Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ

"Where does he get all those wonderful toys?" - Jack Nicholson as The Joker

I really appreciate all the email I get from folks who visit my site. Much of the email consists of questions and these are the most frequently asked.

1. Where can I get (insert name of cool old toy here)?

eBay. If the toy is no longer produced then eBay is your best answer. With almost 10 million items up for bid every day, what you are looking for IS NOW or SOON WILL BE up for auction there. That is where most of the toys in my collection came from. I have made it easy to search for specific toys on eBay by including a link at the bottom of each toy page on this site to search current auctions for that specific toy. If the toy you are looking for is not currently up for bid you can save the search and have eBay email you when a new auction that matched your search does come online.
You can also look for vendors who sell vintage toys online using the one of the directory services. Both Google's Vintage Toys directory and the Open Directory Project's Vintage Toys directory seem to come from the same source and list many, many vintage toy vendors as well as Not-For-Sale (aka 'Vanity') sites like mine.

2. Is your (insert name of cool toy here) for sale?

No. Why would I want to sell any of these toys???!!!??? See question one for how to find the toy you are looking for. And don't overlook completed auctions. Many times a toy you want was for sale in the last month and did not sell. By looking at completed auctions you can find these sellers and email them with an offer. There is a link to search eBay's completed auctions at the bottom of each toy page on this site.

3. How much is my toy worth?

Probably not as much as you would like. Since the introduction of auction sites on the internet, toys that were once hard to find are now plentiful and the prices have dropped accordingly. You can look in price guide books but the most useful and accurate way to tell what you toy is worth is to look on eBay. Search for your toy from their homepage to see how plentiful or rare it is. And look at the completed auctions to see what the toy has sold for in the last month. Make sure to do a thorough search, use wildcards to take care of alternate spellings.

4. Where can I find supplies/parts for my toy?

Do a search of the internet using a major search engine (I use Google). You can sometimes find retailers that sell either original or "as original" supplies. For example, you can buy Creepy Crawler items from Amazon/Toys-R-Us. You can buy replacement parts for your Vertibird and Chopper Command/Patrol at Whirlybird Central. They don't make refill kits for the Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Factory anymore but Wham-O has posted a pizza recipe on their site. And another search brought up the Johnny Astro website where you can buy reproduction balloons, astronaut, and instructions.
Don't overlook your local toystore as well. There are sometimes new items that cans substitute for old. For example, the "Pla-stix" for the Nickelodeon Melt-O-Matic will work just fine in the older Mattel injectors or Toymax Super Injectors. If all else fails, look for supplies on eBay itself. For example, about the only place you will find pellets for your Metal Molder is on eBay (where you will probably need to buy the whole Die-Cast Factory just to get the pellets).
Looking for a replacement part for your older toy or game, you can try the Toyparts Bulletin Board. And if you need a piece to your vintage Aurora Monster Model, visit the Parts Pit.

5. Where can I get (insert name of cool newer toy here)?

Newer toys are sometimes available at local stores (or their online equivalents), toy/hobbie shops that ship, or from retailers on the Internet. If your local Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, KB Toys, and Toys-R-Us don't have what you are looking for, search the web. For example, the new Vertibird clones, Chopper Command and Chopper Patrol, are made by Jasman and if your local stores don't have them, you can order them through Amazon.com. And don't forget the manufacturers themselves; Rube Goldberg Model kit reissues are available directly from Marx.

6. What was the name of that toy...?

This is a harder question to answer as most times I've never heard of the toy being described. I thought I had a pretty good memory for toys but you folks are awesome. One remarkable resource is out there: reprints of toy pages from the Sears and Montgomery Ward's Christmas Catalogs are available at Amazon.com. Paging through these books is indeed a great pleasure. Another book of interest that I can vouch for is Tom Frey's Toy Bop which shows excellent pictures of some very cool 50s and 60s toys.

7. Do you really own all these toys? Where do you keep them?

I actually own these and more toys that I have not put up on the site. Most of the toys are in my computer room. Take a look:

8. Any favorite links?

Yes, I have a few places I like to visit:
Vanity/Informational Sites
Richard Millers Favorite Toys from the Sixties.
Elliot Avedon Museum and Archive of Games - huge site of mostly vintage games.
The Gallery of Monster Toys. Check out the 60s and 70s wings.
Girder and Panels Collectors Club - Awesome collection.
The Museum of Advertising Icons - Huge collection of advertising icon toys.
Lost in Toys - Everything Lost in Space.
Superballs.com - All you ever wanted to know about them.

Sales Sites
Timewarp Toys and Collectibles - the best sales site on the net for old toys/games.
Monsters in Motion - best selection of all things monster.
M & J Variety - Seller of new and vintage closeout items.
Gag Works - Stink Bombs, X-Ray Specs, Fake Vomit - doesn't get any better than this.
Where the Toys Are - incredible selection.
Dr. Tongue's House of 3-D Collectible Toys. What can one say about a guy named Dr. Tongue?

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Contact me: Sam Cancilla, sam@samstoybox.com.

Last Modified: January 10, 2003