Models, Toys, Dolls & Games

A c.1960 Barbie doll and related items by Mattel is estimated at £300-500 in the Specialist Collectable Toys Auction on April 10 at Sheffield Auction Gallery.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of a major milestone in the railway age: the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR).

Highlights from the extensive David Finn German toy collection sold at Special Auction Services

A single-owner private collection of pre-Second World War Bassett-Lowke maritime electric, motor, clockwork and live steam model boats is for sale on April 11-12.

One of the rarest and most colourful Lehmann toys put in a bright performance at Special Auction Services.

The Disney character was one of the first examples of using merchandise for promotion and early items are sought after by collectors

When it comes to collectables, the 007 films are on a level of their own. So much so in fact, that a Surrey auction house stages a dedicated sale.

This tinplate, clockwork Triang Minic post-war LMS railway van 80M hammered at 10 times the low estimate in the Vectis auction on March 4.

A gentleman (Dukatenscheißer) with his trousers pulled down excreting a gilt metal coin from his bottom or a composition nodder of a grotesque women beating a child might not be for everyone.

Candy and Andy were just like any other children in the late 1960s, except that they lived with two pandas called Mr and Mrs Bearanda and owned a Mini called Stripey.

The top lot in Potter & Potter’s (25% buyer’s premium) latest Wunderkammer Sale was Gustave Vichy’s (1839-1904) 'Aubade a la lune' (Serenade to the Moon) mechanical automaton. It is considered a signature model of the firm.

Palitoy was a major player in the British toys scene.

Well-funded bidders joined the fray at the recent sale of tinplate toys held by Hohenstaufen (24.5% buyer’s premium) in Göppingen. The two top lots were very different but brought equally impressive results.

Full array sells for £26,000 while single lot hammers at £6500 as enthusiasts compete in salerooms

Private British buyers dominated proceedings as the Teddy Bears of Witney went under the hammer at Special Auction Services (20% buyer’s premium) in Newbury.

The highlight of an extensive selection of Barbie dolls offered at Wessex Auction Rooms (19% buyer’s premium) proved to be, as predicted, an example of the very earliest produced.

A rare group of Fairylite Thunderbirds action figures sold for £2100 in Tennants’ (24% buyer’s premium) latest Toys, Models, Collectables & Sporting sale.

Although made in Nuremberg by a firm named after a Frenchman, the cowcatcher on the front of this Gauge 1 toy locomotive gives the game away as to the intended market.

The production of carved and painted pine toys in Erzgebirge, Bavaria, became a thriving cottage industry.