NC Museum of History wants your old toys for an exhibit

The Raleigh museum is expanding its collection of toys an exhibit to help tell part of the story of the Tar Heel state. The museum says part of that history is about having fun.

"I feel like we can learn a lot about our history through pop culture artifacts," said curator Katie Edwards.

There are already thousands of items in the museum's toy collection, and some of the toys date to the mid-19th century, Edwards said. Others, like the original Nintendo Entertainment System, came around in the early 1980s.

But the museum is still missing some pieces.

"For the past two years, I've been seeing what we had and what we need," Edwards said.

The museum has a lot of toys, but Edwards wants to fill in the gaps, especially from the '50s, '60s and '70s. Some of the specific items the museum wants to collect are Mr. Potato Heads that used real potatoes, Betsy Wetsy Dolls, Easy-Bake Ovens, Rock'em Sock'em Robots and vintage Star Wars toys.

Edwards hopes some of these toys are sitting in attics, collecting dust for owners who don't know what to do with them.

"(Maybe) they don't want to see them thrown away," Edwards said. "They want them cherished and preserved forever."