Lost Toys & Comics opens in Miller Place

Rob Maurus says he feels like a time traveler. That’s fitting since his shop, Lost Toys & Comics in Miller Place, is wall-to-wall with decades-old playthings and collectibles.

Open since August the specialty store carries a wide selection of fun vintage treasures. Are you looking for mint-condition action figures from the 1990s and ’80s? Hard-to-find Marvel and DC comics? Coveted sports cards? The store checks those boxes.

"There’s something for everybody," says Maurus, of East Patchogue, who’s collected toys, cards and comics since he was his 7-year-old son Gavin’s age. "My dad used to take me to KB Toys and Toys ‘R’ Us every week. I couldn’t wait."

Maurus wanted to recreate the sense of upbeat excitement at his store, where items pack a blast from the past. "A ’90s or ’80s kid who comes in and looks around is bound to say, ‘I had that.’ The shop takes you back," he says.

Collecting toys and comics, meanwhile, has taken a big step forward. It has evolved from a niche if not geeky, hobby to a mainstream passion. It blends nostalgia with pop-culture relevance.

Lost Toys & Comics marks the first solo entrepreneurial venture for Maurus, whose know-how and network are informed by experience working as a manager at Game On retro video game stores. A video game lover in his own right, Maurus still puts in three days a week at the Game On location in Miller Place, not far from his store.

Maurus is always on the lookout for new inventory. Batman action figures from the animated series run around $25 to $150. Hasbro WWF figures start at about $100. Graded and non-graded comics go from a couple of bucks up to four figures.

Lost Toys & Comics is a shopping destination to reconnect with being a kid. Maurus says he relates to "Big," the 1988 Tom Hanks movie about a boy who wakes up in a grown man’s body and — get this — ends up working in the toy industry.

Maurus considered his situation, then says, "It’s the coolest job ever."

Lost Toys & Comics, 451 Route 25A, Miller Place, 631-743-9443, @losttoysandcomicsli