Countless people spend much of their lives looking to find a place of belonging: a community, where they can bond over shared passions with friends old and new alike. And, for a certain group in the toy collecting scene, Sunday’s Gulf Coast Toy Expo was that place.

Though free for any to enter between 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., the expo started at 10 a.m. for any interested in purchasing an early-bird entry pass at $5 apiece. About 5 minutes after 10, half the spaces in the Pasadena Convention Center’s Eastern lot were filled and a line made up of families, couples, and friends had formed at the front ticket booth.

Inside the building and by the front entrance, busy between shaking hands and taking calls was Michael Garcia, the event’s chief organizer. Alongside him, manning the entrance and a nearby table, were members of his family.

“A lot of the people that help me on my crew are my relatives,” said Garcia. “My mom, my aunts, my cousins, my wife and kids–everybody helps.”

And the more help the better, as this latest show had around 110 vendors set up–30 more than the last expo Garcia put on this past October.

“It’s definitely grown,” said Garcia. “I started out doing really small shows at flea markets, and we would rent out store spaces and have maybe like 5 – 10 vendors come set up.”

A Pasadena native, Garcia has been renting out spaces to host vendors in the Houston area since 2009 and has since become a staple figure in the local toy collecting scene. Mando Hernandez, head admin of the collectibles group Houston Toy Psychos (HTP), who hold their own collectibles show 3 times per year, recalls starting out as a vendor at one of Garcia’s earlier shows.

“Mike’s show has been the longest-running toy show in Houston,” said Hernandez. “So I kinda broke knowledge with him and started the HTP collectibles show. I kinda learned from him”

Hernandez also mentioned passing his affection for collecting onto his sons.

“That’s what we’re about, you know? Family and friends.”

And there were plenty of family and friends to be found around the convention hall. Not the least of which were those who were helping out their hobbyist relatives and partners, even if collecting wasn’t their primary interest. This was the position the son of Richard Naranjo, a Deer Park resident, was in.

Among the bulk of his majority G1 Transformer figurines, Naranjo was more than willing to speak to any interested passersby.

“This is actually the part of my collection that doesn’t fit in my collection at home,” said Naranjo of the shelves and tables stacked with figures beside him. “It’s absolutely outrageous.”

A longtime collector and seller on online marketplaces, the Gulf Coast Toy Expo was the first show Naranjo had set up at in around 25 years. “I grew up in the 80s, when Transformers first started, so the G1, the original Transformers stuff is what I’ve always been, even as a kid, pretty enamored with.”

This enduring love for a childhood fascination echoes a sentiment that Mando Hernandez had also expressed earlier. “Toy collecting–hobby collectors, collectibles, all that–it started from childhood. It’s something that we’ve never outgrown.”

While the hobbyists may not have outgrown their interests, the Houston-area collectible community certainly has outgrown its humble origins. Thinking back on her time spent supporting her nephew from the very beginning, Tammy Valerio recalls the location of the very first show Michael Garcia ever held.

“The first show was at the Armadillo Mall in Houston. It was in one little room that we started out. From there we moved on to a bigger spot and he’s just been growing ever since.”

To see more from the Gulf Coast Toy Show, you can visit their Facebook and Instagram pages.