A local couple are selling their vintage Playmobil collection as a fundraiser with 100 per cent of proceeds going towards a Ukraine relief fund.

As the Director of Merchandising for Playmobil Canada for 11 years, Ted Longley, now retired for roughly 20 years, would receive samples and bring them home to his son.

“One of the things I did was product knowledge for all our stores across Canada and all our sales reps.” Longley stated. “For whatever new product came in, we would always get samples and I would bring them home, I had a child at that point, and my child became my tester and I got a chance to see how the stuff went together and get a sense of what made it better then other products on the market.”

Longley and Wendy Murphy will be hosting a ‘garage sale’ of sorts with 120 Playmobil figures, 40 plus trees, 72 unopened ‘specials’, 10 rooms of furniture for the doll house, several vehicles and 8-10 themed sets (fish market, pet market, fruit and vegetable market, ect.).

Also included will be two larger items, a castle and a doll house, which will be open for closed bids.

“The castle and the doll house which are both fairly large and will be sold by putting your bid into a box with name and phone number,” Murphy explained. “The purpose of this is to raise as much money as we possible can so we can give it all to some Ukraine relief fund.”

Longley added that the Ukraine cause seemed like a really, really good reason for Longley to part with his vintage toy collection.

“It’s pretty difficult for Canadians to really grasp what Ukrainians are facing on a day-to-day and even hour-to-hour basis,” he added. “This seems like the perfect time to part ways with the toys so others can enjoy them andwe can raise money for a worthwhile cause.”

Originating in Germany, Playmobil has collectors world wide and some rare items can be difficult to find and reach into the hundreds of dollars in value.

“There was one product that was an RCMP officer that Playmobil made specifically for Canada but it never made it to the shelves because the year they produced,  it was the year the RCMP sold their marketing rights to Disney,” expressed Longley. “So Playmobil didn’t put it on the shelves because they weren’t going to pay royalties. I had one in a box and good friends of ours that live in Port Dover found out about it, found out about the sale and they bought this one figure on a Playmobil horse for $250. We have another one but its unboxed. It’s just really cool stuff to have!”

The vintage toy sale will take place at 27 Paul Street, Picton on Saturday March 26 at 8 a.m. Will remain opened until everything has sold.