In the world of collecting one of the most important factors in the valuation of an item is originality. Just because a ventriloquist dummy has a head, body, hands, and legs doesn’t always mean he’s buying a complete figure. As with any other collectible, if the pieces have been changed or replaced with pieces of something else, devaluation occurs. If you have a Frank Marshall mannequin and then the head is placed on a Finis Robinson body, a devaluation automatically occurs. Yes, it is a complete ventriloquist dummy, but it is not correct.

If you buy a Jaguar car but replace the Jaguar engine with a Chevrolet engine, yes the car may run much better but it will never be worth what it was before the engine swap. Now, in the automotive world, when a car is reupholstered, put on new paint, new chrome, and engine rebuild, etc., it certainly regains value and at some point, most of the time, the vehicle is becomes more valuable than the actual value of the old one. because. With ventriloquist dummies, just the opposite is true. When you take a painting from an original mannequin and redo it, it automatically loses value. Originality is the key to the greatest value. A ventriloquist dummy with original paint, wig, body, hands, and even clothes will fetch the highest prices in return.

I myself bought a ventriloquist dummy that was stored in a basement and when you touched it, the dummy would literally fall apart. He had to be completely taken apart and put back together and is now a wonderful example of a Mack figure, but is it the same as a completely original figure? In most cases, the answer is no. This particular Mack figure is such a premium figure that after restoration it still has great value, but the restoration costs far exceeded the value of the figure. This is also a fact that you should be aware of. The cost of restoration by a true professional can be very expensive and time consuming. You need to make sure the ventriloquist dummy is worth the cost and time before proceeding.

Keeping all this in mind will give you a clear understanding of what the true collector looks like when buying vintage ventriloquist dummies. Not everything you find for sale is correct and making the mannequin a correct representation of the original builder can sometimes be a real challenge. But the love of the hunt is the same for ventriloquist figures as it is for any other true antique. By the way, the true definition of age is 100 years, with the automobile being the only exception. It is 25 years old and then it is an antique. Most of us in the world of vent collecting will consider any ventriloquist dummy made before 1970 to be an antique, even though it’s really only collectible.