DENVER, Pa. – After spending decades tucked away in an attic, the rarest of the “Gang of Five” robots, “Machine Man,” has set a new world-record auction price at Morphy.
Complete with original box, the ultra rare battery-operated tin-lithographed robot from 1960 sold for $159,900, handily beating its estimate of $60,000-$90,000.
Unlike most kids’ toys that spent their days being played with and banged around, this Machine Man lived a much quieter life for 60 years.
“It came from an attic, right from the original owner, who had it as a child but didn’t play with it for some reason,” said Tommy Sage, Jr., head of Morphy Auctions’ toy division.
The near-mint 15-inch-tall robot is one of few known examples of its type from Masudaya’s revered postwar “Gang of Five”…
