We all know about the endless joy that toys brings children. Toys help children to expand their imagination, create, and, most importantly have fun.
Toys can also provide all this for adults, too.
That’s why Ronald Toby loves his toys so much. He just lights up when he talks about his massive $1.4 – $1.9 million dollar vintage toy collection.
Toby has been into toys since he was a child and became an official collector when he was 15. Now, the 64-year-old has more than 80,000 pieces in his collection.
“My collection is like a toy store,” the Philadelphia man tells Barcroft TV. “When I was a kid there wasn’t a lot of toys. I had relatives who I would do little chores for and they’d always get me what I asked for.”
Toby’s mother says toys are responsible for making her son “a good kid” and keeping her son out of trouble with the law.
YouTube Screenshot Source:YouTube Screenshot“The way I finance my collection is, number one, I had a job for 30 years,” he explains. “Number two, I had boys. That was the reason. I’d go into the toy store and would pretend like I was going in there for them, but I was going in there for me. One for them, three for me. That was my philosophy.”
And when Toby shows off his collections he shows how much fun it is to play with his toys with great excitement.
“A Dick Tracy G-Man gun and guess what… it still works!” he exclaims with a huge grin. “This is one of my proudest in the collection.”
Toby says that he moved out of his original home and into a bigger one just to accommodate his collection and he’s considering moving again.
“I’ve been at this house for a while now, but I need a bigger house to hold my collection,” he says. “So, apparently it’s growing in a fanatical rate that is time to put the breaks on. That’s for sure!”
Toby’s splits his collection up into themed rooms such as a sports room, an African room, an ice house, a doll room, a 1941 room, and a boxing room.
Toby’s longtime friend, Betty Naylor, says his collection is “out of this world.”
“Every time I come here I see something new,” she says. “I hope to see his collection go to a museum.”
And that may be possible because it doesn’t look like Toby plans on selling his collection anytime soon.
“You never want to sell you toys,” Toby explains. “You’ll hold them to the end. One thing about toy collecting is that you leave a legacy to show that you did something while you were here.”
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
