Chasing Childhood Memories

They say that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be, and yet it remains a powerful motivation for buyers in the saleroom, writes Emily Turner.  Most of us love to hark back to more innocent times, and this is the reason for the surge in demand for vintage toys and games, as buyers seek to own toys they loved in their childhood – or ones that they aspired to own when they were young, but didn’t manage to.

Our next bi-monthly Vintage and Modern Toys, Dolls, Games, Video Games and Computers Sale, which takes place on Friday 13^th March, features 330 lots offering grown-ups of all ages the chance to rediscover their childhoods.

One of the most iconic toy brands, which will resonate with all but the very oldest of readers, is LEGO.  Founded in Denmark 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen (and still owned by the same family today), the name LEGO is an abbreviation of two Danish words, ‘leg’ and ‘godt’, which put together mean ‘play well’.

The company started making wooden toys, including cars, airplanes and yoyos.  Ole Kirk Kristiansen was determined that children deserved high quality toys which would last for many years of play, with the early wooden toys being made of beech wood which had been air-dried for two years and then kiln-dried for three weeks.

By the end of the Second World War, the firm was finding it increasingly difficult to source beechwood of the right quality.  At the same time, the emergence of modern plastics presented an opportunity to innovate.  In 1947, LEGO imported a British-made plastic moulding machine, and two years later the first primitive plastic bricks were marketed – and the rest is history.

Today LEGO is the largest toy manufacturer in the world, producing more than 36 billion bricks a year – 1,140 every second.  In 2015, marketing consultancy Brand Finance ranked LEGO as the ‘world’s most powerful brand’ – displacing Ferrari.

Because it has played such a big part in so many people’s childhoods, many adults are now LEGO collectors.  Iconic sets such as the Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon and the Taj Mahal can sell for thousands of pounds at auction.

Our March Sale has a Black Seas Barracuda set dating from 1989, in its original box and with instructions.  Our pre-sale estimate for this is £180-£220, but it may well exceed that if two or more LEGO enthusiasts are bidding.

Often long-standing toy brands introduce special editions featuring a more contemporary brand which is particularly in fashion, such as the LEGO Star Wars Millennium Falcon I mentioned earlier.

These special editions can be very collectable, appealing to adults who were children at a particular point in time, when the two brands came together.  One example of this in our March Toy Sale is a rare Power Rangers Battle Bile Mega Track Scalextric set, dating from 1995.

Believe it or not, the slot car racing game Scalextric has been around since the late 1950s, with the first examples being made in Havant in Hampshire.  The brand was bought by model railways firm Hornby in 1968.  There have been a number of TV and movie tie-ins over the years, including the very rare and valuable James Bond 007 set from the 1960s, featuring an Aston Martin.

Finally, proof that seeking a connection with your lost childhood needn’t involve remortgaging your house: our Sale includes a collection of 1980s Dam and Russ Trolls, with a modest £10-£30 estimate.  First produced in the 1950s, these were popularised by a Danish woodcutter called Thomas Dam, who turned his hand to making good luck trolls when his bakery business was floundering due to flour shortages.  Those manufactured by US firm Russ Berrie are sometimes called ‘Russ Trolls’.