The Ten Coolest Things We Spotted at Retromania 2025

We trekked up to Longmont in the still-falling snow on January 25 to check out Retromania 2025 and all the cool, old-school goodies — the toys, the music, the comics and general collectibles — that tickle the memory and inspire instant I-Want-Thats for things we used to have or didn't get but always wanted.

Here are ten things we loved — each for a very different reason.
Most Impressive Booth
Hammerhead Ink Comics is a Colorado company that's online-only and mainly travels to shows just like this to sell its wonderful comic wares. And it does an admirable job of it, too — not only was this the biggest booth at the show in terms of floor space, but the boxes were all meticulously organized alphabetically by title. And that ponytailed gentleman speaking with the Hammerhead Ink owner abo ve is none other than AC Canales, a local Denver artist who works with Vision Comics, among other gigs. This was one of the busiest booths at the event — and deserved to be.
Most Inexplicable Toy
Here's a photo of lots of great stuff: LEGO, He-Man, Barbie, old Universal Monsters, Star Wars,and more. And then there's that box sort of featured (?) on the floor in front of it all: Topeka On Board, which is apparently a Monopoly clone based on, yes, the streets and sights of Topeka, Kansas. Why is it at a show in Longmont, Colorado? We suspect it's like a koan: The question is the answer. Somehow.
Most...Inappropriate Toy?
We're not vilifying any sellers here — the true villain here might just be Romox, which produced this game for the Atari 2600 two years after the 1981 sex-comedy was a hit in theaters. Why? Eight-bit boobs, we guess. Why the cartridge needed to specify on the graphic that it's for the "left joystick" is anyone's guess, but again, we're assuming someone was snickering at the use of the term "joystick" in this context.
Most Rare Item
Granted, a lot of the toys at shows like this are things you've seen before, if not for a very long time. That's the draw, of course — they tickle a memory that you haven't accessed in a month of Sundays, and there's the dopamine rush. Also invoking the happy hormones is that thing that you run across that you've never seen before — like this humongous Superman poster-clock made by New Haven back in the late '70s. It was produced in such low numbers that it's super-rare, if not super-pricey. But all the better for a collector to hang on the wall, right? We hope someone bought this sucker, because Supes deserves a place of honor.

Smurfiest Display
There were a few Smurf-related items to be found at the show, but none as charmingly displayed as in this booth, which went the extra mile to provide an original piece of art. This is the sort of thing that ratifies all that time many of us spent browsing the displays at Spencer's Gifts in the mall.

Most Retro Electronics
Gather round, children, and let the elders tell of a time before cell phones and Nintendo Switches, when handheld games were essentially red LED dashes in different configurations, moving in prescribed ways in order to achieve a goal that was abstract at best. And we loved them. These were simpler times, children. We wore McDonald's hats that looked like Big Macs and we played our small dot-moving games and listened to a thing called a boom box, often festooned with puffy stickers, often in this place we used to call "the outdoors." 

Handiest Booth
Not because of the "Handy Andy" Tool Set box, though that's pretty cool. But for those of us who've lost some marbles over the years? Here were bags of 'em. Also a Cabbage Patch Kid from the year 2000, which makes no sense, but then again, you know, lost marbles and all.

Most Lucy Find
Yes, that's Lucille Ball on the cover of a game called "body language," a combo too wacky even to capitalize. This was apparently such a hit in 1975 that it spawned a TV game show, and this commercial, which also features the Lucy America loved, who was apparently all-in on this business enterprise.

Most Obscure Reference
Are there enough kids of the '80s left out there who remember Short Circuit's Johnny 5 fondly enough to fly a flag featuring him protesting disassembly? Does anyone remember Fisher Steven's cultural appropriative brown-face in the 1985 film, or the fact that Johnny 5 took his name from the classic El DeBarge song? At least Johnny 5 seems to be protesting gun violence on this flag. Or that's how we're choosing to take it, anyway.
Most Sobering Collecting Reality
Not all that's Star Wars is gold. The Star Wars re-sculpts from the '90s, along with the figures created for the prequels, mostly languish on their pegs, even mint-on-card. Despite them being objectively cool — that two-pack of Jawas is really nicely done, for example, and they even boast translucent spots on their heads that filter ambient light through to make their eyes glow! — they're worth pretty much what they originally sold for, if not less. That's a reminder for everyone: In the end, these are all just toys, and the joy they bring is yours and yours alone. This value too shall pass — so buy what makes you happy, not what you think will make you money. Play on!