Collectibles make thousands at Shrewsbury toy auction

Tekno limited edition and Corgi Classic truck models from collectors in Welshpool and Whitchurch sold for a surprise £8,500.

The Tekno lots from the Welshpool collector, which carried estimates of between £80 and £120, sold for £6,000 while the Whitchurch collector sold his Tekno and Corgi Classic truck models for £2,600.

The collections, which included boxed models from limited edition Tekno Irish Historical, Special and Modern Collections, went under the hammer at Halls in Shrewsbury.

Bidders from across the UK and Ireland competed with an online French bidder for most of the Tekno and Corgi truck models.

Top selling Tekno Limited Edition lot comprised two Scanias in the livery of Astran Europe – Middle East Transport and Eddie Stobart, which sold for £300.

"These limited edition and collectors club truck models are in high demand not just from haulage company owners and lorry drivers but from collectors in general," said Halls' toys specialist Stewart Orr.

"There is a thriving second hand collectors market for them because they seem to have become the premier collectable brand."

The auction's top price went to a live steam twin cylinder traction engine with fairground style decoration, which sold for £900.

Mr Orr said the beautifully engineered model, which was made in the 1920s or '30s, had been owned by a Telford family since 1947 and the new owner, also from Shropshire, plans to restore it to its prime.

Two German tin plates models attracted keen interest from collectors.

A Doctor's Coupe by Karl Bub, made in around 1928, sold for £260 while a 1930s model of a bus by Nifty Toy Company with an operational clockwork motor, driver and conductor that rings a bell when it stops, sold for £230.

A Victorian child's trestle mounted rocking horse, which was formerly on the children's ward at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for around 40 years, sold for £260. All proceeds will go to the hospital's Rainbow Ward.

Two lots comprising collections of unmade plastic construction kits by Revel, Matchbox, Airfix and various other manufacturers and a group of six Dinky Toys models, including Armstrong Siddley, Lagonda, Talbot and Alvis models, which were the first to be made after the Second World War, sold for £210 each.

Mr Orr was delighted with the high number of sold lots, with great demand again focused on love-worn Dinky Toys models, which exceeded their pre-sale estimates.

"There is definitely a buoyant market for these scratched and battered toys because collectors enjoy restoring them," he said.

Already consigned to Halls' next toys auction on September 17 is a rare, handmade model of the FW07 Williams Formula One racing car from 1980.