We went to Cape Cod last week to visit a friend and on our way home, we stopped at the Barker Character Comic and Cartoon Museum in Cheshire, CT. I have wanted to go there for a few years, but we normally left on a Sunday and the museum is closed on Sundays.
Museum History
Let's start with a brief history! Founded by Herb and Gloria Barker, Barker Animation Art Gallery had it's grand opening in 1993 in West Hartford, CT and was moved to Cheshire, CT a year later. The museum was opened in September 1997. They collected toys by going to yard sales in the 1970s. There are approximately 80,000 items in the collection, with pieces from 1873 to present day.
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| Gloria & Herb Barker |
Both Herb and Gloria Barker have passed away, but their son, Gerry, and grandson, Max, have taken over the business to keep the collection preserved and available for public display.
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| Gerry & Max Barker |
The Grounds
As soon as I pulled into the parking lot, I knew this place was going to be amazing! They had wooden cutouts of characters all over the grounds and the buildings were painted with characters! We parked near the cutout of The Jetsons!
The coolest thing is that the cutouts were painted on the back too!
There was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on the well.
Looney Tunes on one of the buildings.
And some more hanging out on the grass with Dagwood and Blondie.
Lucy was ready to help make you feel better!
The Scooby gang were unmasking people! I wasn't able to stand near this as it had yellow caution tape around it. It was so cool to see the gang outside, though!
There was also a Yogi Bear head made out of wood. It had his face on both sides.
There was a mural on the wall that had some fun characters on it, from Mighty Mouse, to Popeye, to The California Raisins. On the end, Scooby was riding in a convertible with Betty Boop, Sylvester, Gumby and The Pink Panther and Garfield and Odie were next to the car. Tweety was in a space ship above them.
Of course, seeing Scooby on the mural was my favorite part!!!
Barker Animation Art Gallery
After looking at what they have outside, we headed into the Animation Art Gallery to buy our tickets to the museum.
Everything in the art gallery was for sale, and I found a bunch of Scooby-Doo stuff that I wanted. A few things came home with me, but sadly, the rest I left there.
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| Hanna-Barbera Picnic |
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| Jonny Quest and Speed Buggy cels. |
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| Scooby-Doo and Looney Tunes cels. |
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| Cel of Scooby & Shaggy signed by Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera and Iwao Takamoto. |
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| Cel of Scooby. |
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| Cel of the gang with villains. |
I really wanted all the cels, but especially the canvas of the painting "An Orchestra of Stars". It was so awesome! I posted the picture of the lithograph below because it was difficult to take a good picture of the canvas.
These Dr. Seuss head mounts were really cool!
This Jonny Quest lithograph was in the bathroom.
These are the Scooby items I ended up buying. Trust me, I wanted those cels and prints so bad! But after being on vacation, dropping another few thousand dollars on those would not have been good.
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| Bendable Figures of Fred, Daphne and Velma and Scooby-Doo postcards. |
Barker Character Comic and Cartoon Museum
I have waited for this moment for years...to walk into this museum and see the collection of toys, games and comics! It was more than I could have asked for. They had so many different character toys and games. It brought back so many memories of shows that I watched as a kid and it just made me feel happy.
Whenever I go to a museum like this, my goal is always to find Scooby. They had plenty of Scooby throughout the museum. When I bought the tickets, the girl told me that they recently acquired someone's Scooby collection and I was very excited for them because this museum is a great place for a collection to be!
I spotted my first Scooby as soon as I walked in. A Scooby-Doo clock. The price tag on it was to show the value at the time they put the tag on it. I don't know if they update that often. With over 80,000 items in the museum, I think that would be difficult. Also, nothing in the museum is for sale, so the price is just for reference.
The next Scooby items spotted were a racecar, a Mystery machine and a car set.
I skipped a couple rows to give some other people space to look around and happened to pick the right one because there was a case with a whole bunch of Scooby stuff! So many Scoob's that I don't have, and some that I do, all on these 2 shelves! It was perfect!
There wasn't just Scooby, of course! So many characters lined the shelves of this amazing space!
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| Tom & Jerry and some older toys. |
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| The Jetsons. |
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| The Flintstones. |
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| More Flinstones. |
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| Even more Flinstones. |
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| Huckleberry Hound, Spiderman, Captain America, The Flintstones and more. |
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| More Tom & Jerry. |
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| Push puppets! with a Scooby! |
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| Cereal Boxes. |
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| Bugs Bunny and Kool Aid. |
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| Gumball Machines, including Scooby! |
There were a ton of lunchboxes hanging from the ceiling featuring every character you could think of. These are just a few of the ones I took pictures of.
Purple Scooby-Doo lunchbox.
Scooby-Doo yellow and orange metal lunchboxes.
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| The infamous yellow and orange metal Scooby lunchboxes...in amazing condition! |
They had so many puzzles!!
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A wall of puzzles!
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They had a bunch of Halloween masks and costumes too.
Even a Scooby-Doo one!
The entire Simpsons family was here hanging out on their couch.
I also found another display shelf of Scooby stuff!
The museum also had some promotional props from Gumby by Art Clokey. It was so cool to see these amazing clay figures!
The View Master display was so cool, too!
I found Scooby within the display!
There were a few more Scoob's that I found through the rest of the museum.
The Incredible Hulk was there too! Thankfully, he was chained.
I also found a Dynomutt puzzle!
Some more Hanna-Barbera toys. I think some of these were used in the bumpers.
My pictures barely even show what was in the museum! They have thousands of items on display! I didn't post the close-up pictures of the Scooby displays as I don't want to give everything away. They had some really cool pieces that I have never seen before.
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| Barker Character Comic and Cartoon Museum |
I highly recommend the Barker Character Comic and Cartoon Museum to anyone that loves cartoons! They have something for everyone! They put a lot of care into the museum and the art gallery and they really make you feel welcome. The next time I am near CT, I will definitely be making another trip to this museum and would love to do one of the group tours! Admission was $13.00 for 3 of us, which was very affordable!
For more information about Barker Character Comic and Cartoon Museum and the Art Gallery, please visit their
website.
I did not receive anything in exchange for this blog post. I just loved the museum so much, I wanted to write about my experience there.
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