Featured: Ultra-rare boxed Japanese “Honeymoon” Robot Car, $40K-$80K; Boxed Jupiter Robot, $25K-$35K; Complete 1958-1960 Topps baseball card sets; 1900 Villeroy & Boch terracotta Santa, $30K-$60K

, /PRNewswire/ – This year, collectors won’t need to wait till Christmas to acquire amazing antique and vintage toys, banks, trains and other sought-after goodies. Morphy’s already has it covered with a November 11-13 Toys & Collectibles Auction ­featuring 1,375 lots that span dozens of popular categories.

Extraordinarily rare ET (Japan) tin friction ‘Honeymoon’ Robot Car, one of possibly only two in existence that retain their original pictorial boxes. Silver convertible has blue windshield, large grille and tailfins typical of midcentury American cars. Lithographed robot driver plus robot passenger in back seat. Complete, all-original, including hubcaps. Box lid artistically depicts car in full color against setting reminiscent of Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive. Estimate: $40,000-$80,000

Complete set of 1959 Topps baseball cards. Total of 572 cards, approximately 80% of which have already been graded, with highlights such as Willie Mays All-Star card No. 563 in PSA Mint 9 condition and approximately 35 Hall of Famers in PSA NM to Mint 8 condition, including No. 10 Mickey Mantle and No. 514 Bob Gibson rookie card. A fabulous set that took the original owner years of dedicated searching to complete. Estimate: $40,000-$60,000

The toy classification, alone, has scores of subcategories that incorporate American tin and cast-iron productions, European toys, including Marklin and Lehmann; hundreds of trains, pressed-steel trucks and pedal cars; marbles, Disney and other character toys, and a sensational selection of Japanese battery-ops, including 27 robots and 23 space toys. In addition, more than 160 cast-iron mechanical and tin banks will be offered, along with 63 lots of extremely rare sports cards and a wealth of Christmas and Halloween antiques to please the ever-growing community of collectors who celebrate those two holidays year-round. On Day 3, the entire session will be devoted to 496 lots of antique and vintage soldier and civilian sets, mostly Britain’s. It will mark the first sale of its type in an ongoing collaboration between Morphy Auctions and Old Toy Soldier Auctions, the specialty firm founded by the late Ray Haradin.

­Morphy’s phones are already running hot with enquiries about the toy that will undoubtedly be one of the auction’s superstars: an extraordinarily rare Japanese tin friction “Honeymoon” Robot Car with its original pictorial box. Made by ET Japan, it is unquestionably one of the rarest or all robot-themed toys. The silver convertible has a blue windshield, large grille and tailfins typical of late-1950s or early-1960s American cars, with a lithographed robot driver and a robot passenger in the back seat. It is complete and all original, with its original box, which depicts the car driving alongside a lake flanked with high-rise buildings, reminiscent of Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive.

Tommy Sage Jr, Head of Morphy’s Toys & Trains department, says only a few Honeymoon Cars are known to exist. “In addition to the one in the auction, I know of only one other that has its original box,” he said. The auction example is estimated at $40,000-$80,000.

Also very rare, a Yonezawa (Japan) battery-operated Jupiter Robot in Excellent to NM condition is doubly desirable because it retains its original pictorial box and correct plastic remote control. This coveted space toy was formerly in the collection of a pioneer in the robot-collecting hobby, the late Robert Lesser. It is estimated at $25,000-$35,000.

Any advanced collector of sports cards would jump at the opportunity to bid on complete, unopened Topps baseball card sets from the late 1950s/early ’60s, a time when so many legendary players were at their peak. Morphy’s is delighted to offer three such sets in the November 11 opening session. A complete 1959 Topps set contains 572 cards, approximately 80% of which have already been graded. Highlights include a Willie Mays All-Star card No. 563 in PSA Mint 9 condition and approximately 35 Hall of Famers in PSA NM to Mint 8 condition, including a No. 10 Mickey Mantle and a No. 514 Bob Gibson rookie card. A fantastic set that took the original owner years of dedicated searching to complete, it is estimated at $40,000-$60,000. Complete 1958 and 1960 Topps sets each carry a $20,000-$30,000 estimate.

Visit Morphy’s online: www.morphyauctions.com

Media Contact: Dan Morphy 877-968-8880 [email protected]

SOURCE Morphy Auctions

Also from this source