10 Childhood Toys From the 1960s Worth a Small Fortune Today

Imagine this scenario. You’ve discovered an old toy from the 1960s in a cardboard box in your basement or attic or at a garage sale. What’s it worth? That’s always the immediate question. Well, the short answer is most likely not a whole lot. Toys were made to be played with and loved to pieces. Rarely will you find one in excellent condition with all of its parts and especially in the original box. Those are the ones that will bring in a fortune!

I was born in 1950 and grew up in Southern Ohio, so I was 10 years old at the beginning of the 1960s and 19 when they were over. Prices listed here are from auction house sales that have taken place, newspaper articles or eBay sales (not just listed, but ones that have been sold). The prices are just a guide. They’re examples of real sales, and they’re no guarantee of what you might get for yours. Completeness, condition, original box, etc. all count!

1. The No. 1 Ponytail Barbie

Barbie debuted at the American Toy Fair in New York City on March 9, 1959. The original Barbie wore a black-and-white zebra-striped swimsuit and had blonde or brunette hair worn in a ponytail. She cost only $3 apiece, and Mattel sold 300,000 Barbies that first year. Within a year of her introduction, Barbie had become the biggest selling fashion doll of all time, according to The Strong National Museum of Play. Among doll collectors, that premiere edition is known as the No. 1 Barbie, and can be identified by holes in the bottoms of Barbie’s feet for the pegs that attach to her original doll stand.

A world auction record for an original Barbie was set on July 31, 2023, when Theriault’s auctioned off a No. 1 Barbie for $48,000 (including buyer’s premium). In near-mint condition and packaged in its original box with her No. 1 stand and four rare, early outfits, the doll had been in the same family since the mother of the owner purchased the doll in New York in 1959. The buyer is the Barry Art Museum in Norfolk, Virginia. On August 24, 2026, a No. 1 Barbie with blonde hair sold on eBay for $11,500; that one was listed in excellent condition with her original box and No. 1 stand.

2. G.I. Joe

G.I. Joe first came out the year I turned 14. The toy came clothed in various incarnations of U.S. military regalia.

G.I. Joe’s military-inspired action figures were introduced in 1964 by Hasbro at 11 1/2 inches and 21 moving parts. The original Joe was hand-crafted in 1963 by Don Levine, Hasbro’s then-vice president of research and development (Hasbro’s original name was Hassenfeld Brothers).

Levine built the action figure on his Ping-Pong table. According to The Strong National Museum of Play, Hasbro called Joe an ‘action figure’ in order to distinguish it from dolls. The prototype wore a hand-stitched sergeant’s uniform. When an auction held July 2003 failed to meet Levine’s $250,000 reserve, Heritage Comics Auctions of Dallas eventually sold Joe to Baltimore businessman Stephen A. Geppi for $200,000 on August 7, 2003. The prototype is considered by Guinness World Records to be the most expensive toy soldier ever sold at auction.

According to NPR, G.I. Joe brought in $28 million in Hasbro’s second full year with the toy. It’s amazing to think of Joe’s humble beginnings on Levine’s Ping-Pong table.

3. Captain Action

In the mid-1960s Ideal Toy Company introduced Captain Action. This toy allowed for numerous costumes that could turn Captain Action into a variety of heroes. One of the costume options was Captain America, which came out with a 1966 copyright. This outfit came with a face mask and hood, uniform, pistol, laser gun, shield, a belt with a gun holster, and boots. On November 7, 2019 Hake’s Auctions sold a complete, unused Captain Action Captain America outfit in its original window box for $2,596 including the 18 percent buyer’s premium. According to Hake’s Auctions the item for sale was the 1967 second issue box with a flicker ring behind the window. There were some tape stains on the box, along with a small tear that was repaired. Hake’s graded the window box as Fine to Very Fine condition. Everything else in the box was considered to be in Excellent to Near Mint condition. Again, that’s just for the outfit. This price tag does not include Captain Action!

4. Ideal’s Batman Utility Belt

The ABC TV show Batman (1966), starring Adam West and Burt Ward, started what Hake’s Auctions calls Batmania. Ideal manufactured a cornucopia of Batman toys.

The Ideal Batman Utility Belt in a windowed 16 x 26 inch box included vinyl utility belt with Bat-Rocket Grenade, Bat-Rope with grapple claw, 8-inch Bat-A-Rang, Bat-Signal flashlight, Bat-Cuffs, Bat-Gun launcher and a Batman message sender. Hake’s Auctions sold a complete Utility Belt in original windowed box on March 21, 2013 for $8,477.13 (includes 15% buyer’s premium). Most of these belts didn’t last long. Somebody always lost the flashlight, the belt would crack, the foil sticker fell off the buckle, etc. But somebody kept theirs intact. On March 15, 2018, Hake’s Auctions sold an Ideal Official Batman Play Set, near-complete, with its original windowed box, hand-painted Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman and Superman figures for $6,490 (includes 18% buyer’s premium).

5. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. THRUSH Gun

From 1964 to 1968, viewers followed secret agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, as they battled the evil group THRUSH on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV show. In 1966, Ideal made a THRUSH gun that is described by Hake’s Auctions as “the largest U.N.C.L.E. gun produced.” On July 14, 2016, the auctioneer sold an example that had been kept as old stock in a store for $3,415.50 (including the 15% buyer’s premium). It’s a cap gun that’s 36 inches long with a cross-hair scope sight and a clip-loading magazine with a compartment to house roll caps. The gun looked Near Mint in the box, and the box was graded Fine to Very Fine. Also, it’s still connected to the display insert with wire and has the store’s price sticker on the box.

6. Aurora’s Godzilla’s Go-Cart Model Kit

This might be the strangest item on this list. Back in 1962, the American model kit manufacturer Aurora Plastics released a model kit of Frankenstein. It was such a hit that Aurora ran its manufacturing process around-the-clock to keep up with demand, according to The Strong National Museum of Play. By Christmas, it had kits for Dracula and Wolfman, too.

Next, the company decided to include monsters in its line of hot rod kits. It started with kits of Frankenstein and Dracula in late 1964, added the Mummy and the Wolf Man in 1965, and followed them up with King Kong and Godzilla in 1966.

The Godzilla kit’s box shows Godzilla riding a go-kart as he races down a hill. The license plate reads, ‘People Beware.’

Sadly for Aurora, the model kit scene for hot rods wasn’t selling well, so it made a limited number of the Godzilla kit and sent them only to a few stores around its headquarters’ location in West Hempstead, New York. By the end of 1966, Aurora scrapped its monster-filled cars.

Hake’s Auctions said it was the only boxed example it had handled in 57 years. On March 20, 2024, the company sold an unused, unassembled one, its cellophane neatly slit open by the original owner, for $36,344 (inclusive of the 18% buyer’s premium), which came in well above its $10,000 to $20,000 price estimate. At the same auction, an Aurora Superman and Spider-Man combo kit sold for $54,516, Antique Toy World reports.

7. The Jetsons Lunch Box

Aladdin first started making lunch boxes with prints all over them in 1954 and began featuring raised designs in 1962. The Jetsons lunch box, manufactured in 1963, featured a matching thermos. It also sported a domed lid and was about 7 inches tall.

Despite slight denting to the lid and wear and tear to the edges, a 1963 Jetsons lunch box and thermos set sold for $750 at Bertoia Auctions on Feb. 10, 2022. On eBay, a listing for a 1963 Jetsons dome box with its thermos, which the seller had bought at an estate sale, closed at $1,850 on April 15, 2025.

According to The Strong National Museum of Play, an active collector’s market for lunch boxes developed in the late 1990s, fueled primarily by baby boomers. If you’re lucky enough to have an old lunch box stashed away in your attic, you might want to look it up and see what it would sell for before tossing it out.

8. Hot Wheels Redlines

Mattel introduced the first Hot Wheels toy cars in 1968. More than 16 million Hot Wheels sold in the first year. Collectors refer to the original Hot Wheels as Redlines because of the red line on the tires. These original Hot Wheels had Spectraflame painted bodies (polished metal shows through the paint), mag wheels made of thick plastic, low-friction axles and torsion-bar suspension. The Custom Camaro, Custom Mustang, Custom Barracuda, Beatnik Bandit, Hot Heap and Deora were among the 16 Hot Wheels introduced in 1968. Vintage toy dealer Wheeljack’s Lab tracked some of the most expensive Redlines sold on eBay. A red 1968 Custom Mustang still sealed on its card with its collector’s button sold for $9,995 on April 29, 2022. A bronze 1968 Custom Barracuda with a rare package error sold for $15,000 on July 1, 2020.

9. The Pink Rear-Loading Beach Bomb

You might not think much of a little toy bus, but the Beach Bomb had a prototype that fetched tens of thousands of dollars. In 1969, Hot Wheels designers came up with prototypes of VW Buses with surfboards sticking out of the back. But since they were too skinny, they would fall over. They added weight and moved the boards to the sides for the released version. In November of 1999, the Kansas City Star reported that Overland Park’s Chris Marshall had struck a deal to sell his hot-pink Beach Bomb that was rear-loading (meaning the surfboards come out the rear) for $72,000 to an anonymous collector in California. “It’s the holy grail of Hot Wheels,” Marshall said. Marshall planned to spend the proceeds towards a 2000 Dodge Viper. Another collector, Bruce Pascal, later bought both of the known pink rear-loaders, sold one to a friend and has never said how much he paid.

10. Schwinn Orange Krate

Schwinn produced Krate bikes starting in 1968 and continued production of the bike until 1973. The original 1968 Schwinn Orange Krate cost a whopping $86.95! An original 1968 Orange Krate 5-speed sold for $7,000 after receiving 44 bids in a PCARMARKET auction on January 17, 2025. The seller described it as a rare, period-correct survivor. The Orange Krate had a 16-inch front wheel, springer front fork, banana seat with sissy bar and 5-speed Stik-Shift on the top tube. Another example of the Orange Krate, this time from Akron, Ohio (I grew up in Southern Ohio so it’s nice to see one up for sale in Ohio!), sold for $3,600 in a PCARMARKET auction on May 14, 2025. This particular Orange Krate is a 1968 model (built in August of 1968) and features the original Kool Orange colorway and has a recovered seat.

Before You Call an Appraiser

It’s important to realize that asking prices are not values. They represent what the seller hopes to receive for his item. A look at eBay for this article turned up several old listings for these same toys that had ended at a final price of $0.00, with no sale. You need to find examples of items which have been sold and use those as a guide to value.

Values will be affected by the condition of the item, whether it is a full set, original boxes or packaging, etc. Auction houses are helpful when it comes to grading condition. Hake’s, for example, uses grades like Fine, Very Fine and Near Mint and applies them to the packaging and the item separately. A set of four of the Beatles dolls Remco made in 1964 sold in 2021 at RR Auction for $364 without boxes, and a set in its original boxes sold in 2011 at Hake’s for $702.08. If you think an item may be of value, it pays to speak to an auctioneer to get an idea of value before selling.

What toy was yours? Or do you still have it? What toy did you wish your mom didn’t give away? Leave a comment. I’d love to hear what you remember. It’s always great catching up with my old friends. Please join the conversation below!

More trips down memory lane: see the 12 toys every ’70s kid begged for, or go back to marbles, jacks and a piece of chalk.

Top photo: Christmas morning toys under the tree in Quanah, Texas, 1962. Photo: Stabbur’s Master / Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Photographs are in the public domain or used under Creative Commons licenses, as credited in each caption.