Collector amasses Tonka treasure trove

Wayne Spence with the Tonka truck that inspired him to collect hundreds of the vintage toys and put them on display. Photo/Samuel White

From the outside, it looks like a regular shipping container.

But on the inside, Wayne Spence has filled the crate with hundreds of vintage Tonka trucks and toys dating back to the 1940s.

Over the past 10 years, Mr Spence has collected and stored more than 400 original Tonka toys produced in New Zealand and the United States.

The oldest of the collection was estimated to date from
1948.

Mr Spence's said his interest in the toys began when a friend was moving house and was going to throw out one of the old toys.

''I asked if I could hold on to it. That's what started it.''

After storing it on his shelf, Mr Spence decided the collection needed to grow.

''I probably had it for a year before the addiction took off.''

He amassed the toys over several years, primarily from online trading sites and by conversing with other like-minded individuals on Facebook.

Mr Spence's collection is now stored in a shipping container at his father Rex Spence's property in Milton.

Rex Spence runs the butchery museum at the site, which contains historic equipment and photographs from more than 50 years of the butchery trade in Milton.

Eight other Tonka toy collectors from around New Zealand visited the container yesterday to view what Mr Spence had amassed.

He hoped to open the collection to the public sometime in the next few months as a niche vintage museum, of sorts.

One of the rarer items on display was a Tonka Aerial Sand Loader, produced in 1955.

Mr Spence was unsure what the collection is worth and was reluctant to put a value on it.

''I've never put a price on it because it's too hard.''

Others might find certain items more or less expensive depending on how much they were willing to enter a bidding war, he said.

However, he admitted he had spent thousands of dollars bringing the Tonka toys together.