Yahoo's Most Valuable Action Figures

Part of being a toy-collector is picking through other people's so called "trash" during garage sales or through sites like e-bay or buyandsellph.com. But chances are quite good that you may pass up on an item of true value simply because you don't know the history of the item or it.... face it.... looks like crap even in mint condition.

Happily Yahoo came up with a short summary of the "Most Valuable Action Figures" (Note: Action Figures, not toys. Toys is simply too broad a topic).

Among the collection is this scantly clad Barbie doll. Yes that's a Barbie doll. But it's no ordinary Barbie doll! For one thing her boobs look smaller; Second, she's a brunette, and; her dress is encrusted with 160 genuine diamond and that is real gold!  Her estimated value if you have a complete one in mint collection, then you have something worth around US$ 85,000.  I have to wonder, if all the jewelry is in her clothes, what's the Barbie worth alone? What are her clothes worth alone?



Three of the items in Yahoo's list are Star Wars Figures, among them a Darth Vader with Telescoping Lightsaber. Supposedly in 1978, Luke, Obi-Wan and Darth Vader were released with telescoping lightsabers.

According to Yahoo the three were heavily criticized as having an unconvincing fragile look so Kenner redesigned the figures hence the collector' item. But unfortunately Yahoo did not provide the look of the re-designed ones so I'm not sure how the re-designed versions of this action figure differed from the original.

I also do not know if it was this redesigned toy that was common when I was a kid. Vader is valued between US$ 6-7000. Yahoo also does not mention the selling price of the re-designed Luke and Obi-Wan.

Next up are two of three G.I. Joes figured in Yahoo's list. First up is the one-of-a-kind, hand-made - so don't bother trying to find him - G.I. Joe Prototype made in 1963 by Don Levine. This particular one-off sold for a whopping US$200,000 in an auction in 2009.

He's accompanied by the original Scarlett: G.I. Nurse, America's movable Action Girl. Unfortunately back then, boys didn't play with "girls" toys and the line flopped because boys didn't want them and it wasn't available in the girls section. A boxed set can fetch as much as US$ 6,000.

Do check out the full list of toys from Yahoo's "Most Valuable Action Figures" by clicking HERE.