Liverpool-based Rafal Skowron has spent $80,000 on his childhood dream toy — Lego.
The collection's value has almost doubled to $158,000 over the past four years, based on the market prices of second-hand and discontinued Lego sets.
It began in 2004 with the Star Wars Endor Base set as a present for his then five-year-old son, Oskar.
But it was not until 2017 that buying Lego became a "serious addiction" for the father and son.
"In order to purchase every single Lego Star Wars product, we have stayed up until midnight for new releases and make purchases worth thousands of dollars of our hard-earned money," Mr Skowron said.
Besides a mortgage, the rest of his family savings are spent on the latest and rarest Lego sets, he said.
"I find investing into Lego not only enticing but also much more attractive than stocks and cryptocurrency," Mr Skowron said.
A recent study by Russia's Higher School of Economics found the value of discontinued Lego sets had an annual appreciation of 11 per cent, surpassing many stocks and commodities.
So what makes adult investors fork out the big bucks for these so-called kid's toys?
'Reclaiming childhood'
Mr Skowron's journey with the Danish brick-building toys began in his native Poland in the early 1990s.
Back then, little Rafal admired his cousin's Lego presents with envy because his parents could not afford them.
He describes his rare childhood visits to Krakow's only Lego shop as "like a trip to wonderland".
"Before visiting the store, I would spend the whole day fantasising about the sets I saw in the catalogue," Mr Skowron said.
Now, with close to 1,200 sets, the 41-year-old owns one of Australia's largest Lego collections.
ABC TV's Collectors host, Claudia Chan Shaw, who collects robots that remind her of her childhood, says there is a nostalgic relationship between the collector and the collectables.
"Toys often evoke emotional memories for certain people, as they hope to reclaim their childhoods by leaping back in time and buying these toys," she said.
Chan Shaw says there are two types of toy collectors — "the trader, and the ones that collect from the heart".
"The ones that collect from the heart will only sell their beloved possessions to make way for more interesting additions to their collection, or if there is a double-up," she said.
One of her biggest regrets is selling her childhood toys at the Balmain markets in Sydney as a teenager.
Collecting is an attempt at redemption.
"A lot of toy collectors are now cashed-up baby boomers who were denied because they couldn't afford it or lost their toys during a garage clearance in their childhood," Chan Shaw said.
Mr Skowron says collecting Lego is a way for him to connect with his son and strengthen their bond.
"For me, being able to purchase this much Lego is like giving my son what I could never have as a child and fulfilling my own childhood dream," he said.
Uniqueness and rarity
Independent toy retailer Patrick Lo says Lego's policy of discontinuing products every year makes old sets more "desirable".
Mr Lo says the recommended holding time for each set to make a profit is three years.
"Not all sets are created equal, but the licensed themes such as Star Wars, Marvel and Harry Potter or the vintage waves tend to yield great returns," Mr Lo said.
"Factory errors such as misprints often draw a lot of demand and inflate the price of the set due to their rarity.
"People hunt for certain sets because they contain parts needed to make up old rare sets.
"Some of the crazier returns we have seen for sets have been over 500 per cent of the retail price."
Self-confessed hardcore collector Luke Jones, whose vintage Australian-made toys are worth up to $2 million, only trades his collectables to generate funds for more interesting items.
Mr Jones refers to vintage toys as "works of art" and himself as a "patron".
"Nowadays, toys are no longer made in the same quality and of the same materials like back then," he said.
"You cannot simply put a price on any of these toys because the history behind them is so rich and absolutely fascinating."
