Toys

My regular first Saturday of the month article in the Financial Times is all about antique children's furniture this time. You can read it HERE

I've been very, very busy the last couple of days but I promise to make up for it with some extra blog posts. First off here is a wonderful piece from the US edition of our favourite programme. It's an antique toy pig!

The enduring appeal to collectors of toys of all types is exemplified by the Toy Collectors Fair that will take place at the Yorkshire Event Centre on 17 January. There will be everything from Star Wars and Dr Who action figures to model railways, teddy bears, dolls, Dinky Toys, Scalextric and much more on over 350 different stalls.

Barry Potter, organiser of the event summed it up well saying, "People love nostalgia, most of the visitors to our toy fairs are not kids, but grown adults who want to bring back a few happy memories or to build up a small collection, whether it be Hornby trains, Star Wars figures, dolls or Subbuteo, there has been a real rise in people collecting lately".

Barry goes on to offer one very god piece of advice. "It's always great when a collectable becomes much more valuable over time, but my advice would be to buy whatever interests you personally, then no matter whether it goes up in price or not, you'll always be happy with it".

The show starts at 10.30am on Sunday 17 January and there is free parking for all visitors to the fair. Admission is £3.50 Adults, £3 Senior Citizens and £1 Children (under 5's are free). For more information click HERE

It's that time of the year when many children will have received the latest game for their hand-held electronic console. Others will have received other games or toys that could in the future be worth lots of money to collectors – the question is, which ones?

In one of our recent online artircles that you can read when you sign up for the blog, Mark Hill took a look at retro computer games that may give you some useful pointers. You can read it HERE but only once you've signed up to the Millers' web site!

Just catching up on the news from home online and I spotted this article from the Daily Mail on Toy Soldiers which is interesting.