Morphy’s delivers early holiday magic with a Nov. 11-13 auction of rare toys, sports cards and vintage collectibles

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

DENVER, Pa. – 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. 

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 Britains. 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 exceedingly 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 all hubcaps present. The pièce de resistance is the accompanying original box, which depicts the car (in a different color scheme) driving alongside a lake flanked with high-rise buildings, reminiscent of Chicago’s famous Lake Shore Drive. A notable addition to the box’s artwork is a backseat TV screen transmitting an outer-space scene of a rocket heading toward a planet. 

According to Tommy Sage Jr, a postwar toy expert and Head of Morphy’s Toys & Trains department, 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,” Sage said. The auction example is estimated at $40,000-$80,000.

Also very rare, a Yonezawa (Japan) battery-operated Jupiter Robot is in Excellent to NM condition with no cracks to its dome. It is doubly desirable because it retains its original pictorial box with all inserts, as well as its 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.

A classic Japanese manga character, Astro Boy (known in his native land as ‘Mighty Atom’) comes to life in the form of an SKK/Bandai (Japan) windup walking figure with a tin-litho body, ears and legs; and a vinyl head. Standing 9½ inches tall and in Excellent condition, it will convey with its boldly-graphic Japanese-language box. Estimate: $3,000-$6,000

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.

A non-sports highlight from the collector cards section is a very rare 1966 Topps Batman & Robin “rack pack.” Sealed, unpunched and unused, all three of its cello packs contain Batman-themed hobby cards. Only one or two other examples of its type are known to exist. In NM condition, it is expected to sell in the vicinity of $12,000-$16,000.

A rare circa-1899 Kyser & Rex (Philadelphia) cast-iron mechanical Motor Bank is finished in distinctive colors of its era. It is in Excellent condition with some touch-up to the roof being the only small exception to its 100% originality. Estimate: $5,000-$20,000

Trains in the sale run the gamut from Marklin and other European brands to American classic from Ives, Lionel and American Flyer. A Lionel standard gauge No. 381E locomotive plus 4-car “State” set includes cars marked for New York, Illinois, California and Colorado. The largest car is 21 inches long. Assessed to be in Excellent condition, the set is estimated at $3,000-$6,000.

The auction’s motor pool offers great variety, including a desirable pre-WWII French CIJ Alfa-Romeo clockwork racing car with rubber tires and original pictorial box, $4,000-$8,000; and an American National Packard “Town Car” pedal car (patented 1923) with a padded interior and electric headlamps. A deluxe production, its trunk and doors open and its windows lift and lower. Graded Excellent, its estimate is $5,000-$10,000. 

A 48-inch-tall Villeroy & Boch terracotta Santa figure holding a fir Christmas tree dominates the holiday category. This superb German-made artwork appears in the manufacturer’s catalog from the year 1900 and, based on its scale, it may have been intended for display in a larger department store’s window. For several decades, this beautifully-detailed, all-original figure held pride of place in the collection of the late Tom Sage Sr, a visionary dealer and collector of antique toys from Allentown, Pa. Its pre-sale estimate is $30,000-$60,000.

The auction’s Halloween “vegetable patch” offers a chance to harvest a rare Halloween “Lettuce Man” candy container with built-in candle holder. Crafted from composition, its face is skillfully carved right into the shade’s design, and it retains its original facial inserts. A top prize for any collector of vintage Halloween collectibles, it is estimated at $2,000-$6,000.

Good things often come in small packages, and that includes antique marbles. An old and very rare 2-inch (diameter) sulphide marble encapsulates a painted lion figure with wonderful paintwork on its green base, brown mane and black eyes. This marble, which is graded a strong 9.0 out of 10, was found in a house in Reading, Pa. Estimate: $3,000-$8,000

Morphy’s extends a warm welcome to the many collectors worldwide who followed Ray Haradin’s Old Toy Soldier Auctions. As the new steward of auctions conducted for the OTSA brand, Morphy’s will launch the new joint association in the November 13 session with nearly 500 lots of military and civilian sets, figures and accessories. The level of quality perpetuates the same high standard set over many years under Ray’s astute supervision. An example from the upcoming selection is a W Britain “Types of the Royal Navy” Band of the Royal Marine Light Infantry Set No. 1622 in its original red box. In Excellent condition, it is estimated at $8,000-$10,000. Both a boxed W Britain Japanese Cavalry & Infantry Set No. 95 and a boxed W Britain 12th Lancers Set No. 4 (manufactured 1893-1896) are individually estimated at $4,000-$6,000.

Morphy’s Nov. 11-13, 2025 Toys & General Collectibles Auction will be held live at Morphy’s gallery, 2000 N. Reading Rd., Denver, PA 17517, starting at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. All forms of bidding will be available, including absentee, by phone, and live via the Internet through Morphy Live. For condition enquiries, to leave an absentee bid, or to reserve a line for phone bidding, call Dan Morphy tollfree at +1 877-968-8880 or email [email protected].