Local Toy Collector Helping Move Brownsville Forward
The Rio Grande Valley has always had an active community of collectors. People collect everything from antiques, vinyl records, video games, and license plates to militaria, firearms, sports cards, and modern and vintage toys.
Before the pandemic ground brick and mortar store shopping to a halt and people turned to the internet to find what they collect, Brownsville has always been sprinkled with independent retailers who had shops worth digging through in order to find pieces to add to your collection.
And, of course, there were always places like the 77 Flea Market, indoor flea markets, and garage and yard sales.
Many of these shops have come and gone, but if you go looking around town, you'll find antique shops off Palm Boulevard, vintage video game shops off Kings Highway, and a whole lot of junk shops selling collectibles of all kinds.
These local mom and pop stores are the lifeblood of the community; they add to Brownsville's distinctness and individuality.
The collectible toy market has always been a bit tricky to navigate in Brownsville. If you were a toy collector, you usually had to take a trip to Harlingen or McAllen to go toy hunting. For the amount of collectors here in town, I always found it disconcerting that in the Valley's largest city, the pickings were so slim.
The toy collecting community has thrived in places past Brownsville's city limits. A pair of toy shop owners in Harlingen started a modest toy collecting show several years ago. It used to be hosted in an old civic center just off the Jackson Street District. It has since grown to a much larger show in the McAllen area.
McAllen has also been host to toy and collectible shows, including the South Texas Comic Con. You can also find way more independent toy and comic book stores in Hidalgo County than you can here in town.
Local collector Jesse Rosales is trying to change all that.
Rosales has been operating Kulture Shock Collectibles for a while now. While his shop on Price Road just off Paredes Line Road in a retail shop plaza a few blocks down the street from Hanna High School, he isn't new to the collecting scene.
Rosales has been operating collectible shops and attending toy conventions in Harlingen, McAllen, Laredo, and San Antonio for the better part of two decades. I still have football cards in my personal collection I bought from Jesse in the mid 1990's from his card shop on Old Port Isabel.
On any given day you can find Rosales selling a vast array of new and vintage toys, including 1980's G.I. Joe and Transformer action figures, Star Wars pieces, Marvel and DC Comics superheroes, and the wildly popular Funko POP figures.
He's active on social media and always keeps his customers informed about new arrivals with his "fresh off the FedEx truck" posts.
When he's not at the shop, he still travels the state attending shows and conventions, always selling and looking to add to his own collection.
Rosales is also trying to vault Brownsville into competition with other cities further up the Valley. He will be hosting the Star-Base Collectors Con to be held at the Brownsville Event's Center August 7th and 8th. You can visit the Star-Base Collectors Con Facebook page for more details.
Kulture Shock will also be hosting a meet and greet autograph signing session on July 24th featuring Dallas Cowboys legend and Hall-of-Famer; Super Bowl champion, Mr. Cowboy himself, Bob Lilly. You can meet him, get an autograph, and get your picture taken with the Cowboys first ever draft pick in franchise history.
The folks over at Kulture Shock are fairly priced and offer excellent customer service. But, more importantly, they're doing their best to add to Brownsville's collecting and business community.
If you're looking for a new piece to add to your collection, avoid the big box store and support a local business.
You won't be disappointed.
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