Dallas Poague’s journey from toy collector to restoration expert

Dallas Poague is pictured above with his latest project. 

From vintage toy store owner to renowned restoration expert, Lennox newcomer, Dallas Poague has made a career out of his favorite childhood treasures.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dallas Poague has always had an interest in vintage toys. 

“I started buying and selling vintage toys when I was just a junior in high school. This led to me opening up my first vintage store, LaLaLand in the early ‘90’s,” Poague said.

With the rise of the internet and sites like eBay, Poague learned how to buy, sell, and trade more and more which led to the closure of LaLaLand. 

“At the time, I knew that I was going to be able to make more money on eBay, so I took that route. Then, about 11 years ago, I felt it was the right time to go back to the brick-and-mortar vintage store. I wanted a place where multiple vendors could rent space and have a community of sellers that was called Time Bomb Vintage,” he said.

2020 took its toll on Poague and Time Bomb Village. Rioters tore through the streets of Minneapolis day and night destroying buildings and businesses. 

“Time Bomb Village was located just a few blocks from ground zero of the riots. Most of my entire neighborhood was burned down. I lived above my store and had a workshop in my basement, so my entire life was in that building. I had never held a gun before, but for that week, I stayed out every night with a bulletproof vest and a gun to protect it with my life,” Poague said.

Poague’s neighborhood didn’t recover from the riots. Neighbors, customers, and vendors all left the area in search of safer neighborhoods. 

“I stayed for about a year, but the neighborhood never fully recovered, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I sold the business off and began looking for a new place to live,” he said.

Looking at large cities in the area, Sioux Falls piqued Poague’s interest and through a short search, he found the perfect space in Lennox. 

“I have been doing a little restoration work on the side while running my vintage shop, and the home I found in Lennox offered a sizable workshop for me to work out of,” Poague said.

Vintage statue restoration began through a previous marriage but has led to full-time work. 

“My ex-wife and I had a Mayor McCheese statue for years that she, ultimately, got in the divorce. She put it outside her new yard and eventually it was in need of repair, so she asked me if I could do it. I’m fairly knowledgeable about paints, resins, and fiberglass, as I was always making Star Wars prop replicas for years, so I thought it would be fun to try out,” he said.

Posting the results of his labors online caused a chain reaction of work. 

“I showed my work online and another friend saw it and asked if I would restore some of his McDonald’s statues which just snowballed into more and more jobs coming in. It has now become my specialty and I’m pretty renowned in the McDonald’s collector community as a go-to guy to get your McDonald’s statue restored,” Poague said.

All the pieces Poague has restored are from the 1970’s. 

“I generally like to do vintage advertising mascot characters. It’s been mainly McDonald’s items, but I have also done an A&W Rooty Bear, a Pinocchio and Esso tiger for the American Pickers guys, a Big Boy and a giant cow head,” he recalled.

Through his love of his work, side projects started to take over a portion of Poague’s day. 

“A little side project I started a couple years ago, but has suddenly consumed a majority of my time, are the miniature replicas I make of the McDonald’s pieces. Whenever I get a new McDonald’s piece into restore, I will take a scan of it, digitally clean it up, reduce it down into a miniature size, 3D print it out, clean it all up, make a prototype, make several silicone molds, cast them up in resin and then hand paint and assemble. It is extremely time-consuming, but I have people from all over the world buying them from me. Mostly from the USA, Canada and Japan,” Poague said.

Researching through old photos and brochures and models like Poague’s help to preserve the history and color schemes of the pieces to restore them to their former glory. 

“Sometimes I’ll find a mint condition piece that I can then get a better idea of the original colors. Or I find a spot on the piece that hasn’t been exposed to the sun, and I’ll take a color reading off of it. But after getting in several different pieces over the years, I kind of discovered that they were pretty loose, back in the day, with any sort of standardization to how they painted the pieces. So, a lot of it is just painting it to how I think it should be. And people seem to be fine with my judgement,” he said.

Currently, Poague is working on what he feels is his most difficult restoration to date. 

“On my last road trip, I picked up two McDonaldland carousels. The have many many pieces that needed fixing including a motor and music mechanism and they weigh a ton,” he said. 

Much work is needed to complete the project, but Poague is chipping away at it. 

“Every piece needs a full power wash and to strip off as much paint as possible before priming them and doing any sort of patch up body work they may need. Then I will start painting them and finish them off with a nice, glossy later of automotive clear coat,” he said.

Each piece Poague has worked on has helped him become more skilled at his trade and it gets increasingly difficult to return the pieces to their owners once completed. 

“I wish I had pieces for myself, but even when I think I’m going to keep a piece, I end up getting talked out of it by someone who makes me an offer I can’t refuse. I hope maybe someday I’ll have a piece of my own,” Poague said.