It's no accident that the cheerful, primary-colored letters spelling out Fullerton Museum Center's new show, “Gotta Have It, Too: Collecting in the Internet Age,” are the exact same hue and type font as the eBay logo.
This show is all about eBay, “the world's online marketplace.” Without eBay, this show—a sequel—wouldn't exist. It's built on the fact that today anyone with a little money and even less time can hit eBay and score a genuine shrunken head, a toaster from the 1939 World's Fair, or a Union uniform from the Civil War.
Ebay has given everyone's collection a shot in the arm—with a huge vintage syringe—and a whole passel of our assemblages are here. Okay, so there's no shrunken heads, but the Fullerton folk have hauled in just about every other kind of collection—more than 20, by my count.
Around 20 is when my eyes started to glaze, confronted by the Mego man “Fonzie” action figure, old-timey hamburger presses, the vintage anti-Hitler skunk with Hitler's head (Stink Heil), paint-by-numbers paintings, the Jesus vs. Jeffrey Dahmer comic book with the Son of God getting his bell rung.
I couldn't read any farther 'cause the comic book was under glass amidst others of its brethren, but I'm guessing the judges gave it to Jesus on decision.
There's something for everybody here: vintage flashlight batteries for me (cool names like Flying Bomb and Atomic Power); ladies' antique hats for you. There are real and faux Titanic memorabilia (the faux from the J. Peterman Co.), and a vast collection of Thomas the Tank Engine toys on loan from Fullerton fourth grader Tyler Appel. What will he play with until this show ends?
Thomas the Tank Engine is all yours until then. It's free, and you don't have to dust it—and Tyler will just have to read a book already!
“Gotta Have It, Too: Collecting in the Internet Age” at Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona Ave., Fullerton, (714) 738-6545. Open Tues.-Wed. N Fri.-Sun., noon-4 p.m.; Thurs., noon-8 p.m. Through Aug. 8. $1-$4.
