Trains

Boats

Planes

Military

Tractors

Finding Rare & Desirable Toy Vehicles on Ebay

Whilst there are quite a few individual vehicles worth substantial sums of money, devoted collectors understand the value in any antique or vintage toy in mint condition. These toys are unique and limited in number, so finding high quality, rare items on eBay is a matter of regularly surfing around the different country locations on our website until you are lucky enough to be there at the right time to make a successful bid.

Types of Toy Vehicles

Antique & vintage toys that can move are amongst the most collectible toys & can remind you of the many hours you spent as a child playing with them, they can be good investments, or maybe you just like the look of them & collect them for fun.

Old moving toy vehicles can fall into several categories:

Wind-up / Clockwork - These toys need to have a key to tension an internal coil spring similar to those in clocks. The spring slowly uncoils to provide power to the wheels or propellers and create movement.

Friction Toys - No key needed as the spring is connected directly to the wheels so when you pull the vehicle backwards it winds up & when released it will move forwards.

Pull-along - Often larger toys made in wood will have a lead attached so the user can walk with the toy being pulled behind them.

Tether Toys - The vehicle - usually a car, would have a little Glow Plug engine, it normally had a line running to a post so that the car would go round in circles under its own power without crashing.

Electric Slot Cars - These cars, mostly racing cars, would draw their power from the embedded tracks which came in a variety formations, the most popular being the figure of eight shape which incorporated a bridge at the crossover point.

Battery Powered Toys - The closest thing to todays wireless remote controlled toys, these generated many letters to Santa Claus from the late fifties onwards after Ever Ready invented the miniature battery.

Rubber Bands - Attached to a propeller or axle these would be wound up & released to give momentum.

Although Antique & vintage toy vehicles can be made from wood, metal, cast iron, plastic or resin, one of the most popular for collectors these days are the tin / tinplate versions which first came onto the market via German manufacturers in the late 1800's. The early ones are generally more desirable & therefore more expensive!!

From the mid 1930's onwards die cast toys were being manufactured by Meccano under their brand name of Dinky Toys and it wasn't long before other manufacturers jumped into this market which had caught the imagination of every little boy!!

For a comprehensive history of toy / model cars look at this Wikipedia entry.