WAMEGO ? Tod Machin has been fascinated with the “Wizard of Oz” since the early 1980s, when he was a student at Kansas State University.

Through the years, the Wamego native, who now lives in Merriam, collected nearly 2,000 pieces of Oz memorabilia — from puzzles, children’s books, figurines, posters and board games to Diana Ross’ costume from the movie “The Wiz.”

Machin’s items will be on display at the Marvelous Land of Oz Museum in Wamego, which is scheduled to open later this month.

Organizers hope to attract 45,000 visitors a year to the museum, built with a $100,000 state tourism grant, $400,000 raised by the town and thousands of volunteer hours.

Located along Kansas Highway 99, the museum is housed in a former antiques store, with green gingerbread trim around the windows and a black, crook-nosed silhouette of the Wicked Witch in a front window.

The lobby, painted in shades of browns and tans, is home to a gift shop. Overhead, a painted storm brews on the ceiling. Step up to the window of the Gale farmhouse to buy a ticket.

Step into Technicolor

Pull open the house’s front door and, just like in the movie, step into Technicolor. Dorothy, in full gingham, stands right there, a life-size mannequin, brightly lighted, Toto under her arm. She, and the house, have landed in Oz.

Visitors will come face-to-face with other re-creations of Oz characters tucked into alcoves.

The museum idea began germinating in 1995, when Machin lent his Oz collection to his hometown for a temporary exhibit. With little advertising, 20,000 people came in three months’ time.

Machin, 42, began buying all things Oz in college after seeing a pair of ruby slippers in an exhibit in Wichita. Once family and friends learned of his interest, Christmas and birthday gifts took on the theme, and a collection was born.

“The film was something I grew up on, and being from Kansas it was something I could really relate to,” said Machin, who works for the New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park.

Idea initially rejected

The first time his hometown approached him about turning his collection into a museum, Machin declined. The offer came after the success of the 1995 exhibit and after Clark Balderson, the Wamego businessman who dreamed up the museum, and his family returned from a trip to Portugal.

At an airport there, they ran into a security officer who eyed them intensely as he inspected their passports. Then, he blurted out, with a smile: “Where’s Dorothy?”

At the baggage claim, Balderson told his family: “OK, we’ve got to open an Oz museum because everybody everywhere associates Kansas with Oz.”

Machin was not interested, because he was still collecting pieces. Then the collection began overtaking his Merriam townhome.

“Eventually, though, the whole process of collecting just quit being fun,” said Machin, who is careful not to say just how much that fun cost him.

“Prices were driven up; things were getting very expensive. The collection had become, rather than my fun hobby, the biggest stress in my life,” he added. “I just woke up one day and said, ‘Well, if this isn’t going to be any fun for me anymore, I’m just not going to do it.’ I just stopped cold turkey.”

The last time Balderson approached him, in 1996, Machin was ready. “It’s so nice to have it out and have it where people can see it,” Machin said.

The museum joins a handful of Oz-related museums in the United States at a time when interest, piqued by the movie’s 50th anniversary in 1989, continues to grow, said John Kelsch, director of the Judy Garland Museum in Garland’s home of Grand Rapids, Minn.

In Kansas, the Wamego museum will be the third permanent Oz tribute. Others are in Sedan and Liberal.