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"After selling off my collection, which contained tons and tons of rare robots,
all bought from my friend in Japan, I started thinking about what to do next. I had
enough knowledge about space toys to make a success of it, but honestly? I didn't
know it would become such a boom area of collecting and didn't yet regard selling
these toys as a possible profession. Around 1987,1 took the leftovers of my collection,
loaded up my old Porsche and did a regional tour of shows around the upper Midwest,
including Kane County, to sell the remaining robots. It was so different back then.
A person would look at one of the robots and think it was cool, but too expensive.
Publications focusing on robots didn't exist at the time. There was only Pierre
Boogaert's book. Out of that small tour, I probably sold only three robots. I went
back home to Minneapolis and got back into playing in a band and also collecting toys.
My life was unsettled during that period, and I had always found that, for me, toys
were an outlet for happiness. They're magical, the way they can take your problems away. It wasn't long before opportunity knocked and Robert found himself face to face with the biggest risk of his life. "I had the chance to buy a major robot collection, but it had to be bought all at once, so I cashed in my retirement account, my savings and stocks to finance the purchase. It was a gamble, but I did it, and that's when I sold the toys to the Fuji and Sony families. Each of them bought half of the robots. At that point, which was around 1989, I made the decision to become a dealer, specializing only in robots and space toys. The Davidson auction at Christie's took place that year, so the time was right to be getting into the business. Robots were starting to receive much wider recognition." Robert then set about finding collections to buy, which he would, in turn, sell at the spring and fall Chicago Toy Shows. But finding collections in America was very difficult. Most often they were sourced through fellow collectors, known from years ago, who had gotten interested in other types of toys and, therefore, were willing to part with their robots.  |
 
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