As clingy as he wound up becoming, Riks loosened his grip long enough to open the Gnarly Toybox, at 7625 West Hampden Avenue in Lakewood, in 2018. He and Stacey Bell, his wife and business partner, first stocked the shelves of the store with extras from Riks's collection — Masters of the Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars and other nostalgic lines from yesteryear — that had begun to consume too much space in their home. A tattoo artist by trade, Riks quit his job in order to focus on the brick-and-mortar venture.
Although the Gnarly Toybox isn't the only shop in town that specializes in vintage toys — Fifty Two 80's on South Broadway has been around six years longer — it's become so successful that Riks holds popular online auctions with global audiences and is working with franchisees to open Gnarly's outposts in Australia, Canada and the U.K. And last week, the television show A Toy Store Near You devoted an entire episode to exploring the Gnarly ToyBox. So what frontier was left for Riks and Bell to conquer? For two passionate fans of all things playful and strange, it was to open a live performance venue.
That venue, dubbed Gnarly's, is opening later this month in downtown Golden at 1224 Washington Avenue. It's taking over the second-story space that housed Miners Alley Playhouse before that organization moved into the new Miners Alley Performing Arts Center last year. While Riks hasn't revealed a solid launch date or the performance schedule — he's planning a handful of low-key events before the end of the year — rest assured that Gnarly's aims to live up to its name.
"When we heard that the Miners Alley Playhouse was moving to the other end of Miners Alley, Stacey was curious what they were going to do with it," Riks says. "So we kind of tossed around the idea of a comedy club that would kill it in Golden. Before we knew it, somebody put us in contact with the owner of the building, and we really hit it off. It was pretty turnkey. When the Playhouse moved out, they left everything, like all the lights and the sound stuff. Literally, all we had to do was turn it gnarly."
Granted, gnarly is in the eye of the beholder. But Riks and Bell have a clear, if wonderfully warped, vision for Gnarly's concept.
"Sideshow freaks, jugglers, comedians, ventriloquists, magicians," Riks lists as examples of the venue's on-stage entertainment. Not that the bizarre spectacle will be restricted to the stage. "We'll have people juggling bowling pins out on the street in front of Gnarly's," he says. "Then they'll be like, 'If you think this is cool, you've got to come inside and see me juggling chainsaws.'"
Gnarly's has a liquor license and full bar, too, and its nighttime entertainment will comprise more adult fare such as standup comedy and burlesque. There will also be an arcade of vintage video games from the ’80s to complete the gloriously retro mishmash. Riks and Bell plan to have regular hourly entertainment scheduled all afternoon. The venue will then close for an hour in the early evening before reopening for nightly shows. Despite this panorama of peculiarity, Riks isn't forgetting his first obsession. "Gnarly's is also going to have a free toy museum, mostly ’80s stuff," Riks says. "We decided to put some of our collection to work and have other people able to enjoy it. We won't be selling any toys at Gnarly's, but eventually we want to open a second Gnarly Toybox in Golden, somewhere within eyeshot of Gnarly's. That way we can point to it and say, 'If you want to buy some toys like you see in the museum, you can just walk over there.'"
While Gnarly's promises to be a bold splash in the middle of more sedate Golden, the city has thrown its support behind Riks and Bell's over-the-top concept. "They've been there for us, step by step," Riks says. "They absolutely know what we're doing, and they fully support it. We put up some coming-soon posters a few weeks ago, and a lot people have been just standing around, staring at them. The amount of response so far is great. Our landlord is like, 'You're the talk of the town.'
"We want to shut down Golden and have lines out the door," he adds with a laugh. "Jugglers, freaks, snakes. You know, whatever is fun."
Gnarly's, 1224 Washington Avenue, Suite 200, Golden. The opening date is to be determined; watch thegnarlytoybox.com for updates.
