Okie Almanac

The Bristow Toy Museum: A Lifetime of Toys on Route 66

Front window sign for the Bristow Toy Museum on Route 66 in Bristow, Oklahoma.

There are plenty of reasons to get off the interstate and travel the old stretches of Route 66 through Oklahoma. In Bristow, one of the newest reasons is a building downtown packed with about half a century's worth of one man's collecting habit.

I made the trip to Bristow to check out the Bristow Route 66 Toy Museum and got a chance to talk with the man behind the collection, Bret Fadely.

And calling it a “collection” almost feels inadequate.

Bristow Toy Museum Route 66 hat, Hot Wheels car, and souvenir cups on display near the entrance.
Route 66-themed souvenirs add to the stop’s road trip appeal.

Fifty Years of Collecting Toys

The Bristow Toy Museum is essentially the result of Fadely spending more than 50 years collecting toys and eventually deciding they deserved somewhere better than boxes in a garage.

Interior display at Bristow Toy Museum with Texaco toy trucks, gas station collectibles, and local sports memorabilia.
Displays mix vintage toys with Oklahoma, Route 66, and local Bristow memorabilia.
Vintage plush character toy on display at the Bristow Toy Museum in Oklahoma.
Playful close-up displays bring out the museum’s nostalgic personality.

Fadely had wanted for years to find a place where he could display the collection and share it with other people. The opportunity finally came when friends who owned a building on Bristow's Main Street were retiring. Before long, Fadely was buying the building and turning a lifelong hobby into an actual museum.

Today, the museum sits at 118 N Main Street, directly along historic Route 66 in downtown Bristow.

Toy shelves with action figures, a vintage popcorn machine, and an antique cash register at Bristow Toy Museum.
The museum pairs classic toys with vintage objects and pop-culture collectibles.
Wide interior view of Bristow Toy Museum with bicycles, toy display cases, and a Route 66 sign.
Inside the Bristow Toy Museum, visitors find bicycles, toy cars, display cases, and Route 66 nostalgia.

And nearly everything inside came from Bret himself. He estimated that roughly 99% of the museum was made up of his personal collection—and said he still had plenty more at home.

That last part becomes important.

Military toy display at Bristow Toy Museum with a toy Jeep, action figures, and vintage boxed collectibles.
Collectors will spot military toys, action figures, and vintage boxed pieces throughout the museum.

There's a Little Bit of Everything

Walking through the museum is essentially walking through several generations of American childhood.

Aerial view of downtown Bristow, Oklahoma, near the Route 66 Toy Museum.
Downtown Bristow provides the small-town Route 66 setting for the museum.

There are Hot Wheels and pedal cars, action figures, dolls, board games, stuffed animals, tin toys, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Batman and Robin, California Raisins, and shelves upon shelves of things that will probably trigger some long-forgotten childhood memory.

Bret says he has a particular fondness for planes, trains, and automobiles, and that definitely shows in the collection. Some pieces are considerably older than the people looking at them, including tin cars dating back roughly a century.

There's also a large half-scale dragster that immediately grabs your attention, along with an assortment of automotive toys and memorabilia.

But one of my favorite parts of a collection like this isn't necessarily finding the rarest or most valuable thing in the building.

It's finding your thing.

Everybody seems to have one.

You turn a corner and suddenly there it is: something you haven't thought about in 30 years.

There's Some Bell's Amusement Park History Here, Too

The museum isn't limited strictly to toys that came off store shelves.

Bret also managed to preserve pieces from Tulsa's former Bell's Amusement Park, including pedal cars, an airplane, and a bumper car.

For Oklahomans who remember Bell's, that gives part of the collection another layer of nostalgia. These aren't simply old toys that look like something you remember. Some of them are pieces of an Oklahoma attraction that generations of families actually experienced.

There's even an old TG&Y truck in the collection—another little piece of Oklahoma nostalgia that gets a lot of attention from visitors.

Bret's Favorite Isn't What You Might Expect

With thousands of toys to choose from, you'd think picking a favorite would be impossible.

Apparently not.

It's Oscar.

Oscar is a stuffed dog Bret received from his parents for Christmas in the mid-1960s. After decades of collecting increasingly elaborate toys, that's still the one that rises to the top.

I think that says something about why a place like this works.

The monetary value isn't really the point.

An old stuffed dog can mean more to somebody than the rarest collectible in the building because toys are attached to people, places, and specific periods of our lives. That's what makes walking through somebody else's collection unexpectedly personal.

The Museum Has Already Changed Since My Visit

Here's another reason to go even if you've already seen my video: the place you're seeing in that video isn't necessarily the place you'll see today.

When I visited, the museum was still very much evolving.

Since then, Bret has retired and made the museum his full-time project. The collection has continued expanding, displays have changed, and more of that enormous personal collection has made its way into the museum. The museum's current website now lists regular hours Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

So apparently Bret wasn't kidding when he said he still had more toys at home.

The museum has grown considerably since I filmed my tour, meaning my video is almost becoming a little time capsule of its own.

That's actually pretty cool.

A Perfect Route 66 Stop

Location is a big part of what makes the Bristow Toy Museum work so well.

Route 66 celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2026, and Bristow sits directly along the Mother Road between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The museum is becoming another one of those wonderfully specific roadside attractions that make taking the historic highway more interesting than simply getting on the Turner Turnpike and trying to arrive somewhere as quickly as possible.

And people really are finding it.

Bret says he's met Route 66 travelers from Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland. He even remembers a visitor from Poland who was traveling Route 66 from Chicago by bicycle.

That's Route 66 at its best: somebody halfway around the world decides to travel across America, rolls into a small Oklahoma town, and winds up talking toys with Bret.

Go See It—Even If You Don't Think You're a Toy Collector

You don't have to know anything about toy collecting to enjoy this place.

That's probably the best thing about it.

Kids can look at toys they've never seen before. Parents can show their kids what they played with. Grandparents can find things from an entirely different generation. Serious collectors can spot pieces they recognize, while everybody else can wander around pointing and saying, “Holy crap, I had that.”

Admission is free, with donations helping support the museum.

And if you're planning a Route 66 trip through Oklahoma for the centennial, Bristow deserves a stop anyway. Downtown still has that small-town Main Street feel, and the toy museum gives you another excuse to pull over and actually explore rather than simply drive through.

Most importantly, this isn't a collection assembled by a corporation because somebody decided vintage toys would make a marketable attraction.

It's one guy's stuff.

Fifty-plus years of finding things he thought were cool, holding onto them, and eventually deciding he wanted everybody else to see them too.

And apparently, he's still got more boxes to unpack.

Plan Your Visit

Hours and admission can change, so check the official website or Facebook page before making a special trip.

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