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Hammer & Mold Est. 2026
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Know the toy. Then own it. Est. MMXXVI EU shipping, tracked
Vintage Kenner · Star Wars · Ghostbusters

Know the toy.
Then own it

Hammer & Mold brings together original vintage toys, the companies that made them and the stories that made them famous. Explore the history. Watch the commercials. Buy the originals.

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The shop

For sale

Live auctions on original vintage toys. Place a bid, or take it straight away with Buy now.

The makers

Meet the Molders

We organize the collection the way it was built: maker first. The maker is the molder; its toy lines live beneath it. Filter the lines by their maker, or sort them across the years.

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Kenner

Star Wars

1977 – 1985

The line that invented the modern 3¾-inch action figure, and sold an empty box one Christmas to do it.

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Kenner

The Real Ghostbusters

1986 – 1991

Proton packs, ecto-plasma and gross-out mutations. The strangest, most inventive toys on the shelf.

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BullmarkMarusanPopy

Kaiju

1966 – 1984

Soft-vinyl monsters from Tokyo's tokusatsu boom. Godzilla, Ultraman and the beasts of late-night television, hand-poured and hand-painted.

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MaruyamaMedicomGoto

Sofubi

1953 – now

The material itself. Hollow Japanese soft vinyl, slush-cast in heated metal moulds, pulled out by hand and sprayed by hand. And Hiroshi Goto, who has been painting it for seventy years.

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Playmates

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

1988 – 1997

Mutant reptiles, pizza and ooze. The line that turned a black-and-white comic into a worldwide phenomenon.

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LJN

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

1982

The gentle alien of 1982. Poseable figures, glowing fingers and the most famous bicycle in cinema.

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Galoob

The A-Team

1983 – 1984

Mr. T, machine guns and a black van. No plan survived contact, but the toys did.

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Imperial

Godzilla & King Kong

1985 – 1986

The monsters you could actually own. Cheap vinyl on a hook by the till, from the company a Holocaust survivor built out of a ten-cent bouncing ball.

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Palitoy

Star Wars, in cardboard

1978 – 1985

Britain's Star Wars line, from the company that also made Action Man. Its Death Star is printed card because plastic cost too much, which is exactly why it is now the one collectors chase.

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Thinkway Toys

Toy Story

1995

The toys about toys. Pull-string Woody and Buzz, straight from Pixar's first feature.

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Why we exist

Not just a grid of photos

Anyone can sell an old toy. We want to tell you what you're actually looking at.

A vintage King Kong figure cranking the handle of an Agfa movie projector.
The Toy

Know what you're buying

Year, maker, series, scale, accessories and condition. The details collectors actually want to know.

The Story

Know where it came from

Who made it, when it appeared and what made it special. The story behind the plastic.

The Commercial

See how it was sold

The original TV commercials that introduced these toys to the world, right where they belong.

The Molders/ Dor Mei
The Molder

Dor Mei

Hong Kong, cast in China · 1986

Every other maker on this site left a paper trail: founders, addresses, lawsuits, an obituary. Dor Mei left toys. No founding date anyone agrees on, no factory address, no company history, not one interview. What survives is the moulding itself, stamped into the soles of monsters that were never licensed to exist. It turns out to be enough: the one encyclopaedia that mentions this company dates its figures a decade wrong, and the stamp on the foot is what proves it. This is what the record looks like when nobody bothered to keep it, and what a toy can still tell you anyway.

Written by Ramon Gervais/From examples we have handled/Hammer & Mold, Haarlem
36 cm
The large figure, 14 to 15 inches
0
Dorsal fins, which is the tell
2
Metal studs on the head, on the electronic one
1986
Moulded into the sole, against an encyclopaedia that says otherwise
Origins

A company that exists only as a stamp on a foot.

There is no origin story here, and pretending otherwise would be the easiest lie on this website. Dor Mei was a Hong Kong toymaker that cast large vinyl monsters in the shape of Godzilla without ever holding the right to do so. Who founded it, when it opened, how many people worked there, whether it made anything else at all: none of that is written down anywhere we can find.

What can be established is what the toys themselves say. The soles carry DOR MEI, a registered-trademark symbol, a country of origin and a copyright year. That is the entire archive.

That stamp is doing more work than it looks. It is the reason this page can date the figures at all, and the reason it can contradict the only encyclopaedia that mentions them. A licensed toy is documented by the licence: Toho knew exactly who was making Godzilla and on what terms, and that paperwork is why the Bandai and Marusan histories can be written at all. An unlicensed one is documented by nobody, because the whole point was not to be. The absence of a record is not an oversight. It is the business model.

The date

The encyclopaedia is wrong, and the toy says so

The only reference work that covers Dor Mei at all puts these figures a decade later than they belong. We can say that with some confidence, because the answer is pressed into the bottom of the foot.

SourceSaysWorth
Wikizilla, the kaiju encyclopaedia“In the late 1990s, Dor Mei produced several unlicensed Godzilla figures”The only encyclopaedic entry that exists. It is also the only source that says this, and it is out by roughly ten years.
The market, across eBay, Etsy and Worthpoint1986, near-unanimouslyHundreds of listings agree. On its own that proves little: sellers copy each other's dates.
The sole of our own figureDOR MEI ® · MADE IN CHINA · © 1986Pressed into the tool at the factory. This is the one that settles it.
So we date them to 1986, and where this page disagrees with the encyclopaedia, that is why: a copyright year moulded into the tool outranks a sentence written about it afterwards. The market happens to agree, which is reassuring rather than evidential. None of this tells us how long the moulds ran, and a company that filed nothing could have kept casting the same monster for years, so a later example is not proof of a later design.
Identifying one

How to know what you are holding

Three things separate a Dor Mei from the licensed figures it was pretending to be, and from the other Hong Kong casts of the same era.

  • The back plates are wrong. Godzilla's tall triangular dorsal fins are the most recognisable thing about the character, and Dor Mei did not reproduce them: our own figure carries a row of low rounded nubs down the neck that fade out along the back. Wikizilla describes these figures as having no dorsal fins at all, which is not quite what ours shows, and we are going with the toy. Either way a large vinyl kaiju whose spine is bumps rather than blades is not a licensed figure.
  • The stamp on the sole. DOR MEI with a trademark symbol, the country, and a year. Photograph it before you do anything else: on an undocumented maker the moulding is not supporting evidence, it is the only evidence.
  • Two metal studs on the head. If they are there, you have the electronic version: bridging them lights the eyes red and triggers a roar. It is a different toy commercially from the plain cast, and worth materially more when it still works, which after forty years is not a given.
The evidence

Our own figure, photographed

Everything this page claims about the date comes off these two feet. They are not stock images: this is the example we handled, and it is why the page can disagree with the reference work.

The undersides of both feet of a Dor Mei vinyl kaiju. The left foot is moulded DOR MEI, registered trademark, MADE IN CHINA, copyright 1986. The right foot carries a list of United States patent numbers.
The soles. One foot reads DOR MEI ® · MADE IN CHINA · © 1986. The other carries a list of US patent numbers, which is a curious thing to find on a figure of a character its maker had no right to cast: the body was unlicensed, the mechanism inside it apparently was not treated the same way.
A Dor Mei vinyl kaiju figure in profile, showing a row of low rounded nubs along the neck and back instead of Godzilla's tall triangular dorsal plates, and one red painted eye.
The spine. Low rounded nubs from the head down the neck, fading along the back, where a licensed Godzilla has tall maple-leaf plates. This is the fastest way to know what you are looking at from across a room.
Why it is here

A bootleg with its own collectors

The obvious objection: this is a knock-off, so why give it a page next to Kenner and Palitoy?

Because it stopped being a knock-off some time ago. A fake works by being mistaken for the real thing, and nobody buying a finless Dor Mei is under any illusion about what it is. It is collected as itself: a specific object, from a specific factory, that a generation of children in Europe and America actually owned, because it was on the market stall and the licensed Bandai figure was not.

It is also, quietly, the more honest half of the history. The licensed toys tell you what Toho approved. The bootlegs tell you what the demand was so large that it got met anyway, by whoever had a vinyl press and no lawyer. Both are the record of what happened.

What we will not do is describe one as licensed. Every Dor Mei lot on this site says unlicensed, in the description, in as many words. That is the line: the toy is legitimate to sell and collect, and pretending it came from Toho is not.

Where this comes from

Thin, and deliberately shown as thin. There is one reference entry and a market; the rest of this page is read off the toy.

Keep reading

The other molders

1947 – 2000KennerStar Wars, and the 3¾-inch figure that set the standard. 1966 –PlaymatesTurtles by the million, out of Hong Kong. 1970 – 1995LJNWrestling rubber, and some famously bad games. 1957 – 1998GaloobThe A-Team, then the smallest cars in the world. 1985 –Thinkway ToysThe Buzz Lightyear nobody could keep in stock. 1947 –Marusan, Bullmark, PopyJapanese vinyl monsters, and who cast them. 1969 –Imperial Toy CorpDime-store dinosaurs and bagged rack toys. 1935 – 1984PalitoyBritain’s Star Wars, moulded in Leicestershire.
1986Dor MeiYou are here.
Home/About
About

It started with a shelf

Hammer & Mold · Netherlands

A private collection that grew into something bigger. This is where it comes from, and what we hunt for.

What began as a handful of childhood pieces turned into a hunt: for the odd, the overlooked and the wonderfully strange. The finding, the careful cleaning, the search for a missing weapon or a lost accessory, the stories behind each toy. Somewhere along the way the collecting became a way of living.

We are drawn to the weird ones. Toys that were played with, loved and actually handled, over the pristine pieces sealed and graded never to be opened again. A toy locked in plastic, never to be read or felt, becomes a frozen artifact. We would rather keep them alive.

Have a collection of your own? We buy and take on whole collections and single pieces. Tell us what you have, send a few photos, and we will look after it.

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Sell with us

Upload. AI builds the listing

Photos in. Listing ready.

Upload a few clear photos. Our AI identifies the toy, dates it, checks the condition and builds the listing for you. It also reviews recent sales to suggest a fair starting price.

Identification is free. You only use a listing when you decide to sell.

How it works

From photos to listing in two steps

1 · Upload & guide

Add photos and direction

Add clear photos of the front, back, accessories and any visible flaws. Include a close-up of the maker's stamp where possible.

You can also add your own source or a note of direction, either to point us at something you already trust or to have the identification double-checked against it.

A worn or partly legible stamp is fine.

2 · Review & list

We identify, check and grade it

Our AI reads the toy the way Hammer & Mold does, dating it from the moulded stamp rather than the box, then identifies the year, line and variant, grades the condition and reviews recent sales to suggest a price.

You see the identification, the sources, the condition, the pricing and the listing details before anything goes live. Change what you like, set your Reserve or Buy Now price, then approve the listing.

Optional, and worth a minute. We can grade what we can see, but we cannot tell from a photograph whether the eyes still light up, and on a toy that has electronics that is usually the largest single thing about what it is worth. If you already know the reference, the variant or a source that settles it, put it here and we will check against it.
Your photos stay in your browser until you start identification. Identification is free. A listing is only used when you choose to publish the item for sale.
Your toy details will appear here.
Selling packages

What it costs to sell

Toy identification is free and unlimited. Photograph anything and we will identify it, date it, show what originally came with it and grade its condition. You only pay when you list. Choose a package based on how much you sell, or let us work out which one costs you least.

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Sell it to us

Or skip the auction and take the money today

Whole collections and single pieces

You do not have to run an auction to get rid of a box of toys. Send us photographs, we tell you what it is worth, and we make you an offer for the lot. You post one parcel and we pay. No listing, no waiting, no wondering whether it sells.

Two ways, and one of them is better for you

Sell it to us, or sell it through us

We would rather you picked the right one than the one that suits us, so here is the arithmetic on a toy we think will fetch €30.

On a toy worth about €30Sell it to usSell it through us
You receive€ 15,00€ 25,50
WhenWithin a weekAfter it sells
If it does not sellOur problemYou still have it
Photographs, listing, packingWe do itYou do it
If it turns out to be rareWe keep the upsideYou keep it
We pay about half of what we think a piece will fetch, and we say so up front. That is what buying it outright costs us: we take the risk that it does not sell, we do the photographing and grading and packing, and we wait for our money instead of you. If you would rather have the other €10,50 and do the work yourself, list it and keep 85%. Both offers are real and the page for the other one is here.
What we take

Bring the box, not the figure

The honest reason: assessing one toy and assessing forty costs us nearly the same in setup, so a whole collection is worth far more of our attention than a single common figure.

Yes, gladly
  • Whole collections, boxes, attic finds, shop stock
  • Single pieces we think will fetch €25 or more
  • Played-with condition. Paint loss and loose joints are fine
  • Incomplete figures, spares, accessories and weapons in a bag
  • Anything with a moulded maker's stamp, even a worn one
A collection has no minimum per piece. Send the lot and we price it as a lot.
Not for us
  • Single common figures under about €25
  • Modern reissues and toys still on shop shelves
  • Broken beyond display: melted, snapped, missing limbs
  • Bootlegs presented as the licensed original
  • Anything that is not a toy, model or related memorabilia
A single cheap figure is not worth what it costs either of us to move it. List it yourself, or put it in with a box of others.
How it goes

Photographs, an offer, a parcel

1. You send photographs. A few clear shots of what you have, laid out. For anything you think is worth something, add a close-up of the moulded stamp on the feet or the lower back: that text is what lets us date it and find what it really sells for.

2. We tell you what it is, before we make an offer. You get the identification either way, and you keep it whether you sell to us or not. If we think a piece is worth more than we would pay for it, we will say so and tell you to list it yourself.

3. We make one offer for the lot. Within two working days, with the reasoning attached: what we think each piece fetches and what we are paying for it. No haggling and no fishing.

4. You post it, we pay. We send you a prepaid label. Payment goes out the day the parcel arrives and matches the photographs. If something is not as described you get the parcel back at our cost, not a lower offer.

Show us

What have you got?

Photographs and a way to reach you. Nothing else needed, and nothing is committed by sending it.

We reply within two working days. Your photographs are used to make you an offer and for nothing else.
Home/Sell/Packages
Selling packages

Pick the package that fits how you sell

Toy identification is always free and unlimited. Photograph anything and we will tell you what it is, who made it, when it was made and what condition it is in. You only pay when you sell. Choose a package based on how much you sell each month. Every package includes price research, buyer protection and live postage rates.

Which one, exactly

See which package costs you least

Tell us roughly how much you sell. We will compare the monthly fee and selling fee together and recommend the cheapest package.

The number that matters

What the platform takes out of a sale

Compare what buyer and seller pay together. On a €100 hammer price, Catawiki charges the seller 12.5% and adds another 9% buyer fee. The buyer pays €109 while the seller receives €87,50. Hammer & Mold adds no buyer fee. A €100 hammer price means the buyer pays €100.

On a €100 hammer priceBuyer paysSeller receivesTotal platform fees
Catawiki€ 109,00€ 87,5021,5%
Hammer & Mold, Starter€ 100,00€ 85,0015,0%
Hammer & Mold, Trader€ 100,00€ 88,0012,0%
Hammer & Mold, Dealer€ 100,00€ 92,008,0%
Monthly package fees are not included in this table. The calculator above includes both your package fee and selling fee to show which package costs least at your sales volume.
Catawiki figures based on its published seller commission and buyer protection fee, August 2026.
Is the monthly fee worth it?

What each package really costs

A monthly package fee buys you a lower selling fee. Sell enough in a month and the saving becomes greater than the subscription. Sell less, and Starter is cheaper. The table shows the total cost of each package at different monthly sales volumes.

Changing your package

Move up. Move down. Any time.

  • Upgrades happen immediately. Your new listing allowance is available straight away. You only pay the difference for the rest of the month.
  • Downgrades start next month. Your current package stays active until the end of the period you have already paid for. You can cancel the change before then.
  • Unused listings stay with you. They roll over up to twice your monthly allowance. Downgrading never removes listings you have already accumulated.
  • No minimum term. No phone calls. Change or cancel your package from your account whenever you need to.
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Active lots

On auction now

Live lots from this seller.

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Delivery

Where should it go?

We need the delivery address before payment, so the postage you are charged is the postage for your own country and not an estimate.

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Results

Sold & ended

Past results. What has changed hands, and for how much.
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