PLAYING WITH TIME NOSTALGIA COLLECTOR SELLS STUFF YOUR MOTHER ONCE THREW AWAY.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - While Dave Levy spent most of his life publishing magazines, he spent the whole time dreaming of Speedy Alka Seltzer.

The energetic advertising icon captivated the 49-year-old Levy, who started collecting classic toys in his late teens. This madly grinning kid with a blazing red cowlick dangling across his vinyl forehead, clutching a white Alka Seltzer tablet, became an obsession. Levy went on a collecting odyssey, traveling the country to stock his home with kitschy gizmos from days gone by. After decades of searching, he finally laid his hands on the rare collectible, laying out hundreds of dollars for a toy whose only trick is sitting on a shelf.

Figuring there had to be a business connected to his costly hobby, Levy got out of the magazine industry and recently opened Big Kid Collectable Toy Mall & Retro Store. Riding the nostalgia wave that's powered pop culture for the last few years - and this year's Christmas wish lists - he hopes to translate his love for the good ol' days into a viable business.

``A lot of us remember that time very fondly,'' said Levy, who cultivates a somewhat piratical air with his black mane of tight curls and two silver hoops through his left earlobe. ``Back in the late '50s, the Valley was like Nirvana. There's just a magical feeling associated with that time.''

Armed with classic mambo tunes piped in and rows of goofy, bright toys culled from the annals of kid history, the store at the corner of Burbank Boulevard and Hazeltine Avenue aims to recreate those days. The Beatles shake their bowl-haired heads on retro televisions, while plastic slip-covered couches provide a respite for shoppers. At the same time as he's talking up his classic toys, the owner will sometimes break to harmonize with customers on cartoon themes from the 1950s.

While Levy delights in the oddball touches he's used to trick out his new store, they've got a very definite purpose: to sell products. A few feet from the televised Beatles, customers can purchase an original set of the Fab Four in bobblehead form with a list price of a cool $1,025. Levy's treasured Speedy figure sells for $650, while some Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots with their original box have a tag of $225. More modestly priced contemporary toys are considerably cheaper, making the average ticket around $30.

``Some of this stuff, I wonder why I never had it growing up,'' said Dianna Quille, a 42-year-old Valley Glen tax preparer who accompanied her sons Conor and Liam to look for collectible figures. ``Like this old Mork and Mindy stuff, that really takes you back.''

To stock the store, Levy set up glass cases to hold sculpted figurines and clanky robots. Antique dealers supply many of the wares on consignment, but the proprietor also has also put pieces of his own 3,000-piece collection on sale. While his wife cheered once the old toys stopped cluttering their house, Levy still has trouble selling off the things he's come to love.

``It feels like they're ripping your heart out,'' he bellowed. ``It's very, very hard, because I've sold things from my childhood. After the fact, it kind of bums me out.''

But that same longing Levy has for his own playthings is the key to the viability of his enterprise. To maintain the store as a profitable business, which he hopes he'll be able to do even after the current holiday shopping season, he has to capitalize on collectors' desire to recapture their younger days.

``A lot of these collectibles appeal to the adult male collector, the ones who have the income now to get the toys back that their mothers threw out,'' said Chris Byrne, a toy consultant who runs TheToyGuy.com. ``Our culture puts such a value on youth, where life was better and we had all this free time to create the things that have been sucked away from us as we get older. It's a reminder of a more carefree time.''

Fortune Smith, a 47-year-old Van Nuys masseuse, collects to recapture that childhood. She searches out pinball machines and figurines of RCA's dog mascot Nipper, enjoying the sense of individuality of being a collector.

``Everyone drives the same car, has the same-looking house,'' she said. ``This brings you back to the days when people had some real imagination.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Big Kid owner Dave Levy, right, shows 3-year-old Liam Quille how a retro style hockey game works at his store in Van Nuys. The store specializes in collectable toys, like a Speedy Alka Seltzer figurine, above, vintage toys and retro-style games.

(3 -- 5 -- color) From tin toy rockets, left, to Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots, top, to Beatles bobblehead dolls, above, Big Kid toy store offers a wide variety of hard-to-find items and collectibles from years past.

(6) Dave Levy, owner of Big Kid, a collectible store in Van Nuys, has turned a childhood hobby of collecting toys and games into a small business.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer