In ye olde days of Tacoma yore, lurking within the dark forests of Point Defiance Park, was a magical tribe of statues. Little Boy Blue, the Big Bad Wolf, the Three Little Pigs - they were all there, delighting generations with fanciful scenes straight out of fairy tales.

I speak of Never Never Land - an attraction that drew children by the tens of thousands in its heyday. The attraction opened in 1964 and closed in the 1980s due to vandalism and rot. Shortly after, most of the beloved statues gradually disappeared from the park, many stored in the basement of Never Never Land owner John Hewitt, Jr., others owned by the city to this day.

Until now.

Beginning in January 2013, many of the statues will go up for sale at Broadway's Best on Tacoma's Antique Row. Ron Adamson, owner of this nifty store stuffed to the gills with awesome vintage home décor and local antiques, has been after the Hewitt family for years to allow him to market some of the statues.

"I built out the restaurant at 701 Pac Ave five or six years back and found (the statues) in the basement," says Adamson. "Been bugging John ever since to sell them to me. I'm a Tacoma boy and it's nice to be a part of this little bit of T-town history and to be able to work with such a nice family."

John Hewitt, Jr., owned Never Never Land originally with business partners, but eventually became the full owner before selling the theme park to Metro Parks. Both Metro Parks and the Hewitt family retain some of the statues. Nicola Hewitt, John's daughter, believes this is due to the fact that the park must have needed duplicates to replace damaged figures. The figures are sculpted from fiberglass and molds by Hungarian sculptor Elek Imredy. Nicola points out the statues were originally painted in beautiful and subtle pastels. When Metro Parks took over, re-painting was often done in bold primary colors - traces of both eras are still evident on some pieces.

"They've never been for sale before. They've just been stored in my dad's basement," she says. "We've all been sentimental about them. They feel like an ensemble or part of the family, but it's time for them to go on another journey now rather than staying in the basement. People get so nostalgic and almost emotional about these figurines because they remember them - so that was kind of the spark to get them out there."

There should be a statue or two at Broadway's Best before the New Year, but most won't be there until January. Adamson and the Hewitts are still working to clean up and repair statues that need some love before they're ready for the public eye. Depending on their condition and size, the pieces will likely run from $300 to $2,000 each. Once they are in-store, don't expect Broadway's Best to be overrun with the approximately 100 pieces in the Hewitt collection. Instead, the plan is to have a scrapbook with pictures of the entire collection as well as a few pieces on hand.

"Ron's got a cool perspective," says Nicola, "which is rather than putting them on eBay and seeing them going to other places, it would be pretty cool if they stayed in Tacoma as part of our past. Ron told me about somebody who's interested in buying one and who has these fond memories of Never Never Land. And this person got teary just looking at the piece currently in the store."

The last of the pieces at Never Never Land were demolished in 2010. These included the larger remnants that still remained - the large Old Woman's Shoe complete with a slide and the giant stack of books once topped by Humpty Dumpty that served as the attraction's entrance. All that's left on the original site at Point Defiance now is forest and parkland and raccoons.

BROADWAY'S BEST, 742 BROADWAY, TACOMA, 253.617.3509