Worth of vintage toys, dolls more than child’s play (+video)

Phyllis Crawford-Ellis brought a wind-up 1940s-era toy to the Vintage Antique Toy and Doll Buying Show on Sunday just to see how much it was worth.

It was of two boxers and had belonged to her late husband, given to him as a teen when he participated in a boxing event. He was knocked out with the first punch and earned the nickname “One-Punch Crawford.”

“Those are the kind of stories that are really cool,” said Joel Magee, a buyer at the show.

Beginning Sunday and running through Monday, Magee is at the Courtyard Marriott at 29th and Webb Road to look at all kinds of vintage toys and dolls. By noon on Sunday, there was a table of 1980s “Star Wars” memorabilia, toy guns, trucks, planes and dolls.

“Basically anything 1980s and earlier,” Magee said.

Especially collectible are wind-up toys, composition dolls, arcade games, cast iron toys and mechanical banks, lead soldiers, trains, bisque dolls, Tonka trucks, Barbie dolls, battery-operated toys, Hot Wheels and “Star Wars” original figures, ships and playsets.

Other items of interest include Disneyland posters, Pez dispensers and Beatles memorabilia.

Magee offered on-the-spot cash payments for popular toys in an “Antiques Roadshow” type of environment. About half a dozen people were waiting Sunday for him to look at their vintage toys.

An original 1958 Barbie with holes in her feet is worth about $2,000, Magee said.

“But here’s what happened: She had those holes in her feet and they put her in a stand and the kids would rock the stand back and forth, snap the feet off, the legs off the stand,” Magee said. “So Mattel had this panic, because these were all breaking. So (at the time) you could turn your Barbie in and get a brand-new Barbie for $1 – ’cause they were originally $2.99. Everybody turned their old doll in even if they had played with it, cut the hair. It didn’t matter what condition it was in. You would still get the dollar. Mattel destroyed the dolls by the hundreds of thousands. Very few survived.”

He said he has been buying vintage toys and dolls for the past 25 years. He has seen less than a dozen Barbies with holes in the feet.

“We want them to dig out their attics and closets. If it is anything from the 1970s and older, actually 1980s for ‘Star Wars,’ we would love to see it,” Magee said. “It could be anything: dolls, tin toys, farm toys, cap guns, G.I. Joes – the list is endless.”

This story was originally published November 8, 2015 at 6:42 PM with the headline "Worth of vintage toys, dolls more than child’s play (+video)."