Exclusive | Toymaker who lost $8.5M in Pokmon cards during Palisades Fire building back collection and his neighborhood

He’s gotta catch ’em all — again.A California toymaker who lost $4.5 million Pokémon cards in the Palisades Fire last year is rebuilding his collection of priceless collectables again — as he helps his neighbors rebuild their homes.Jeremy Padader’s million-dollar menagerie took years to curate and made the 52-year-old a mentor to influencer Logan Paul, who has built his own formidable cache.“You can’t imagine the remarkable treasures that were gone forever,” said Padawer, president of Jazwares, whose products include Squishmallows, Pokémon and “Star Wars” merch.Padawer is also one of the organizers of They Let Us Burn, a group that’s aiming to hold Mayor Karen Bass and other officials accountable for the mismanagement and neglect they say precipitated the fires, which destroyed around 7,000 homes in Palisades and nearly 10,000 more in other parts of Los Angeles County in January 2025.Padawer and his allies have spent more than a year fighting for streamlined inspection and permitting processes, sales tax exemptions on building materials, and other critical policies to help residents return to the Palisades, which is still mostly a ghost town.But no insurance check can bring back the artifacts and heirlooms of generations of artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers who called the iconic neighborhood home.“I don’t believe the reality of the losses ever entirely hit the zeitgeist,” Padawer said.Padawer’s Pokémon collection included a pristine first-edition set of the trading card game, one of only 10 in existence.He also lost signed sports memorabilia, cartoons by “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz, a sealed iPhone 1, and early prototypes of his best-selling toys — around $7.5 million in total losses, which insurance only covered a third of, Padawer said.Padawer’s neighbor, a third-generation writer, lost a collection of first-edition books and original manuscripts.The fire torched around 100,000 original scores and parts from...