You Won’t Believe Yours Either…

One of the great pleasures of the collectors’ market is its unpredictability. You might arrive hoping for a coin, a postcard, or a stamp, and leave instead with something that prompts a simple question: how on earth did this end up here?

At first glance, this modest vinyl case from the 1960s offers few clues. Finished in plain brown with a small Tak Mei logo, it looks more like a document folder than anything especially remarkable. Open it, though, and the experience changes instantly. Tilt the case forward and sixteen pairs of eyes stare straight back at you.

These are not novelty items or props, but a manufacturer’s sample box produced by Tak Mei Toys Eyeball Factory Ltd. Each pair is carefully mounted and labelled with item numbers, intended for ordering by toy makers. The designs will feel instantly familiar. They are the same weighted eyes used in dolls from the 1960s onwards, the type that close when the doll is laid down and open again when lifted.

Tak Mei began life in humble surroundings, originally operating from a flat in Hong Kong. From those beginnings, the company went on to become a major supplier of toy components, producing eyes and other parts for some of the world’s biggest toy manufacturers, including Mattel, Hasbro and MGA. Today the company employs around 1,500 people and manufactures hundreds of thousands of components each month.

This sample case is a tangible link to that early phase of production, when orders were placed by flicking through physical examples rather than scrolling a screen. Unusual, slightly unsettling, and undeniably fascinating, it is the sort of object that rewards a curious eye.

Estimated value sits in the region of £150 to £200.