Contributed by collector and Overstreet Advisor Art Cloos
Photos by Alice Cloos

In 2017, Phil DeMario who originated the monthly New Jersey Wayne Toy Show and the twice a year ToyConNJ passed the baton to a new owner of both shows Joe Veteri. Now nine years later, Veteri runs a series of shows under his Veteri Productions banner. They include the monthly Wayne, NJ Toy Show (the longest running collectibles show in New Jersey going continuously for over 35 years), the twice a year comic art event the Comic Art Con, and his twice a year ToyConNJ, among others.

The latest edition of ToyConNJ was held on Saturday and Sunday, September 27-28, 2025, in its new location at the Lackawanna Station in Montclair, NJ. As Allie and I, along with Ben and John my in-laws, met Veteri at the entrance to the show he told us that this new location is a very cool place and he could not wait to hold ToyConNJ there. There are two onsite parking lots with almost 400 metered parking spaces. There is also on street parking that is both metered and free.

The show is sponsored by Heritage Auctions, who were on site to talk about their auction house services for collectibles.

There was a nice turnout of dealers including Articulator Ninja, What the Focaccia, The Woods Collectibles, Kevin Rossi, Draughtnauts, JCR Collects (who had an incredible selection of vintage and rare collectibles including classic Transformers and G.I. Joe vehicles to Power Rangers, Dragon Ball Z, and other retro pop culture icons), Brooke’s Nook with a nice selection of plushies, Jobb Palace, Bobby’s World, Killer Kollectibles, My Figvoice, Inosuke Treasures, Dolls Etc, NJDie Cast Club, SkidZ, Blue Devil Vintage, M&J Collectibles, and a whole lot more.

Veteri stated that he is proud that ToyConNJ is a family-friendly event with thousands of current and vintage hard-to-find items. With 180 vendor tables in the room he said “attendees could look for toys, comics, movie memorabilia, transformers, model kits, superheroes, playsets, character toys, small antiques, anime, DVDs, posters, military, action figures, sports and non-sport cards, dolls, trains, advertising, vintage Disney, gumball and vending, dime store, books and magazines, autographs, cap guns, die-cast, records, stamps and coins, toy soldiers, Barbie, G.I. Joe, Star Wars, Lego, original art, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, PEZ, tin toys, battery op, board games, monster collectibles, comic books, and more.

Nhut Le, aka Judomaster in Peacemaker was a guest at the show and he signed autographs and posed for photographs. Gaming entertainment was provided by Wedoca who takes Japanese arcade cabinets and retro consoles to events along the East Coast. They have a focus on 1990s arcade games that include fighters, puzzles, beat’em ups, and shooters. Everything was on freeplay for attendees. F&M hobbies, a hobby shop located in Flanders, NJ, hosted a radio control race track.

The Valaverse Infantry Commando which is a 6” scale 1:12 action figure from the Valaverse Action Force toy line was originally released in 2022 as a Dorkside Toys exclusive. Now it was updated to an Infantry Commando 2.0 for 2025 ToyConNJ. The 2.0 version featured upgraded parts, a multi-camo variant, and a new slip-in card-back packaging, making it a popular troop-builder for collectors of the Action Force franchise.

On Sunday, there were four live ISPW wrestling matches featuring ISPW Heavyweight Champion Justin Corino vs. “The Dominican Destroyer” Vargas, Yoscifer vs. KTB, Mr. Joe Clean vs. Anthony, and Tina San Antonio vs. Evil Chica.

Walking the aisles, I came across Brook’s Nook. Brook Haramija is a longtime friend of ours, and we look forward to seeing her at shows. She sells all the hottest toys and coolest plushies for kids and adult collectors alike. Among her sales items were Fugglers, Labubus, Vampire Freaks, Labubus, Warmies, Punchkins, TabaSquishies, and more. My longtime friend Andrew Heller and I talked for a while about what we were looking for. One of the things that stood out for me was given the great success of the Superman movie this summer, I thought there would be a lot more Superman collectibles offered but there wasn’t. However there was a greater amount of Batman related items then usual at a ToyCon show and I was happy to see that. There also was a surprising amount of comic books offered with the majority of them Marvel. Also there was a lot of Labubus offered at dealer booths.

The food vendor at the show was What The Focaccia, a family owned bakery that specializes in focaccia breads of all kinds and baked goods as well. After trying some of the samples I wanted to buy everything on their table, but I settled on their hot pepperoni hero.

Beyond What The Focaccia, the Lackawanna Station offers a variety of food options, including permanent vendors like Burgers Donuts Potatoes and Little Bear Poké. Additionally, there is a mini-bar and a wine shop on-site for drinks. If you want to do a more formal lunch or dinner there are a lot of really cool places just several blocks away. We ate dinner at a marvelous little Italian restaurant called Leone’s which we highly recommend.

Allie and I agreed that we liked the new show venue a lot. We loved the murals that covered all the walls and Allie especially liked the Bart Simpson one. We both appreciated the wide aisles that kept people from bumping into each other. There were plenty of tables and chairs to take a break from the show in the lobby and near the entrance there was a DJ with a larger than life boombox blasting out music. As we left the show we decided that we will definitely return in 2026.

Saturday early bird admission was at 10 AM with general admission from 11 to 5 PM and Sunday early bird admission was at 9 AM with general admission from 10 AM and closing at 3 PM. VIP all access weekend passes were available. Kids 8 and under got in for free.

Dates for the spring 2026 edition of the con have not yet been announced but it will be at its new location at the Lackawanna Station located at 1 Lackawanna Plaza, Montclair, NJ. More information is available at www.veteriproductions.com or the ToyConNJ Facebook page.