Collectively Speaking

When Bill Hanlon asked the woman who would eventually become his wife, Gail, on their first date, if she wanted to see his antique toy collection, she thought it was a unique “pick-up” line.

Little did she know! It wasn't a line at all. By the time Hanlon met her in 1974, he had already been collecting toys for a decade.

“I started seriously collecting toys in 1964 when I was a junior in high school.” Hanlon tells Playthings, adding he got the collecting bug from his parents, who used to take him to the Roseville Flea Market in California in the late '50s and early '60s. “While they were trying to stretch their hard earned dollars, I would look for the lead soldiers I used to play with under my grandparent's Christmas tree,” he says.

By 1968, he had accumulated about 1,000 lead soldiers. But over the years, Hanlon's toy collection has grown and changed many times. “I started with lead soldiers then added tin wind-ups, standard gauge Lionel trains, woodie station wagon toys, vintage Coca-Cola advertising signs and trays, pre-war military toys, and plastic toys from the '40s and '50s,” he says.

Most recently, it has been plastic toys. “My collection of over 3,000 vintage plastic toys started in the early '70s, when all but a handful of collectors frowned on anything made of plastic,” he says. But for Hanlon, the plastic toys made in the years immediately following WW II brought back fond memories of shopping in a local dime store with a best friend.

By the late '70s, Hanlon parlayed his passion into his profession, turning it into a career and meeting some interesting toy people along the way—including the late Islyn Thomas, a pioneer in the plastics field. “His list of accomplishments in the toy industry was staggering,” notes Hanlon, adding that Thomas created some of the very first injection molded plastic toys of the late '30s.

“Thomas, who immediately sensed I was hungry for knowledge, took me under his wing, became my mentor, and opened up his vast archives,” he says adding, “For a collector who loved the history behind the toy perhaps more than the toy itself, this was like discovering King Tut's tomb.”

Hanlon says that his association with Thomas made it “apparent that a book was the only way to pass along a large volume of facts and figures that true collectors long for.” Hanlon published that book—Plastic Toys—Dimestore Dreams of the '40s & '50s, in 1993.

After the book idea, came another: bringing “dimestore dreams”—plastic vehicle replicas—to life. In association with Binary Arts—since renamed to Thinkfun, the line was launched. The line morphed into American Dimestore, an e-commerce Web store that Hanlon operates on his own. “In 2003 Binary Arts changed its name to ThinkFun and decided to phase out the Dimestore Dreams line in favor of staying true to its roots, which were brain-teaser puzzles and games,” he says.

Besides managing American Dimestore, Hanlon is still designing other types of toys and games. His joy, though, comes from involvement with other collectors. “While my collection has increased in size and value over the years, I get my greatest pleasure from sharing my knowledge on the subject with other collectors.”

And those other collectors? Well, they now include his wife: “When she saw how much money I was spending, she started collecting antique dollhouses and tobacco tins in self-defense!”

Are you an avid collector of toys and have a story to be told? Please e-mail Maria Weiskott at: mweiskott@reedbusiness.com.