Charles gets a warm welcome on his first visit as king to Samoa. But uneasy questions await

SIUMU, Samoa (AP) — In the dark, dozens of people lined a narrow road near the Samoan fishing village of Siumu, gathering near a sign bearing a portrait of King Charles III and waiting excitedly for a glimpse of the real monarch.

A buzz surged through the crowd as a motorcade appeared Wednesday, bearing the first British king to visit a Pacific Island nation.

Hands waved briefly from rolled-down windows and those standing in just the right spot managed to catch a glimpse of the king's face. Then the monarch and his wife, Queen Camilla, were gone. The royals had arrived earlier Wednesday evening from a visit to Australia.

“All people in Samoa are very excited,” said Numio Faoagali, a garbage collector from Siumu who had spent three days cleaning and decorating his house with a Union flag and bunting. He hoped that Charles, who is staying at a resort nearby, might see it.

“It’s the first time to see the king. We’ve only seen him on the TV, not here in Samoa," he said.

Charles is expected to helm a major meeting of leaders from Commonwealth countries in Samoa, including many that once had colonial ties to Britain. His presence is likely to prompt uneasy questions -– as it did in Australia -- about the role of the British crown in the histories and aspirations of its former territories.

But on Wednesday, his visit provoked delight too.

Locals were thrilled their village was picked to host the monarch and congregated two hours early on Wednesday to await his arrival. Madeleine A. Tofaeono-Galo said her cousin, who lived on the other side of the island, was travelling to Siumu “just to see the king.”

As Apia, the capital, bustled with final preparations to welcome Charles, other world leaders and more than 3,000 delegates to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, enthusiasm focused on the global spotlight the monarch's presence might shine on the island nation of 218,000 people.

“We are excited as a one in a lifetime opportunity,” the paramount chief of Siumu, Ataona Tusi Fafetai, told The Associated Press.

“We have pride in our core values, as in hospitality, respect and love and caring for our people,” he added. “It’s a great opportunity for us to show the world that who we are and what we are as people and our identity as Samoan.”

It’s the first time a Pacific Island has hosted the biennial leaders’ summit. More than half of the Commonwealth's members are small countries like Samoa, many of them island nations among the world’s most imperiled by rising seas.

Climate change will occupy much of the summit's agenda. Charles has championed awareness of the problem for decades, and leaders are expected to agree to an Ocean Declaration pledging fresh, but as yet unspecified, commitments.

“We need support to properly lower the greenhouse effect over our Pacific islands,” said Fafetai, the chief. The summit was not only for “unity and awareness”, he added, but to “come up some solutions that will help us.”

The forum will test the ability of the group of nations from across the globe, with divergent political interests and economic fortunes, to align on matters of substance. It is likely to face uncomfortable, existential questions too.

The Commonwealth is seen by some as a vestige of empire with an uncertain mission in the 21st century, and discussions about colonization among its members have intensified in recent years. All three candidates to become the organization’s next Secretary-General -– from Ghana, Lesotho and Gambia -– have urged financial reparations for the past enslavement of colonized people.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is attending the summit, has faced pressure from some lawmakers in the governing Labour Party to consider the prospect. But his government says it is not up for discussion.

“Reparations are not on the agenda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting,” Starmer’s spokesman, Dave Pares, said ahead of the summit. “The government’s position has not changed. We do not pay reparations.”

Britain would not be offering an apology for slavery at the summit, Pares said. He also rejected suggestions that the Commonwealth's importance has diminished.

The summit would “bring together delegations from 56 countries representing a combined market for British business set to be worth $19.5 trillion by 2027,” Pares said.

There will be some notable absences from the event, however.

The leaders of the two biggest Commonwealth nations, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, are attending a meeting of the BRICS developing nations hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also cancelled his trip to Samoa as he faces political woes at home.

Among a group of countries more disparate and unequal than before, observers will be assessing whether Charles can be the unifying figure that his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, once was.

“The Commonwealth, I think he knows, was one of the most important things that his mother did,” said Anna Whitelock, professor of history of the monarchy at City, University London. “Not only keeping this Commonwealth of countries together, but actually retaining a sort of spirit of community and cooperation and relevance in a world where there’s so many other power blocs and challenges.”

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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press writers Jill Lawless and Danica Kirka contributed from London.

Men hold flags as they wait for the arrival of Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla in the village of Siumu, Samoa, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Men attach Union Jacks to the hoods of their taxis as they wait for the arrival of Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla in the village of Siumu, Samoa, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

People sit under a portrait of Britain's King Charles III as they wait for his arrival and Queen Camilla in the village of Siumu, Samoa, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

People wave and take pictures as the motorcade with Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla passes in the village of Siumu, Samoa, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

People wave flags as Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive in the village of Siumu, Samoa, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla wave as they arrive in the village of Siumu, Samoa, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — When curators at the National Toy Hall of Fame learned last fall that the Fisher-Price Corn Popper had been voted in as part of the class of 2023, they knew they had some serious work to do.

With a formal induction ceremony approaching, they would have to figure out how to showcase the beloved toddler push toy with colorful balls that ricochet around a clear dome.

It isn’t as simple as going to Walmart and pulling one off the shelves: The hall, part of the The Strong National Museum of Play in upstate New York, aims to show how its toys have endured and evolved over the years — pieces go from wood to plastic, electronics are added.

That means digging through archives, auctions, the internet and garage sales to hunt for an original, or one close to it — a process repeated with each new hall of fame inductee.

“We want some recognizable things currently on the market, but we also want people to say, ‘Oh, I had one of those!’” said Christopher Bensch, chief curator at the Strong museum, which is a larger-than-life interactive toybox for kids and adults.

For example, when the jigsaw puzzle was inducted in 2002, they added one of the world’s first versions, a map of Europe pasted onto a thin mahogany board from 1766, alongside a child’s Donald Duck board puzzle from 1990. Not all of the toys inducted into the hall are specific products, either — 2021's inductee was simply “sand.”

In the case of the Corn Popper, the curators needed to find something recognizable to generations. The toy has been around since 1957 and more than 36 million have been sold, according to Fisher-Price. Nearly 650,000 visitors would arrive over the next year to view it and the hall of fame’s other vaunted toys.

After being voted in by experts and fans, many hall of fame toys are pulled for permanent display from the museum’s vast archives.

The honorees are usually so iconic — the Barbie doll, the teddy bear, checkers — that the odds are good there will be multiples among the half-million or so objects already in the ever-expanding collection.

But staff is always on the lookout for playthings worth saving — keeping an eye on eBay and garage and estate sales, especially if a toy is already in, or seems bound for, the hall of fame.

With new toys on the market all the time, curators can only guess what might be the next Etch A Sketch, a mechanical drawing toy that's still popular and virtually unchanged after 100 years, and which toys will fizzle.

“We want to be the repository for them, for the nation or the world," Bensch said. “That’s why we have 1,500 yo-yos in our collection, or 8,000 jigsaw puzzles,” he said, naming two past inductees.

Some of the stored board games, stuffed animals, doll houses and other molded, cast and carved reminders of childhood have been donated by manufacturers. Others come from private collectors following a death, divorce or move. A parent recently donated a collection of 1,600 American Girl dolls and accessories after their child outgrew them.

Some items are pursued at auction, the way a fine art museum might acquire a masterpiece. That's how The Strong landed one of its most prized possessions, an original Monopoly set, hand-painted on oil cloth in 1933 by inventor Charles Darrow before the game went into mass production. With Monopoly in the hall of fame since 1998, the winning $146,500 bid at Sotheby's in 2010 was over budget — but worth it.

“We’re the National Museum of Play. If we were the Henry Ford Museum and we didn’t have the first Model T, we would kick ourselves ever after,” Bensch said.

Babies have been toddling behind Fisher-Price Corn Poppers for more than 60 years, but finding a “historic” one in pristine, museum-display condition proved challenging.

“Those are toys that get used pretty hard,” Bensch said, “especially early versions with that plastic dome and the wooden balls hitting against it. Those did not survive in great condition.”

What eventually went on display were two versions. One is a 1980 model purchased on eBay from a woman in Canada, who likely has no idea her castaway — its wear and tear evident in its dinged-up and slightly cloudy dome — is now a museum piece. The other is a shiny new version that is still on store shelves for about $12, with a sleeker blue handle and beefier red wheels that reflect slight design changes over the years.

“It was hard to find a photogenic one that went back more than a few decades,” Bensch said. “I’m not sure we eventually got one that was as old as we wished for, just because they had been so well loved.”

Each year, a new class of toys makes it into the hall of fame, the culmination of an annual process that invites anyone to nominate their favorite toy online.

Museum staff culls the nominees to 12 finalists before a panel of experts votes in the winners. Eighty-four toys have earned the honor since the hall opened in 1998.

Nominees can be as lasting as steel erector set creations, inducted in 1998, or as fleeting as bubbles blown through a plastic wand, honored in 2014.

Many inductees are a reminder that the true value of a toy isn’t necessarily in the price, but the play. In 2008, an ordinary stick from a tree — but a no-cost sword or magic wand to a child — was inducted into the hall, but Flexible Flyer sleds and the Rubik’s Cube did not make the cut that year. The Easy-Bake Oven was bypassed in 2005 — by the cardboard box it might have shipped in.

The museum received 2,400 nominations for 382 different toys for the class of 2024.

This year’s 12 finalists include Apples to Apples, balloons and the trampoline. Also: “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, Hess Toy Trucks, remote-controlled vehicles, the stick horse, Phase 10, Sequence and the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and two perennial nominees, My Little Pony figures — a seven-time finalist — and Transformers action figures.

From them, a chosen few will be announced and honored in November, and the curators will begin their hunt all over again

Large scrabble letters line the outdoor Hasbro Game Park at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Oliver Jin of Toronto walks through the outdoor Hasbro Game Park at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Christopher Bensch, chief curator at The Strong National Museum of Play, stands among shelves of toys and games in a storage area below the museum, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Elliot Drury, exhibits fabricator and designer at The Strong National Museum of Play, works on a new exhibit, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Katie and Henry Liggett play with an interactive game while visiting The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Travis Skadberg watches as Jacob, 6, plays a giant game of Donkey Kong at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Visitors walk through the Toy Hall of Fame inside The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Christopher Bensch, chief curator at The Strong National Museum of Play, closes a storage locker of porcelain dolls Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

A visitor takes a picture of an original Monopoly set on display at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Jesse and Lydia Xu of Toronto play a game of Jenga with their kids Casper, 9, and Lydia, 8, at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Visitors walk through the Toy Hall of Fame inside The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

One of the world's first jigsaw puzzles from 1766 is displayed in the Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Suellen Sues puts together a Potato Head with her granddaughter, Isla, 2, while visiting The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

A visitor walks through the outdoor Hasbro Game Park at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Ryan, 4, and Camryn Nielander, 2, shop at a play grocery store at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Twins Josh and Zach Alli, 6, of Toronto play racing games at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Rita Wilks plays a game of Bingo with her grandson, Oliver, 2, while visiting The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Christopher Bensch, chief curator at The Strong National Museum of Play, holds one of the games that is a finalist for the 2024 Toy Hall of Fame, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

The Fisher-Price Corn Popper toys on displays in the Hall of Fame at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Christopher Bensch, chief curator at The Strong National Museum of Play, holds one of the toys that is a finalist for the 2024 Toy Hall of Fame, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

The Toy Hall of Fame inside The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Christopher Bensch, chief curator at The Strong National Museum of Play, takes out toys and games that are finalists for the 2024 Hall of Fame, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

A display of baseball cards inside of the Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)

Large scrabble letters line the outdoor Hasbro Game Park at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)