Toys and Prices 2005

Great life events are forever burned into our minds: the first kiss, graduation, first job, wedding, and birth of children. The same can be said for our favorite childhood toys. We vividly remember growing up with such toys as Tonka trucks, Raggedy Ann & Andy, Hopalong Cassidy, G.I. Joe, Barbie, Robots, Hot Wheels vehicles, Star Wars action figures and Transformers. Karen O'Brien helps jog our childhood memories in the updated annual edition of "Toys & Prices 2005," published by Krause Publications. As editor, she has cataloged 31,000 post-World War II toys while providing historical notes, updated pricing, and background information. The ever-popular "Top 10 Most Valuable" toys list opens each chapter.

Toy listings are alphabetically organized into 23 main categories, from action figures, games, lunch boxes and Marx play sets to sci-fi and space toys, tin toys, View-Master and western toys, with the largest chapter being Vehicles, which encompasses Buddy L, Corgi, Dinky, Hot Wheels, Japanese tin cars, Marx, Matchbox, Structo and much more. Listings offer names, dates of manufacture, company, prices and photos. The 16-page color section highlights some of the more popular and collectible toys. Mint-in-package prices are included.

O'Brien is a book editor for Krause Publications and a lifelong toy collector. She writes in the Introduction, "The best part about being an annual title is that Toys & Prices is in a constant state of development. New listings, more detailed information and new prices are added constantly."

Toys & Prices 2005 is available for purchase from Krause Publications.