The Holy Grail of Vintage toy collecting

I have always wanted to know this so I decided to ask the experts. My question is what is the one toy that vintage robot collectors believe is the most valuable and most rare. I mean in every kind of collecting there is one card or model train that everyone agrees is the item to have. I know there are alot of different types of vintage collectors with different views and tastes but there has to be one toy that everyone agrees is the ultimate vintage toy robot. Plus how much would it be worth if it was in mint condition like it came straight from the factory. My guess is that it would be some kind of tin robot made after the second world war and be worth a couple grand.



[robotjapan.proboards12.com]

At the moment holy grails are no more. vintage toy collecting is dead. Everyone has what he wants. Many are in the process of selling everything (I know of many for real). And there are no new collectors. So the end has come.

Chris is the rarest.



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hassenpfeffer

Shut up you pseudo.

Well,
as far as diecast goes, there are still quite a few "Holy Grail" type toys, at least as far as I'm concerned! The DX Tetsjuin 28 which commands what? 3000-7000.00 dollars? A full ton o' blue diecast love. I get the impression though, that although somewhat uncommon it is demand for the toy that makes it so unobtainable.
Those Bullmark /Clover? gift sets for Mechander Robo et al., are also up there in the high end zone. Many of them rank up in the thousands of dollars. I've never actually charted them out-so I don't know how much or how hard to find they are.
The early Popy Mazinger Z's are also pretty rare/pricey and command a comparable 4 figure price range. Although I'm sure that varies with condition and demand.

There probably are more hard-to-come by toys but I'm not sure what those would be..
Chris

Didn't a box set of Clover's DX Zambot 3 go for $3000 not to long ago?



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I asked if I have "Time For L-Gaim" but I got "No Reply From The Wind".

Jumbo Daikumaryu or Jumbo Grandizer Spazer...for me at least.

But yeah... you can't get much more expensive than some of those early tin robots.

Pseudo-Jay

> that everyone agrees

No one agrees on anything.



-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH

expensive does NOT mean rare. It just means in demand.



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"Voltes V is not a rarity... You can find it at walmart or seven eleven." -- Chris

Exactly.

It all boils down to how you define "holy grail." If you mean a toy that's simply too expensive for you to afford, there are probably hundreds of "grails" out there.

But if you define it as a piece that's so honest-to-god rare and difficult to find that there may only be one or two in existence, the Jumbo "Kikaiju" Garada K7 is pretty much the poster child -- with regards to '70s character toys, at any rate. For years, nobody even had so much as a photograph of the thing. Tom Franck of Cool Japanese Toys devoted years to trying to (unsuccessfully) track one down. This one, on display in the Bandai Museum in Japan, is only the third confirmed sighting of a Garada and the only specimen I've ever seen with my own eyes.

But if you're talking out of any toy produced in Japan between WWII and today, I'm sure there are tin robots out there that trump even the Garada in terms of rarity and potential sale price. But that has as much to do with the deep pockets of the older demographic that collects them as it does with "value," rarity, and overall demand.

-M

Garada K-7 Jumbo villian....definetally the #1 Holy Grail in the world of Jumbos....(though some might say the #1 holy grail is the God Mazinga jumbo...)



"Remember when you were a kid and you would insist you “NEEDED” something vs. “wanted” it? Well, I NEED THIS! I WANT THIS! I MUST HAVE ONE BEFORE I DIE!"

-My Mother, talking about a Bullmark Ultraseven Pegassa Seijin sofubi.

Thanks for the info guys, I just wanted to get a better grasp of what was out there. I guess when it comes to robots a Japanese made one would be the most wanted. Are there any toy robots made in North America that would be considered special? Or is North American treasures just basically first year Barbies and prototype 12" G.I Joes.



Post Edited (03-13-04 23:19)

[robotjapan.proboards12.com]

I think one of the two proto of G1 Unicron went for $12,000 at a Botcon.



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I asked if I have "Time For L-Gaim" but I got "No Reply From The Wind".

Don't you step on my blue pseudo shoes.



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hassenpfeffer

masudaya machine man
went for $50,000 at sotheby's. the chariman of masudaya bought that one.

i think there are only 5 known specimens of this toy out there.

The question is who is hunting what. Those holy grails are only in a present which resides in the past. Collecting is dead no matter what you say. NO ONE IS LOOKING FOR ANYTHING.

chris is right......please,lets all just go home......

that'S not true, I'm looking for some My Little Ponies......

and I know of someone who is looking for a godmars soapdish.....

and someone else who is looking for a gokin smurf....

so people are still looking for stuff, just not your stuff..... @Fj

The only things I consider to be "Holy Grail"s are those things that I have yet to find. Like the Holy Grail itself, the cup that Jesus used in at the Last Supper, that the Knights of the Round Table of King Arthur's Court had quested for but never found; I consider the same thing with those items I have never been able to find but had heard existence of. Bumblejumper was one such item, but now I have actually seen many on the net (And handled one through my trading), so it is no longer considered to be a Holy Grail to me. The only Holy Grails in my search right now are from the Tonka Gobots line: The Tan and Orange Nemesis Power Warrior Tank, which seems to only exist in the Catalog picture. And the Gobotron Fortress, which someone has Claimed to have seen, but never offered photographic Proof of, which also has Loomed in the shadows of the aformentioned Gobots Catalog for years, until I finally found a better picture of it on the back of a Box I found. But I have never found actual Proof of its Post Retailer-shelf Existence. I even tried to email the Current owners of the Tonka Corporation for answers to it, but they didn't know anything... So I am starting to disbelieve in it's existence.

Anyways Those are the only 2 Holy Grails I can really think of.



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Do Not Meddle in the Affairs of Dragons, For You are Crunchy and Taste Good with Ketchup!

Oh and Cohiba, I got some MLP's sitting in a box somewhere (forgot where though...) that used to belong to my Sister until she tried to throw them out...



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Do Not Meddle in the Affairs of Dragons, For You are Crunchy and Taste Good with Ketchup!

You can say what you want but 99% of the people I know is not looking for anything and they want to sell everything. ROBOTS ARE DEAD.

Dude you need to chill.



[robotjapan.proboards12.com]

Robot Collecting is dead!

Long Live Robot Collecting!


Actually folks, what is 'dead' (for the moment) is the tyrannous spell of the dealers and their loopy, exorbitant prices; killed by the ready availability of both vintage and new toys as offered up by the very medium with which I am presently taunting Chris.

One is no longer forced to finance another's lifestyle with the purchase of a single vintage item and the speculators -soulless, heartless fools who see only the flash of coinage in their mind's eye as they accumulate piles of vinyl and diecast Japanese gems- are choking, choking, choking.

Hush my child, it is but their bitter death-rattle you hear. Their cold, stiffening fingers losing the grip on their precious monopoly (and there was much rejoicing).

Near as I can tell, more people than ever are buying robots, now. 'Holy Grails' are numerous as more and more discover this wonderful, slowly opening world; admittedly still an expensive, and thus questionable, hobby -but more affordable each day!

I just won a Gan Gara Gan Chan, myself. One more 'grail', once considered out of my grasp, checked off. = )



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hassenpfeffer

ROBOTS ARE DEAD so I say FECK

I ALSO SAY FECK and KISS MY ASS

giggle giggle



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hassenpfeffer

This is an old topic.

Everyone's idea of a "Holy Grail" is different. Some may be based on price alone while others are based on rarity. Point being it is different for everyone. Its all semantics anyway. What is a holy grail and what isn't? We all answer differently....call it "Holy-toy-I-really-really-want-and-can't-find-and/or-afford" it doesn't matter....whatever you want to call your Holy Grail of Toy collecting, go ahead. Like our collections themselves, they don't have to hold anyones approval except your own.

I will never stop collecting until I have every single POKER-ROBO.
-Mike

Chris wrote:

> You can say what you want but 99% of the people I know is not
> looking for anything and they want to sell everything. ROBOTS
> ARE DEAD.

anybody ever think if all italian niche toy geeks are like chris? could you imagine a convention of em?

toy italian geek 1: this price is wrong, voltes dx should cost 5 euros! i can find it at a shelf at walmart!

chris: i will trade you my dabulas m2 jumbo for your canolli! it is so cheap and easy to find that i would actually trade my dabulas m2 robot for a canolli!

italian MyLittlePony dealer: i am the king of italy!

I know my dialogue is inaccurate, i forgot to put everything in caps and all...



Don't touch my dumplings!!
[murlocdumplings.com]

> anybody ever think if all italian niche toy geeks are like chris?

Nah.

Chris is R@RE. Accept no substitutes.



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hassenpfeffer

How much is a Chris going for nowadays?

F E C K

He's not going. He's staying around. That's the problem.

What is a canolli anyway? By the way, believe it or not some people were involved in fights at toy conventions in Italy. This being said ROBOTS are DEAD.

-Near as I can tell, more people than ever are buying robots, now

AUHAUHA What the heck do you know?? If this is true donkeys fly

I just bought 2 clover Gundam robots from an Italian seller and it was a very smooth transaction.

But he's half Canadian. Maybe that explains it...

Of course people are still buying robots. Buyers in general are just smarter now that we don't go for the crazy prices some seller are asking for.

I am 33 short of completing my Popy GA collection, 32 more to go for PA series, then there are Bullmark, Clover, Takatoku, Ark and Yonezawa, oh Eidai too... Looks like I'll be buying for a LONG time....

Yes, there is you and maybe two other guys buying something. This means ROBOTS ARE DEAD.

Oh and let me say FECK

> By the way, believe it or not some people were involved in fights at toy conventions in Italy.

Is this fascinating little tidbit intended to:

back up your argument that "ROBOTS are DEAD"?

indicate with what great fervor and passion the Italian people (at one time) sought after toys?

or simply to distract us from the fact that your argument is composed entirely of balogna?


>> -Near as I can tell, more people than ever are buying robots, now

> AUHAUHA What the heck do you know??

Oh, they are, Chris -just not from you or Steve Agin

= )



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hassenpfeffer

As I told you before kiss my ass. As for the rest I am right and you are wrong. As for fights, they are what they are no matter what or why. So FECK.