The $1.5 Million Vintage Toy Collection

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: "Rivals between the other collectors? There is no rival. I'm number one. Top dog. Bring it if you got it. You can't mess with me." "My collection is like living in a toy store." [00:00:28] Speaker 2: Ronald Toby has an incredible collection of vintage toys, which he's been slowly building on since his childhood. [00:00:35] Speaker 1: "My collection was appraised by the Philadelphia Daily News at 1.4 in 2011. Today, I think my collection probably is worth about 1.9 maybe. As a kid, there wasn't a lot of toys. I had relatives who would, I'd do a little chore for them and they would always get me what I'd ask for. [00:01:02] Speaker 3: Everyone else would be out playing or whatever. Not Ronald. He would be in the house playing or working with what he had. And then he was a good kid doing that. No jail time, no policemen. So, that was really good. Don't you think? [00:01:22] Speaker 1: The way that I financed my collection is, number one, I had a job for 30 years. Number two, I had boys. Uh, that was a reason to always go in the toy store and act like I'm going for the boys, but I was going for myself. One for them, three for me. That was my philosophy of going in there. [00:01:48] Speaker ?: One for them, two for them, two for them, two for them, two for them, two for them, two for them. [00:02:00] Speaker 4: Me and Ronald, we go back about 20, 25 years. He's my buddy. I think his collection is like, out of this world. Every time I come in here, I see something new. [00:02:27] Speaker 1: I try to have a different theme in each room. I have a sports room. I have an African room. If you have a coral reef on your wall, then you've got to have, you've got to have a flying shark. I'm going to get you to dip down home, swing it up. No, bring it down, bring it down, bring it down. Dive. Wiggle that tail, show him your head. Get him, get him, finish him off. I have an ice house room, which is a frozen icicles. From there, I have a boxing room. From there, I have a 1941 room. From there, I have a dial room, which is a Florida room. Hey, I'm Snoopy. [00:03:39] Speaker 3: When I moved from my last house, I bought a bigger house so that it could hold my collection. [00:03:53] Speaker 1: So, apparently, it's growing to a fanatical rate that it's time to put the brakes on, that's for sure. Oh, here's something you've never seen. [00:04:08] Speaker ?: A Dick Tracy G-Man gun. And guess what? Still works. [00:04:10] Speaker 1: Dick Tracy G-Man. Now, this is one of my proudest collections. There's a cliché about collecting toys. The cliché is this. He who dies with the most toys wins. And I know quite a few winners. I'm not trying to be one yet, but I know quite a few winners. And it's true. You never want to sell your toys. You'll hold them to the end. [00:04:47] Speaker 5: Toby is a bright, imaginative gentleman. I hope to see his collection go to a museum. [00:05:10] Speaker 1: One thing about toy collecting is you leave a legacy to show that you did something when you were here.