Growing Up Optional exhibition at CMAG about more than just toys with fun for young and old

Growing Up Optional showcases the vast pop culture collection of public servant Anneka Losik that includes toys, board games, LEGO, collectibles from Stars Wars to Harry Potter to The Goonies, BrickHeadz, soft toys and figurines. There's a DeLorean time machine car here; Princess Leia dartboard there.

There are hundreds of items on display and even Anneka can't put a number on the items she unapologetically owns.

"It's not hoarding if it all sparks joy," she said, turning the tables on the Kondo-led craze for decluttering.

The 32-year-old remembers from the age of four feeling the rush of happiness and security she got receiving the Polly Pocket dolls, tiny figurines encased in their own self-contained world.

She has suffered severe, chronic pain all her life and her toys provided much-needed distraction. She bought comics about Asterix and Obelisk and Tintin and Snowy and played Commander Keen, Crystal Caves and Kings Quest given any spare moment. Growing up in Spence with three older sisters meant she saw movies, TV shows "and even Dolly magazine years before it was entirely appropriate for me to do so".

Even as an adult, still suffering pain, assembling a massive LEGO Hogwarts display was a way to forget her discomfort.

"And at the end you really felt like you had accomplished something," she said.

Wearing a pretty dress decorated with Darth Vader, LEGO earrings and Beauty and the Beast necklace while carrying a Toy Story handbag, Anneka is a walking endorsement of her passion.

She houses her collection in the three-bedroom she shares with "very patient" partner Kev.

"A lot of people assume the collection is Kev's," she said. "They see video games, Star Wars, LEGO, they think it must be a guy's thing."

The title of the show, Growing Up Optional, is a nod to her belief that it is OK to still enjoy the fun and freedom of childhood, to unashamedly love what you have always loved.

It's a message that she passes on to her nieces - that it's OK for them to remain true to themselves and still cuddle that doll or soft toy, even when puberty brings the pressure to be cool and "adult".

"I still have the Blinky Bill toy I had as a baby and it still sits on my bedside table because I love it," she said.

Unlike most collectors of pop culture, Anneka's collection doesn't live in boxes. They are on shelves to be admired and played with. Her rule for her nieces is that if the toys are on a shelf you can reach, you can play with it. Her motto is "Love the stuff that you love, LOUDLY."

CMAG curator Tiann Zampaglione said the exhibition was eclectic and exuberant.

"It's been a pretty fun show to put together," she said.