too many toys!

November 24, 2007 11:26 PM

My girlfriend collects a bunch of the vinyl toys from kidrobot. She and I are looking for more information about these things.

Is there somewhere to look for how much they're worth, besides ebay?
What do the numbers (1/12, 2/64, etc) mean?
Any websites or forums of note for more information about them, new series, trade doubles?
Any stores in the SF bay area to find more or trade doubles?

posted by gally99 to grab bag (5 comments total)

Not really an answer to your question but you may want to check out The Vinyl Frontier Movie - A film exploring the world of vinyl toys. Featuring : Attaboy, Tim Biskup, Luke Chueh, Dalek, Thomas Han, Frank Kozik, Tara Mcpherson, Sket One, and many more...
posted by lannanh at 11:35 PM on November 24, 2007

For discussion, the KidRobot forums are the place to be.

For news of upcoming toys and what's hot, check out VinylPulse and VinylAbuse.

1/25 markings can mean one of two things. On the smaller "blind-boxed" toys (the kind with the foil wrapper where you can't see which one of the series is inside), 1/25 would mean that 1 of every 25 boxes will have toy X. 1/64 would mean 1 out of every 64 boxes has toy Y, etc. It's a way to judge rarity.

On limited edition toys, usually the larger ones that don't come blind-boxed, 1/25 would mean this is toy #1 out of an edition of 25.

There's really no price guide per se. The toys are worth what you are willing to pay for them. But between checking EBay often and the KidRobot forums, you should be able to tell what a "fair" price is for a toy.
posted by falconred at 12:15 AM on November 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'd guess that the numbers have to do with the scale, but falconred's explanation might make more sense.
posted by phaded at 12:24 AM on November 25, 2007

falconred, the girlfriend is stoked, thank you.
More answers are certainly welcome.
lannanh, we've seen the trailer and we're both looking forward to seeing the movie.
Thanks people!
posted by gally99 at 12:41 AM on November 25, 2007

My friend owns an online vinyl toy store called Grumbletoy. I ran this by him and this was his answer:

"I would recommend the kidrobot forums as falconred did.
The 1/25 would be referencing how limited a figure is. With ??/?? usually being the hardest to find and usually most valuable.
Regarding market price, I would actually use an ebay history as a good marker. The prices can jump so quickly and ebay really does control the market these days. If the figures are Kidrobot Dunnys, they will quite often jump way up in price once they are a year or so old. Even the not-so-rare ones will sell for a lot more than original retail."

There is a contact address for him on his website if you have any questions.
posted by Jupiter Jones at 1:42 PM on November 26, 2007