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Toy Collecting
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Many people are in love with the beauty of the old toys. One of them is the Nuremberg collector, Wolfgang Rothenberger. My passion for collecting toys began with this Opel Kapitan. I went on my honeymoon in the real version with the same colors and bought this toy car on the trip. Over the years, a lot of pieces have been added, and I’ve specialized in toys that in one way or another represent utility vehicles: cranes, steamrollers, excavators, caterpillars, trucks and whatever else there is along those lines.
I only keep the cars that appeal to me in some special way, like the Porsche by Distler and Gama Kapitan, and the Cadillac by Gama, or cars like that which I particularly like, but otherise, it’s the utility vehicle that I love as a tin toy.
Approximately three and a half thousand tin toys are stackedfrom the cellar to the attic, even Wolfgang Rothenberger doesn’t know himself exactly how many he’s collected. He displays only a few in glass cases and shelves, many more are packed away in boxes for selling or trading. But there are some pieces a true collector will never part with once he’s got them.
The red Schuco fire truck has a story all its own. That’s really the high point for all the toy collectors. It’s the old version with the spotlight and the little man behindit, and it’s a very, very technological toy I know of. It’s extremely rare, since at the time it was manufactured, it was ahead of time as far as technology and price go.
And back then, they couldn’t sell it because nobody was able to pay the high price. Nowadays it’s high-priced once again, as this vehicle is very, very sought-after amongst collectors.
Collectors chase after their dreams of tin and stuffing over hundreds of thousands of miles. At collectors’ swap meets, like this one in the Nuremberg Museum of industry, they get together to buy, sell, trade, and talk shop. For someone like Rothenberger, it’s obligatory. And since Nuremberg was the world’s tin toy capital, some collectors greatly enjoy coming here.
Yes, I drove to Nuremberg from Berlin because many of the German toy manufactures were located here, and so I’m hoping I’ll be able to find a few items.
This thing here was today’s bargain, an old Siku, complete, from the V series, and it’s complete.
The lights are what make it valuable. And this here, this is very rare. It comes in gray, red and orange. Orange is the rarest.
This steamroller has a story of its own. It’s one of the toys I love heart and soul. It was made by the Bing Company in 1932 exclusively for export to England and America. So it wasn’t sold in Germany, not a single model. For years I’d been chasing after this steamroller that I only knew from catalogues, and then on a holidaytrip to England, I found it. For a toy collector like me, it’s like Christmas and Easter both on the same day.
The prices commanded by such rarities have driven some collectors into ruin. Astronomocal sums change hands at auctions. Fantastic things go for fantastic prices.
Toys, whether rare or not, whether cheap or expensive, are always a matter of the collector’s point of view. One collector’ll walk past an item and say, tch! What’s that? And another collector’ll say, my god! That’s exactly it! And so I wish every collector could once in his lifetime have that great feeling, just once the right touch, just once theright feeling, just once find what he’s always been wishing for. That’s it.
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玩具收藏
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许多人都对古老的锡制玩具情有独钟。纽伦堡收藏家沃尔夫冈·罗森伯格便是其中之一。
就是这辆名为“欧宝舰长”的玩具汽车，激发了我收藏玩具的兴趣。我度蜜月时就开的同样型号和颜色的车,并在蜜月旅行中买了这辆玩具车。许多年过去了，我的收藏品越来越多。我专门收藏那些交通车辆的仿制玩具，如吊车、压路机、挖土机、履带式拖拉机和卡车，以及其它能在路上跑的车辆种类。我只收集那些在某一方面特别吸引我的玩具车，如保时捷、伽马舰长，还伽马生产的凯迪拉克，或其它一些我特别钟爱的车型。还有就是锡做的玩具车。从地下室到阁楼，共放置了近3500多件玩具，连沃尔夫冈自己也不知道确切数目。玻璃橱和搁板上陈列的只是其中的一小部分；更多的收藏品被装进箱子准备出售或交换。但有些藏品却是收藏家一旦拥有，就永远不会转手的。这辆红色的舒尔克消防车有不寻常的来历，是玩具收藏家们梦寐以求的珍品。这是一种老式消防车，前面有车灯，后面还坐着小人。它是一种科技含量非常高的玩具，可以说是我所知道的最完美的高科技玩具车。现在极为稀有，因为在生产它的那个年代里，其技术和价格都是超前的。那时，它们根本卖不出去，因为没人付得起那么高的价格。可现在，它们又增值了，因为它们成了收藏家们梦寐以求的珍品。
收藏家们不远万里为他们的梦想奔波着。在纽伦堡工业博物馆举办的收藏家交易会上，他们在一起讨价还价，用行话进行交易。而罗森伯格这样的人则是每场必到。由于纽伦堡是世界玩具之都，一些收藏爱好者非常喜欢来这里。
是的，我是从柏林开车来的。因为许多德国玩具厂都在这里，我希望能在这里找到中意的作品。
收藏玩具是一种耗费时间的爱好，许多人都发现很难平衡爱好与家庭之间的关系。
家庭和收藏爱好之间会产生冲突。如果妻子或女友不喜欢收藏玩具，或者说，如果她自己不是收藏爱好者，不够宽容，不能理解这种热情；那么，我很难想象长时间之后的结果。只有两种可能，要么他停止收藏，要么就是你我都知道的那种结局了。
这是今天的很划算的一款，一辆老“锡库”车。是第五系列的产品，造型十分完美。
最有价值的部分是车灯，非常罕见。它有三种颜色：灰色、红色和橙色。橙色是最少见的。我的两个儿子都是玩具收藏爱好者。我觉得，怎么说呢，这样很好，因为在家庭成员之间有相互理解。而且，我也不用担心。就算我以后不能收集了，我也可以安心地离去，因为我的收藏事业后继有人，我的藏品不会被卖掉、弄坏或丢弃。
这辆蒸汽压路机很有来头。它是我最钟爱的一个玩具。它是1932年由“宾”公司生产的，专门出口到英国和美国。所以它在德国本土根本就不出售。一辆也没有。
多年来，我一直在寻找这种压路机，这是我从商品目录单里发现的。后来有一次我在英国度假，终于找到了它。对一个玩具收藏者来说，这就像在同一天过圣诞节和复活节一样开心。
但这类珍品的高价也足以让收藏者倾家荡产。拍卖场上的报价已接近天文数字。好东西自然价格不菲。
玩具稀罕与否，贵贱如何，全看收藏者个人的眼光了。同一件物品，一个收藏者走过时会说：“嗤！什么破玩艺！”而另一个人则会说：“老天，这正是我想要的！”所以，我希望每个收藏家一生中都能体验到那种发现新大陆的美妙感觉，哪怕就一次，一次梦寐以求的发现。就是这种感觉。
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