DFW Elite Toy Museum – Haltom City, Texas
The DFW Elite Toy Museum is the brainchild of businessman Ron Sturgeon who first started collecting automobile memorabilia over 40 years ago. Ron initially focused on Mercedes toys and then moved on to rare and vintage automobile-themed items such as race cars and scale models. As the years progressed, Ron’s interests expanded to include vintage toys, unique signs, and other rare and historic collectibles. Eventually, the personal collection was so expansive that the idea for the DFW Elite Toy Museum was born.
Today, the DFW Elite Toy Museum has more than 3,000 unique pieces in its collection. Automobile enthusiasts will appreciate the impressive collection of Tippco die-cast toys along with a wide array of early tin, wind-up, pressed steel, and other collectibles — including the very rare Eva Braun Mercedes toy. Dog lovers might be interested to hear that the museum is a “dog-friendly” space and currently features an exhibition entitled “Dogs in Art, Toys and Antique” which includes iconic dog-themed paintings and other dog-related memorabilia from around the globe.
About the DFW Elite Toy Museum
Ron started collecting the museum’s toys in the 1980s. We’ll let Ron tell his own story:
When I began collecting toys, I was already in love with Mercedes, and other fine European marques. I decided then that I would aspire to own every Mercedes toy made. I was naive. It didn’t take me long to realize that buying new toys was like pitching an ice cube into the ocean in the hopes of cooling it down.
I began to buy strictly antique toys. Over the years, my focus narrowed even more to specific manufacturers like Tippco, and models that were interesting, like race cars or open cars, or those steeped in history or loaded with provenance.
As in business, I wasn’t afraid to pay a little too much for something I really liked, or was exceedingly rare. Soon those buys looked great, as antique toys continued to increase in value. In the ‘90’s, I accumulated About 60 antique real cars, but decided to sell most of them in 1999, after selling my chain of junkyards to Ford Motor Company. The big cars were a pain in the rear, and toys were easy to store and enjoy and had an ever-increasing value with no overhead expenses. In the ’90s, I started buying automotive art, including paintings and bronzes, if they engaged me, although my first love remained toys.
I hope you enjoy my collection; it’s been my pleasure to open it up to my friends and put it on display here at the museum and, to the world on this website. Today the collection is approaching 3,000 pieces. I am known for my Driving School Model collections and have perhaps the largest collection in the world. Automotive enthusiasts and gearheads love it as it’s extremely engaging for folks who have a technical appreciation for its exquisite detail and accuracy.
Dogs in Art, Toys And Antiques at DFW Elite Toy Museum
Dogs in Art, Toys, And Antiques is an exhibition at the DFW Elite Toy Museum. A selection of some of the most iconic dog-themed European and American paintings, sculptures, and vintage/antique toys
from the Ron Sturgeon collection.
The exhibit begins with a Victorian Period Collage and continues with a delightful vintage and antique toy display, a 1930s Store Window Tapper, and ends with the Lap of Luxury Display. The extensive art of dogs is impressive.
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