Some childhood toys are worth a small fortune today, and the pattern holds more often than you would expect: the toys that sell for the most were rarely the toys anyone actually played with.
The real money tends to be in toys still sealed in their original packaging, or in rare prototypes that never made it to a shop shelf at all.
More on the history of toy collecting follows at the end of this article. For now, here are ten items that made the journey from the nursery to the auction house.
1. 1979 Star Wars rocket-firing Boba Fett prototype ($1.3 million / approx. £1.0 million)
In 2026, a rare 1979 Kenner prototype of Boba Fett sold at Goldin Auctions for $1.3 million. Kenner had originally planned the figure as a mail-away promotion for The Empire Strikes Back, complete with a spring-loaded rocket-firing mechanism. The company withdrew the mechanism at the last minute over safety concerns about the fired projectile, and most of the run was destroyed at the factory. Only around 100 prototypes are known to survive, and collectors have long called it the holy grail of action figure collecting.
Credit: PennLive
2. 1963 hand-painted G.I. Joe prototype ($200,000 / approx. £158,000)
G.I. Joe creator Don Levine hand-made a single 12-inch prototype in 1963, before the toy line existed, to pitch the idea of an action figure aimed at boys. It had a hand-painted face and a hand-sewn uniform, and the concept behind it helped establish the action figure as a toy category in its own right. In July 2003, the prototype failed to meet its $250,000 reserve at auction. Collector Stephen Geppi later bought it in a private sale brokered by Heritage Comics Auctions for $200,000, and went on to donate it to the Library of Congress.
Credit: Ranker
3. 1969 Hot Wheels pink rear-loading Beach Bomb ($175,000 / approx. £135,000)
Mattel has produced billions of Hot Wheels cars since 1968, and the Pink Rear-Loading Beach Bomb is among the most sought after. This 1969 prototype had surfboards poking out of the rear window. Mattel’s engineers soon found the van was too narrow and too top-heavy to run on their Super Charger loop tracks, so they redesigned it with side-loading surfboards, leaving only two pink prototypes behind. Today, this small car is valued at around $175,000.
Credit: Hypebeast
4. 1978 Luke Skywalker double-telescoping lightsaber ($161,458 / approx. £125,000)
When Star Wars toys first hit shelves in 1978, early Luke Skywalker figures shipped with a two-piece yellow lightsaber that extended twice from the character’s arm. The mechanism snapped easily during play, so Kenner switched to a simpler, single-piece plastic sword within weeks. In August 2025, a well-preserved, factory-sealed example with its double-telescoping sabre still visible sold at LCG Auctions for $161,458.
Credit: Hake’s Auctions/BNPS
5. 1933 hand-drawn Monopoly oilcloth board ($146,500 / approx. £115,000)
Monopoly started life as a homemade board game. In 1933, game designer Charles Darrow hand-drew and painted a circular board onto a piece of oilcloth, using playing cards to represent properties and drawing the icons by hand with a pen. This earliest known surviving Monopoly set sold at Sotheby’s in December 2010 for $146,500. It is now on display at the National Museum of Play.
Credit: World of Monopoly
6. 1999 1st edition shadowless Charizard Pokémon card ($250,000+ / approx. £195,000)
A vintage base set Charizard without the drop shadow to the right of the artwork box, and with the small 1st Edition stamp on the left, is from the earliest print run of the card. A professionally graded PSA 10 copy has fetched between £250,000 and £400,000 at auction. It is one of the most widely recognised trading cards in the hobby.
Credit: Sotheby’s
7. 1993 Transformers G2 Stunticons prototype set ($26,815 / approx. £21,000)
In the early 1990s, Hasbro planned to refresh the Transformers line with neon Generation 2 colour schemes, and built prototypes of the Decepticon Stunticons, five cars that combine to form the robot Menasor. The toys were cancelled before reaching shops. When a complete set of the unreleased figures surfaced from the estate of a former Hasbro employee in July 2014, fans sparked a bidding war on eBay that finished at $26,815.
Credit: SeiberTron
8. 1959 #1 ponytail Barbie ($27,450 / approx. £21,500)
Mattel introduced the first Barbie doll at the New York Toy Fair in 1959, priced at $3. Known by collectors as the #1 Ponytail, this original model is identified by her white and black striped swimsuit, arched eyebrows, and heavy copper tubes in her legs that fitted onto a display stand. In 2006, a well-preserved, unopened example in its original box sold at Sandi Holder’s Doll Attic for $27,450.
Credit: ArtNet
9. 1961 political donkey and elephant PEZ dispensers ($25,000 / approx. £19,000)
PEZ dispensers started out as simple sweet holders and grew into a serious collecting category. In 1961, the company made novelty dispensers featuring a donkey and an elephant, representing the two main American political parties. Because they were produced in small numbers and usually thrown away once the sweets were gone, surviving original pairs in good condition are now valued by collectors at $25,000.
Credit: The Daily Journal
10. LEGO 10179 Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon ($2,400+ / approx. £1,900)
When this set was released in 2007, it was the largest and most expensive LEGO model ever made, with more than 5,000 pieces. For a lot of people, it was the Christmas list item that never quite showed up under the tree. Since it was later discontinued, the value of sealed, first-edition boxes has climbed steadily over the last two decades. It is nowhere near the million-pound items above, but it shows how a well-kept LEGO set can double or triple in value over time.
Credit: kingdombricksupply
