GIRARD, Ohio — On Saturday, February 11, 2023, Ohio’s grandest toy show, Toyhio (@toyhiotoyshow), returned to the Metroplex Expo Center in Girard, Ohio. It was the 15th show, featuring 30,000 square feet of toys, and this time, Toyhio was taken over by Ethan Page’s Toy Hunt Vlog.
One of the added attractions of Toyhio is the meet and greets, which are almost always professional wrestlers. At previous Toyhios, attendees could meet Aron Stevens, Brian Myers, Swoggle, Scarlett Bordeaux, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Doc Gallows, to name a few.
Page and some familiar faces from his vlog, including fellow AEW talents Colt Cabana, The Bunny, and Danhausen, as well as one of everyone’s favorite wrestling-adjacent personalities, Charlie Ramone.
Ramone is such a fan-favorite, thanks to his guest appearances on the vlogs of Sammy Guevarra and Ethan Page, that Toyhio promoted this as Ramone’s very first meet and greet, and they even commemorated it with his first ever trading card.
Another perk of attending Toyhio is the option to purchase a pack of exclusive Toyhio trading cards, which are available in limited qualities, and are only sold live at the event. The first set of trading cards produced by Toyhio, designed as an homage to the 1991 Pro Set Yo! MTV Raps trading card set, were sold at its June 18, 2022 event, and featured cards of guests Ethan Page, Danhausen, Mark Sterling, and The Acclaimed. The second set of Toyhio cards, with its Halloween-themed Tales From Toyhio design, were sold at their October 15, 2022 event, and included guests Candice LeRae, Danhausen, Dylan Postl, Ethan Page, Evil Uno, and Johnny Gargano. Toyhio’s most recent trading card release, sold at its February 11th event, was designed to honor Charlie Ramone’s favorite trading card set, 1991 Topps Desert Storm. But in addition to Desert Storm cards of Ramone, Page, Bunny, Cabana, and Space Monkey, lucky Toyhio attendees could purchase an extra limited pair of Valentine’s trading cards of Danhausen and his real-life fiancée, burlesque dancer Lou Lou la Duchesse de Riere.
Early bird, advance tickets were available online for $10 each, which allowed entry to Toyhio starting at 10 a.m., while regular admission, starting at 11 a.m., was available at the door the day of the show, so in order to make sure I got my hands on a set of Toyhio Desert Storm trading cards, I purchased an online ticket and hit the road at 7 a.m. to make the three-and-a-half hour drive to Girard, Ohio.
By the time I arrived at the Metroplex Expo Center, at about 10:30 a.m., there was barely a line to get in, but the parking lot was absolutely packed, so I worried that I missed my chance to buy the cards. Unfortunately, the Danhausen and Lou Lou la Duchesse de Riere Valentine’s cards were sold out within the first 30 minutes of admission, but there were still Desert Storm cards available at the door, so I bought two packs, to make up for the pair I missed.
After that, it was time to enjoy my first Toyhio. When I first entered the show floor, I was almost overwhelmed by how big it was, and how many people were in attendance. I mean, I had expected it to be busy, but this place was packed. Toyhio reported a final count of 2,176 attendees.
One of the very first things I saw was the table where the guest of honor, Ethan Page, and his Toy Hunt cohorts, were engaging with a long line of fans. For the duration of the show, the line to meet Page, Charlie Ramone, Colt Cabana, The Bunny, Space Monkey, and BMD, was over two hours long, but it looked like people were more than happy to wait their turn to collect autographs, take selfies, and present a variety of gifts to Page and crew.
Danhausen and Lou Lou la Duchesse de Riere were situated in another part of the show, probably for strategic reasons, but their line looked every bit as long, and I imagined it would have been easy to spend almost the entire day in line to meet the guests, if that was your primary interest.
But, regardless of that, no matter how popular the guests are at Toyhio, the main attraction is the toys, and professional wrestling was extremely well represented at Toyhio. The first table I passed belonged to Time Capsule Toys (@TCToysOhio) in Niles, Ohio, and it was filled with stacks of AEW Jazwares action figures, but what really caught my eye was a Series 8 Hasbro WWF Bam Bam Bigelow figure, in the box — when I saw that, I knew that Toyhio was “where the big boys play.” Time Capsule Toys also had a box of vintage WWF Wrestling Superstars soap, featuring Hulk Hogan and Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat for $75, but that was more amusing than anything else.
Nearly every table at Toyhio had some type of pro wrestling toy, as well as wrestling trading cards, magazines, and posters, but there were a few vendors that really stood out, such as ToyVomit (@realtoyvomit), out of Lexington, Kentucky, who was selling a plush figure of Hulk Hogan as Thunderlips from Rocky 3 and a seat from the Pontiac Silverdome, autographed and inscribed by Hulk Hogan.
That 80’s Toy Shop, from Tonawanda, New York, didn’t have many wrestling toys at their table (although I did buy a Toxic Crusaders toy from them), but what they did have was a 2018 AAW Jim Lynam Memorial Tournament MJF rookie card, on sale for $600. And then there was a table where a masked man named The American Luchador was selling autographs on his own Toyhio Desert Storm card for the reasonable price of $1 per card. In addition to these, there were a plethora of LJNs and Hasbros for sale, as well as countless WWE Mattel Elites, Funkos, and AEW figures, rings, and belts.
I walked multiple laps around the Toyhio show floor, and weaved in and out of the aisles. I had Colt Cabana autograph a 2019 Jim Lyman Memorial Tournament card of him and MJF, who I had sign the card at another convention, and I ate a BBQ chicken sandwich, called the thrillbilly, from a local vendor called Smokin Jay’s. Altogether, I spent about three hours exploring Toyhio, and when I called it a day, I left with a little cash left in my pocket, and drove the three-and-a-half hours back home, and immediately laid down for a nap.
The next Toyhio will be on June 17, 2023, and I better start saving my money now, if I ever want to take ToyVomit’s $500 Thunderlips figure home with me.
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