Mark Solondz's collection of toys is perhaps the greatest of its kind.
The New Jersey native's collection consists of Japanese branded items: die-cast and vinyl toys, and especially superheroes.
There are also robots, comic characters and space vehicle toys, not necessarily all from Japan.
Whilst he has now become well known in the collecting world, Solondz initially collected in a fairly anonymous way, slipping off to Japan to buy up toys which were more or less impossible to get in America.
By the time anyone knew what he was doing Solondz already had a spectacular collection, many in original boxes.
Buying up Popy over a period of years has certainly paid off too. Toys from 1970-2000 when Popy was making all the innovations are highly collectible.
Some of the Popy pieces are exceptionally rare as well, eg a complete series of Ninja Captor and Robocon, and a gold-legged version of Mazinger.
Auctioneer Dan Morphy expects the superhero section to do particularly well.
It includes pieces familiar to everyone such as Batman, but other pieces such as Moonlight Man and Super Kun will be of more interest to some collectors.
 A tin Target Robot, one of five Masudaya robots |
One guideline for the sale is that one of the several space vehicles, a nine inch Space Patrol Car, has sold for $10,000 at a previous auction.
However this is not necessarily going to be the highest seller.
The prices for many of the pieces are difficult to predict, but what is undeniable is the ripple of excitement which has flowed through the toy collecting world, with great interest stirred in Japan and Europe as well as the US.
The auction is becoming an event, even a convention, in itself and there will be no shortage of bidders.
It takes place on November 13-14 in Denver, Pennsylvania, held by Dan Morphy Auctions.
Photocredit: Dan Morphy Auctions
____________________________________________________________
