Antiques PR Publicity Announcements News and Info
Antiques PR Publicity Announcements News and Info

ToyPedia – Toy Database

Toy Collector has started its most ambitious project to date, ToyPedia. ToyPedia will attempt to catalogue every toy ever produced in every variant. To date, we believe that 100 million items have been produced that will qualify for entry, and for as long as toy production continues; this number will continue to grow. ToyPedia will operate as a wiki, written by the whole Toy Collector Community; collectors from all around the world. Everybody from individual collectors to specialist auction houses to manufacturers and dealers can participate – no specialised qualifications are required, just knowledge about your favourite toys! With such a high number of projected entries to catalogue, ToyPedia will have a unique search system allowing users to filter and view content by any criteria they choose. For example, a user will be able to view content by manufacturer (i.e. Dinky Toys, Steiff), subject (i.e. Circus Toys, Napoleonic Figures) or type of model (i.e. models of Ferrari cars from any toy manufacturer). Entries can be edited by anyone with access to the internet, simply by clicking the “edit page” link. Anyone is welcome to add information, images, cross-references or citations, as long as they do so within the ToyPedia editing policy and to an appropriate standard. There is no need to worry about accidentally damaging the ToyPedia when adding or improving information, as the software is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of edits if a mistake creeps in, and there will always be experts on hand to correct any obvious errors. Because the ToyPedia is an ongoing work to which, in principle, anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in several important ways:
It will have entries for very unusual or rare toys that would not be covered elsewhere. Not all subjects are popular enough to justify the costs involved in producing a printed reference guide. In other cases, it’s simply the case that not enough products have been produced to make a book long enough. Neither of these will be a problem for ToyPedia!
As entries are being constantly updated, they become more comprehensive over time.
ToyPedia will be continually updated far faster than a paper-based reference source, so information about any changes, developments or new products will be logged within hours or days, rather than the months or years it can take for printed guides to be updated.
ToyPedia users can create their own handy reference guide to take along to a convention, auction or similar event, by simply printing off the pages with the information they need, eliminating the need to photocopy or write out parts of books by hand, or lug heavy volumes around with them.