 18 event will feature hundreds of vendors and a variety of displays, attracting toy and collectible enthusiasts of all ages from C-K and beyond.
Rob Sterling, one of the show’s organizers, said the past two years have each seen about 2,400 people attend the event, and he anticipates similar numbers, or better, this year for the Bradley Centre-hosted event.
The lineups to get in actually begin before 7 a.m., not at 10 a.m., when the show opens. Sterling said vendors are ready to enter the Bradley Centre when the doors open for them three hours before show start time.
“We open the doors for set up at 7 a.m. It’s a bit of organized chaos right at the get go,” he said.
Once the tables are set up, they’re open for the duration of the show, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Sterling said vendors have been lining up online to be part of the show. Last year, he anticipated they’d have 215 vendors, but the number swelled to about 230. He hopes for a similar number this year.
“Applications for (vendor) tables seems to have ramped up earlier. They are filling up faster than we had previously,” he said. That (230 tables) is essentially our capacity for the room. We’re working towards that again this year.”
Vendors offer a large variety of items, as the show features farm toys, trains, sports cards, trucks, construction toys, model ships, books, planes, cars, action figures, dolls, collectibles, coins and more, Sterling said.
“There’s great variety. Every year, we seem to get in a few new vendors,” he said. “It will be much the same as what people have seen in recent years, but just more of it. Whether you’re a kid or an adult who likes to collect, we really try to ensure there are vendors that span that whole spectrum.”
The 4-H Toy Club, Chatham Model Railroad Club and the Chatham Aeronauts will all be on hand with displays of toys, trains and model planes.
Home Depot will have model kits for children to build something on site.
This year, the Chatham Barnstormers will be there too with their mascot.
The entry fee remains at $5 for adults, $2 for students, with kids aged six and under admitted free of charge.
Proceeds will again go to the 4-H Toy Club and Chatham Outreach for Hunger.
The 2025 show saw $8,500 awarded to Outreach.
“We’re hoping for another successful year and hope to provide a donation in that range again,” Sterling said. “We’ve worked with them for a number of years. That need seems to be constantly growing. We’re glad to be able to support them.”
Today’s size and variety for the event is a long way from where the show began, Sterling said, as it began primarily as a farm toy show. It started with about 40 tables in one of the conference rooms at the former Wheels Inn.
