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I am offering this page in the hopes that it may assist you in your quest for knowledge of repairing and collecting vintage toy robots.  Toy robots can be repaired fairly easy if you have a little basic understanding of simple mechanics.  I find repairing toy robots to be a very rewarding and fun hobby.  It is very satisfying to be able to restore life to battery operated or wind up toy robots.  Toy collecting is like treasure hunting, the treasures are out there you just need to know where to look for them.  Vintage toy collecting and toy repairing have been a passion of mine for over 20 years now.  I still remember my first old collectible toy find, I didn't really think of it as a valuable collectible toy at the time, I just liked it so I bought it.
It's an early 1930's Buck Rogers Disintegrator Space Gun I had found at a church rummage sale for $2.00.
It was in excellent working condition to say the least. It now stands at the forefront of my vintage tin toy collection.
    A next-door neighbor of mine in the small town that I grew up in had a house full of collectible tin robots and space toys, and he had a good idea of the value of these types of collectible toys. He offered me $20.00 for my newly found space toy, of course I refused him. His offer certainly turned on a light in my head.  That is 10 times what I paid I thought, WOW!!
From that day forward I have always kept my eye out for old toys and such to purchase and add to my collection. My favorite treasure hunting spots include garage and yard sales, rummage sales, second-hand and thrift stores, and estate sales.  I also have had reasonably good luck locating collectible toys and such by posting want adds on bulletin boards.  Good places to do this include supper markets, senior centers and just about any place that offers public pin-up boards. It never hurts to ask!

You just never know what you may find. Usually the prices are very reasonable. Of course, some of my finds needed repair work done, especially the old toys. That is probably why they were for sale in the first place. I soon learned a few simple tricks to get them operating again.  I have found that battery operated toys to be the easiest to repair.  Not because they are simple in design, because they are not, it is just that over time battery operated toys will stop working because of time itself.  The first thing I look at to get a B/O toy running again is the battery contacts. Very often they are either corroded or bent out of place stopping them from making a good connection to the batteries. All you need to do, is lightly sand the metal contacts at both ends of the battery box with a fine piece of sandpaper or nail file.  Bend the contacts out a bit so the batteries fit snugly in place. quite often this is all it takes to have your B/O toy up and running! :-)
Sometimes it may take a few sharp slaps on the body of the toy to jar the motor and gear workings.  Do this with the switch in the "on" position with a fresh set of batteries in place.
 Now that I have you slapping your toy, I will explain why.  Over time the lubricant that was placed on the gears at the time of manufacturing can dry up and act more like a glue than a lubricant, sometimes a good jarring is all it takes to get things moving again.  Ok, so you tried all of that, and it still doesn't work...

 Well then it is time to get serious and daring.  Let's open the toy up, this is either done by removing screws or  pushing back the bendy tabs on a tin toy.  I like to just open it enough  to expose the inner mechanics of the toy.  Take a pencil or pop-cycle stick and see if you can give the gears a little push to rotate them around a bit, this will help loosen  up any stuck parts.

So you have tried all of the above recommendations to get your B/O toy working and there is still no life in it.
Well then, lets back up a little and pick up where we have the toy opened up and all the inner workings are visible to you. Be careful now and don't pull any wires loose, generally the body of a B/O toy will come apart into two main pieces, and quite often there are wire connections hooked up to both halves of the toy making it a bit difficult to separate the two pieces completely for easy access.  So we will just have to make do.  First off, lets look for loose wire connections.  If you locate a loose wire well you probably just discovered the reason why your toy is not working, unless of course you happened to pull it loose while dismantling it.
Now to repair a loose wire you will need a small powerful soldering iron, one with the pin-point type heating tip and some small gauge acid core lead solder.  These things can be purchased at hardware stores or better yet an electronic shop.  The trick here is to find where the loose wire came disconnected from.  Do this by examining all the possibilities.  More than likely if you look very closely at all the soldered wire connection spots, especially near the loose end of the wire, it is most likely still lying near to where it came loose from.  You may see the spot that you need to reconnect it to.  Sometimes it is very difficult to tell and if you are not sure then try this.
With the toy still dismantled insert batteries into the battery box and turn on the switch.  By the process of elimination start touching the bare end of the loose wire briefly to spots that you think it could have come loose from.  Don't worry, you cannot be shocked by this.  We are working with DC voltage here and it is only about 3 volts, you wont feel a thing I promise.  Sooner or later you are going to find where the wire belongs, because the toy will start running.  And when it does you know that is the spot.  Pretty easy, huh??  All that you have to do is heat up your soldering iron and reattach the wire by soldering it to that exact spot.  Use the solder sparingly. You have opened up the toy and there are no loose wires, what now you say?

We have covered most of the common problems associated with a B/O toy, the only thing left to look at is the motor itself.  Could be it has burned out for one reason or another.  It can be tested by touching the proper DC power source directly to the motor terminals.  If there is no response, this means that the motor is no good and you will need to replace it.  One can find spare motors from other used toys that are worthy of sacrificing to get your prized toy working. I usually find my spare toy parts from thrift stores or my nephews toy box.  Just be certain that your replacement motor is of the same voltage.  Remember one battery equals 1 ½ volts and if the toy has two batteries this means it has 3 volts and so on.  Some of these techniques can be applied to wind-up and friction toys also.  If you are still unable to get your toy running, it may be worthwhile to have a professional repair it for you.
Email me and I can probably help you out with getting you toy repaired.  New collectors may start out by buying everything that you can find, just to watch your collection grow. But as you mature in collecting, you may begin to weed out your collection and start buying only desirable items in good condition. Advanced collectors only buy the best and are very selective.  These collectors are willing to pay more to get a item that is in mint condition.  They also know the value of an item such as an old toy that is in its original box commands the highest prices. The vast majority of advanced collectors only buy items in mint condition. Right now there seems to be a frenzy of collectors searching for whatever interests them, making it increasingly difficult to find good antique/collectible items at low prices.

    Many of the collectors today are of the baby boom era, born between 1946-1965.  Approximately 73 million babies were born during this period in America.  This was the largest population explosion in America's history.  These baby boomers seem to be searching out items that they remember from their childhood.
These items in a way seem to take us back to a more simple, trouble free times of our early days.  Whether its
the toy they received from under the christmas tree or the ornaments the tree was adorned with, are all considered to be collectible.  No time is better than the present to start your collection.  As collectible items become more scarce the value will only increase.
With the demand being so high for baby boom era items, there are many manufacturers who are responding by reproducing these items of days gone by.  For the most part they are identical in appearance and very affordable.  They are normally produced in limited production, so get them when you see them, because they won't be on the shelves for long.
Many folks today are getting a head start on valuable collectibles by purchasing items that are
not necessarily old, knowing that in years to come they will become quite valuable. Some of these items include; fast food restaurant kids meal toys, Barbie dolls, toys produced to promote movie and TV programs, cereal mail-in premium goods, and sometimes even the empty cereal box itself!
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