Models, Toys, Dolls & Games

With the blockbuster Margot Robbie-Ryan Gosling movie packing cinemas worldwide, this has been the summer of Barbie, and that also includes the toy-collecting world.

This set of 36 cards is an early edition of what became known as 'Petit Etteilla' cartomancy (fortune-telling) cards.

These boxed hollow-cast figures of Peter Pan and Captain Hook in a sword fight were made by Sacul in the early 1950s to coincide with the Walt Disney movie release.

Anyone who has been charmed by teddies all their adult life since maybe an early adoration of Winnie-the-Pooh could head to the long-running biannual Hugglets Teddies Festival.

From late 1940 to early 1941 André Breton and a group of other Surrealists including Wifredo Lam, Max Ernst, Oscar Dominguez, Victor Brauner, André Masson and Frédéric Delanglade re-located to Marseille where they anxiously awaited visas to escape occupied France.

The Vinyl Cape Jawa was the first Star Wars action figure to assume mythic status among collectors.

Once thought to have been produced in the Black Forest region of Germany, chess sets like the one offered at Ewbank’s (30% buyer’s premium) on June 23, used to be called Luther sets.

Another tranche of items from the Dudley Ollis collection of playing cards was offered at a recent Dominic Winter auction.

Vendor finds glass marbles are worth more than expected as they make surprise four-figure sums in Bury St Edmunds

Matchbox can sell well even when there isn’t an actual vehicle in sight.

Merchandise relating to an early show from the Thunderbirds creator makes a surprise sum at Kent auction

Sasha dolls are named after their Swiss designer, artist Sasha Morgenthaler and were made in the UK and Germany from the mid to late 1960s.

The Matchbox Magic sale at Teesside saleroom Vectis (20.83% buyer’s premium) on May 30 lived up to its billing by entrancing bidders.

Not everything offered in the model railway market has to involve a glamorous name such as Flying Scotsman to make a good result.

Being a devil is profitable for a Pelham Puppet.

Showing little sign of their huge popularity slowing down, Star War figures made a significant contribution to a two-day TV and film-related auction.

Novelty biscuit tin toys delivered a number of tasty sale successes for South Yorkshire auction house BBR (15% buyer’s premium).

When the (Louis) Marx toy company produced a friction-drive model Batmobile in the 1960s the plastic car that resulted was really a model of the 1951 General Motors Le Sabre concept show car designed by Harley Earl.

The first lot in Pook & Pook’s (25% buyer’s premium) May 4-5 sale was also the top result. And if you follow the toy boat market, it was also strangely familiar.