Marx and Lumar: More Mystery

Having a husband that has collected a multitude of toy brands over the years, many of the brand names are things I'm familiar with ... at least I thought so.  Up until the last couple of years I basically looked at the toys and said "oh, that's cool", or "gee, that's kinda cute" and stuck them back on the shelf.

In the last few years though ... that's changed, quite a bit in fact. Now I study the shape, such as the cab styles, the box styles, the doors on the trailers, the underside, the tires/wheels, lights and grills ... and who knew all of this mattered?  I suppose an aficionado would, but that's not me. Not really.

Marx Contractors truck with tires marked Lumar

To Restore or Not

Several of the toys the Toyman acquired have been restored - basically stripped down and repainted, with new logos applied.

In some cases, doing this could be a good choice, if you aren't ruining an original toy to do it.  Original Otaco toys bring far higher prices that restored/refurbished toys do, but whether you choose to restore or not will depend on your purpose in collecting.

If you are collecting for the joy of having and displaying your finds and are less concerned with the dollar value of the purchase, spending the money (or learning to do it yourself) to restore old toys might be worth it, but that's really an individual's choice.

Me, personally, I would prefer toys to be left in the original condition ... while I don't "hate" that we have these as a collection, if I were left alone with them, some would be handed to our grandson's, but a lot of the collection would be sold off.  I like them, just not enough to keep them for myself, and given the cost of some of these purchases, resale value is something to consider.