An added bonus is that the auction, due to start at noon Sunday at 333 Malvern Road South Yarra, is live on the Internet, meaning that international and interstate collectors can be directly involved in the bidding.
“More than 70 international bidders registered for the last toy auction and we expect more this time,” Giles Moon said. “Ten years ago, all these toys would have been auctioned overseas but the Internet has opened up the Australian market.”
The collection belongs to a Melbourne man who has thousands of these toys, ranging from the 1920s to the 1960s, astutely collected over the years, but whose lifestyle and work commitments have now changed.
Another passion for this collector is old radios and the auction house has already completed one sale of these in March this year with another to follow in the next few weeks.
This sale is particularly diverse with die cast and tinplate toys, collections of Britains Soldiers fighting men, space and Japanese battery operated inventions bound to attract collectors.
One of the shining examples is a rare 1960s Japanese Alps/Rosko Rocket Man Robot in space armour (Lot 340 ) that fires red and white plastic rockets and carries an estimate of $2500 to $4500.
Another is a 1960s Japanese Modern Toys (Masudaya) Giant Sonic Robot (Lot 339 ) that emits a shrieking train noise – possibly because the company also manufactured trains. Belonging to what was known as the “Gang of Five”, at a $3000 to $5000 estimate this robot is the most affordable of the bunch with more than $20,000 being paid for the really popular figures.
A German 1950s Arnold Mac tinplate motorcycle (Lot 258 ) is sure to whet appetites as it goes around in circles with the rider constantly dismounting and remounting the vehicle.
The most expensive lot in the sale is a rare pre-World War II trade box of six Meccano Dinky 28/1 delivery vans (lot 32 - estimate $10,000 to $15,000) while a rare promotional French Dinky 561 Citroen 1200K Van ‘Baroclem’ (lot 98 - $2500 to $3500) complete with battery-shaped storage case is another find.
The auction also contains a collection of James Bond posters including a large French one from the 1964 film Goldfinger starring Sean Connery (Lot 286 ).
From 2pm Sunday, Leonard Joel will hold its monthly art auction featuring paintings by Australian artists, sculptures and glassware up to $20,000 in value. This will be followed by a jewellery auction from 6pm Monday.