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The Big Fun Experience
Five years later and the fun doesn't stop

by Karen Edwards
September/October 2018 Issue

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© PHOTOS BY GUS BRUNSMAN III

Long-time employee Wil Neal with Big Fun owners Jason and Trinity Williams
in the Short North shop at 672 N. High Street.

 

“Imagine sticking your hand in a junk drawer and the only thing in there are toys.”

That’s how Big Fun owner Jason Williams once described his pop-culture shop to a group of blind students.

Big Fun, 672 N. High Street, celebrates its fifth birthday this year in the Short North, where another emporium, Europa, once stood. Big Fun has been around longer than its Short North presence would suggest, but that’s a bit of a tale in itself – and one worth telling.

Cleveland-Columbus connection
The shop had its initial iteration up North – in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. It was owned (and is still owned) by an entrepreneur named Steve Presser who opened his Big Fun toy store in 1990. In June of this year, Presser closed the Cleveland Heights shop but kept the Big Fun concept alive and well by partnering with the owner of b.a. Sweetie Candy Company in Cleveland. If you want to picture what nirvana looks like to a kid, picture a shop filled with toys, comics and bins of candy. What kid wouldn’t find that partnership a slice of heaven?

So how does Williams fit into the picture? In 2010, Williams was the owner of his own toy store, Spaceman Floyd’s (Jason’s middle name) in Madison Village, Ohio, not far from his hometown, Geneva. The shop was doing fine, and Williams was excited about promoting a kid’s art show event that his shop had proposed – both as a community service and a promotional event for his store. But Madison Village authorities told him no – no art show. Can’t happen. Bah, humbug.

A short time later, Williams closed his toy shop and partnered with Presser at Big Fun. He worked with Presser for a while, but eventually Williams was itching to open his own place.

“Jason wanted his own store again, and we were both excited by the prospect of a move,” says Jason’s wife Trinity. “We looked at different cities – Pittsburgh and several cities in North Carolina.” Trinity had a friend in North Carolina, and they thought a move South might be in order. But “customers from Columbus told me about the Gallery Hop in the Short North, so we drove down to Columbus to experience it for ourselves,” Jason said.

They were both smitten at first sight. “I loved the Gallery Hop and the whole vibe in the Short North,” Jason says. Adds Trinity: “The whole area seemed to fit perfectly with the Big Fun vibe.” So Williams returned to Cleveland and told Presser he’d like to open his own Big Fun store in Columbus.

Of course, during the 1990s, Columbus had a Big Fun shop. Presser’s sister, Stacie, opened it in the University district. “I used to go there to buy and sell toys,” says Wil Neal, a Big Fun customer and now an employee of Big Fun’s current Columbus store. “I saw stuff there I hadn’t seen since I was a kid. It was the coolest place I’d ever been and I was really disappointed when the store closed.” In fact, the University-area Big Fun shop closed just three years after its launch because Stacie decided to move on to other pursuits, including her family and a job in social work.

In June of 2013, however, Williams had signed the lease on the Short North location. He was about to open Big Fun Columbus – redux .

“I came in the day they were opened,” says Neal. “It was right after I retired from my other job. I told them I love this place and I need to work here.” By August, just three months after Neal mentioned employment, Williams hired him part-time. He has been with Big Fun ever since.

A maze of meticulously organized merchandise

The stuff of dreams
If you’ve never been to Big Fun, step inside. Sure, the 1,350 square-foot store seems, upon entering, like that junk drawer filled with toys. But it’s so much more. It’s childhood dreams all melted together then shot through time. It’s wonder and awe. It’s innocence. “It’s childhood memories caught in amber,” says Williams.

Williams remembers his own childhood, growing up with his special-needs sister in Geneva. Their father was a roofer, without a lot of time for toys, but his mother used to take him to the comic book store when he asked. “My uncle gave me a stack of comic books when I was a kid. I think that’s what started me on this path.”

Once inside Big Fun, the first thing that may surprise you is that the toys are not all new. There are plenty of modern-day playthings, to be sure, but a large proportion of Big Fun’s inventory is vintage toys. “We buy a lot of toys from customers who are downsizing or who may have changed what they’re collecting,” says Williams.

That may explain why the vintage toy count is so high. “Most of them are from the 1960s and 1970s,” Williams notes. What sets Big Fun apart from other stores of its kind, he continues, are the girls’ toys. “Not many comic book stores or toy stores like this carry toys for girls,” he says – at least not comparable to the wide selection now available at Big Fun. From superheroes, like Wonder Woman to Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony – or Trinity’s personal favorite, Liddle Kiddles – any girl (or woman) should find just the right toy to help her live or re-live a first or second childhood.

But don’t worry if you’re a guy. There is certainly plenty for you to browse, too. Superheroes, novelty toys, comic books of all kinds – and if you’re a die-hard Star Trek or Star Wars fan, you couldn’t be in a better place to live out your fondest sci-fi fantasies.

If Wil Neal could pick out one toy from the store to own right now, “It would probably be a Major Matt Mason toy,” he says. For those unfamiliar with the action figure, Major Mason was Mattel’s answer to Hasbro’s GI Joe. He may have been smaller in stature than GI Joe, but the Major went places Joe only dreamed of. “Major Mason was an astronaut who lived and worked on the moon,” Neal says. If you went online today to pick up a vintage 1960s Major Mason toy, you can expect to pay in the neighborhood of $100 and up. Big Fun has a couple of Major Mason toys along with a couple of his cohorts as well, says Neal.

What you won’t find at Big Fun, though, or what is likely to be in short supply, are plush toys. “They’re too hard to keep clean,” says Williams. So if you’re looking to sell toys to Williams, leave those at home or sell them somewhere else. Same goes for 2000 Transformer toys. “I have 10 tubs of those so I don’t need any more,” he says. He’s also cutting back on comic book buys and video games – except Nintendo games which still draw interest.

If you do want to lighten your toy box, though, Williams says he is always looking for any of the Universal monster toys from the 1970s to the present – Frankenstein, the Mummy, Dracula, Van Helsing, etc. “You don’t see those toys every day,” he noted. He also wants to buy any toy from the short-lived toy lines of the 1980s, like Starcom and Food Fighters. Demand here exceeds supply.

Twice a year, you’ll find Big Fun at the Columbus toy show, held on the Fairgrounds in the spring and fall. “I used to look around at the shows for toys to buy, but we’ve been so busy selling at the shows, there isn’t any time for that.”

You can also browse YouTube and MeTV for some of the “low-budget” Big Fun commercials, shot primarily by Neal, and usually based around a theme. “We’ve had Star Trek themes and Star Wars themes, and random themes,” says Neal. The latest video is what Neal describes as a mash-up between a Star Trek episode and a 1960s family sitcom. “Our most successful videos have involved wrestlers,” says Neal. “We bring attention to wrestling and to the shop at the same time.” Williams has even participated in some of the wrestling videos, shot by Ralph Walters.

Customer Andrew Troutner browsing legos with shop owner Jason Williams

The Big Fun experience
Whether it’s the commercials or the inventory itself, more and more people are drawn to the Big Fun shop each year. That explains why Williams’s wife Trinity can also be found at the shop most days.

“She’s a hairstylist, but she’s also worked at office jobs while we lived in Cleveland,” Williams says.

Fortunately, Trinity was working at Whole Foods when the pair decided to take Big Fun to Columbus. She transferred from her Cleveland Whole Foods job to the Upper Arlington store. Shortly after opening Big Fun, however, Jason realized he needed help – fast. “Trinity left her job to come help me out,” he says.

The business still eats up 40 to 60 hours a week for the pair.

“We have everyone from advanced collectors in the 30- to 50-year-old range, coming into the shop to elementary kids coming in with their parents,” Williams says. The former typically have more money to spend. “They help pay the bills,” says Williams. The latter help remind the busy couple why they’re in business. Although the couple doesn’t have children themselves, their lives are filled with them nevertheless.

Williams says there are a lot of pluses to being in business now. He likes the team he has in the store. “I also have a good landlord and great customers,” he adds. Yeah, parking is an issue, but that’s a recurring complaint from all Short North businesses. And Trinity is reaching a point where she’s not sure where their entire inventory is going to go. “The store is so full now, it’s hard to find places to put things.”

Yet, what Williams feels he has the most difficulty with are the aggressive panhandlers who work the area.

“I’ve gone to city council to propose they put up collections baskets,” he says. That way, those who wanted to make an offering could slip money inside a (presumably tamper-proof) box instead of passing it outright to the panhandler. Then, the contents of the box would be given to various charities that provide the homeless with services. Whether it’s a box, or a sign like those posted downtown, Williams hopes a solution will be found soon.

Artful pursuits
You might think that someone who owns a toy store would spend at least some of his off hours enjoying his extensive inventory (and, if truth be told, Williams says if you stranded him on a desert island, he hopes you’d bring along a stack of comics for him to help while away the time). But when he’s not at the shop, he enjoys helping others. He was a Meals on Wheels volunteer in Cleveland for years, although he hasn’t yet found the time to volunteer in Columbus. He enjoys making art. Jason’s college degree, however, is in English – from Cleveland State University.

“I do collage, watercolor…” he says. And of course, there’s the Art Car. You may have seen it at the Doo Dah parade. It’s a regular participant. The car is an old VW that looks like a tornado swept through Big Fun, picked up some of its merchandise, and dropped it onto the van. It’s partially covered in toys and pop-culture items – all designed in a way to make the van look a bit like a Star Trek shuttlecraft. “I’ve been working on the car for three years, and it’s still not done,” says Williams.

Like her husband, Trinity Williams says she doesn’t have time for other pursuits. “I used to do art, too, but I can’t find the time anymore.” If she does find herself with a bit of time on her hands, she and two of her three dogs go hiking. “The Rat Terriers go with me, but my Dachshund is too old to go now,” she says.

Yet, despite the long hours, the panhandlers, and the parking, the Williamses are unlikely to change careers anytime soon. In fact, eventually, they would like to open a second Big Fun store. “We are looking at Westerville, maybe Clintonville,” says Jason.

It’s been a journey for Big Fun and the Williamses to be sure. But step inside the shop some wintry Gallery Hop and you’ll see how Jason Williams has come full circle from his first toy shop enterprise. There, on the walls of Big Fun – at each Gallery Hop from January through April you’ll see that all the art featured on the shop walls have been drawn by children.

And there it is. Madison Village’s refusal to allow a kid’s art fair provided, at least in part, the impetus that brought Williams to Cleveland’s Big Fun – then to Columbus – then to the Short North – to a Gallery Hop – and finally to his own Big Fun Columbus store.

And every kid, and kid-at-heart in town couldn’t be happier.

Big Fun, located at 672 N. High Street, is open Monday through Thursday 11 to 8, Friday and Saturday 11 to 9, and Sunday 11 to 7. Visit Big Fun Columbus on Facebook or visit www.bigfuncolumbus.com or call (614) 228-8697 for more information.

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