Twin Collectors and A-List Mannequins | American Pickers

MIKE: What up, Dani D! FRANK: What’s up, Danielle?
DANIELLE: Hey, I got you a lead, you ready?
MIKE: What do you got?
DANIELLE: Alright, I’m going to send you over to Tom and Joe.
They’re a set of twins, and they’ve been collecting ever since they were kids.
Their dad used to take them to auctions, and he trained them at a really young age how to wheel and deal.
MIKE: What do they deal in?
DANIELLE: They both have their own separate collections.
Joe’s more into coin-op stuff, and Tom actually claims to have one of the biggest mannequin collections in the world.
MIKE: The biggest mannequin collection in the world?
DANIELLE: Trust me, there’s a lot of mannequins.
MIKE: I want a mannequin that looks like Moleman!
[laughs] MIKE & FRANK: Alright. MIKE: We’ll hook it up.
DANIELLE: Alright, have fun. MIKE: Bye.
FRANK: See ya.
MIKE: Look at that, Frank. FRANK: Whoa…
MIKE: I haven’t been in a one-hour photo shop since the late ’90s.
MIKE: Hello…
TOMMY: Well, hello, I’ll be right there.
MIKE: I didn’t even know these places still existed.
FRANK: Are you Tommy or Joe?
TOMMY: Tommy. FRANK: Tommy, Frank.
MIKE: What’s going on, man?
JOE: Joe, how are you? Pleased to meet ya.
MIKE & FRANK: [laugh] MIKE: I take it you’re the mannequin guy.
TOMMY: Yep, you got it.
MIKE: From all the lifeless eyes staring at me to Tom handing me a mannequin hand, I can tell this is going to be an interesting pick.
MIKE: So what’s up with this?
Is this real or fake?
TOMMY: That’s a real one.
MIKE: No kiddin’.
FRANK: That’s a real one, wow.
MIKE: I’m looking at these guys, and I’m glad one has a beard, because if he didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to tell them apart.
They’re identical twins.
MIKE: Danielle was telling us about you, man.
She said you have the world’s largest collection of mannequins?
TOMMY: I don’t know, it was a weird obsession.
I got my first mannequin when I was about 15 years old, and I kind of dressed her up and left her in the house.
And then, I found out she was better-looking undressed, so then I just said, you know what, I like collecting them, because they keep me sane in the mind.
TOMMY: And you’ll notice, most of them will have strange faces, smiles, ’cause I really hated mannequins that had boring, straight, zombie look.
Let’s go up to uh, private ‘head’-quarters.
FRANK: Alright. Wow…
MIKE: Whoa, look at this.
TOMMY: There’s only room for one person at a time.
So who wants to go first?
MIKE: Frank does. FRANK: Ah, these are crazy.
MIKE: We see one or two mannequins from time to time, and I know they can be valuable, but I’ve never seen this many in one spot.
TOMMY: These are very hard to find.
These are all Marlene Dietrich.
TOMMY: I used to go to stores, to hound people, “Are you throwing your mannequins away?” “Can I have them, do you want to donate them to me?” Till they eventually sold them or gave them to me.
FRANK: Come to find out that the mannequins aren’t for sale.
But he’s got a heck of a business here.
I’m learning a lot.
FRANK: So they bring us outside.
And they’re telling us they have a bunch of buildings throughout town here.
TOMMY: This building we just acquired to put our junk in it, because…
MIKE: Good for you. TOMMY: No one’s renting it.
TOMMY: I’ve been collecting, probably my entire life, so 50 years.
I’ve stashed more stuff all over, but I’m running out of space and buildings, so it’s, like, you gotta make room to get bigger and better things.
JOE: Here we go, now we’re starting to get into some of the fun stuff for ya.
MIKE: We walk into this place; there’s a lot of carousel horses in here.
There’s roosters, there’s cows.
FRANK: Wow…
MIKE: This is really amazing stuff.
I only see things like this in books, or in really high-end collections.
MIKE: Man, the duck’s cool.
TOMMY: Yeah, ain’t he cool?
JOE: A lot of the carousels you see were either all horses, but one of two might have had a deer or it could have had a goat.
So when you try to go out and find some of the rarer pieces, which are animals…
MIKE: Ooh, here, I like these.
TOMMY: That’s two really early primitive track horses.
MIKE: I’m interested in carousel horses that aren’t restored, and are American made.
These fit that bill.
TOMMY: Gorgeous ones, with original glass eyes.
MIKE: Carousel horses never seem to go out of style.
People display them like they’re pieces of art, and they really truly are.
But for a while there, their prices were incredibly high.
Now the prices have come down to where they’re a lot more obtainable.
MIKE: What do you got on those?
JOE: I like to keep them together as the pair and…
MIKE: Yeah.
JOE: Probably like 4 for the pair.
MIKE: Yeah…
MIKE: I’m interested, but for 4,000 bucks, we’ve gotta pull them out to see what they look like.
FRANK: There you go.
MIKE: Once they’re out…
they’re more incredible than I thought.
TOMMY: It’s real early.
MIKE: What I like about these is they’re early American, and they have layers of different colours of paint.
MIKE: How about 35 for the pair?
You were at 4K.
JOE: What do you think? TOMMY: 35…
JOE: Should we be nice to them?
TOMMY: Well, that’s a good consideration.
JOE: Yeah, well, you know what…
TOMMY: Let’s move to the next garage.
JOE: I think we can do 35.
TOMMY: You think so? JOE: Yeah.
MIKE: Alright, let’s do it.
JOE: It’s time that they make a new stable.
FRANK: Alright. MIKE: Alright, let’s do it.
MIKE & TOMMY: [laugh] MIKE: I stick my hand out right away, before Tom has the chance to talk Joe out of it, because I want to seal the deal, and I want to move on; there’s a lot of stuff to look at here.
TOMMY: Okay, well, we got this old…
falling down garage full of…
MIKE: Love it already.
TOMMY: Grease! [laughs] TOMMY: Ugh! MIKE: Woo!
TOMMY: There you go.
FRANK: Oh, yeah…
FRANK: You can’t even get in.
I mean, it is packed.
FRANK: Uh-oh!
FRANK: There’s parts and pieces to machines they’re putting together.
MIKE: Woo!
Man, you guys got piled in here!
MIKE: This space looks untouched, you can tell that.
There’s layers of dust on everything.
MIKE: Oh, Frank! Look at that!
FRANK: Oh, major elephant. MIKE: Mega elephant.
TOMMY: There’s the elephant.
MIKE: That’s awesome!
MIKE: Here it is, the elephant is in the room.
His name is Tusko; he’s coin-operated.
This is a kids’ ride from the 1950s.
Most of the time, you see them, they’re restored.
To find him unrestored is pretty rare.
TOMMY: That has the terrain where it looks more like ground versus the straight box set it goes on.
FRANK: Really?
MIKE: It’s shaped like the terrain on the ground.
FRANK: Gotcha.
TOMMY: Where most of them were always on a square box…
JOE: It’s just on a square box. FRANK: Okay.
MIKE: This is a great piece. You always see horses.
Every once in a while, you see the duck, but you never see Tusko.
And when Tusko comes up, if there’s a little bit on the back end, you gotta buy it.
MIKE: How much?
TOMMY: Tell you what, I would let it go for 35.
MIKE: Ahh… TOMMY: That’s an elephant!
TOMMY: Where are you gonna find another elephant?
MIKE: There’s a lot of paint loss on the base.
TOMMY: Yeah, oh yeah.
It needs to definitely be brushed all down and redone.
MIKE: Is the coin mechanism hooked up to it?
TOMMY: No…
FRANK: Motor’s in it and everything?
TOMMY: Yep. Has the original pull.
MIKE: Where’s that at?
TOMMY: Uhh… ooh, someplace over here.
MIKE: Someplace over here?
TOMMY: Over here, or on the shelf.
JOE: Some place we gotta dig around.
MIKE: Now I can find the coin box, but the pole supported the coin box.
It’s a unique piece because it looks like a piece of bamboo.
And it’s got a metal tag on it that’s actually got the serial number on it.
MIKE: 34.
TOMMY: 35!
MIKE: 34. TOMMY: 35, 35, 35, 35.
MIKE: 3,475.
TOMMY: 35… 35… 35!
FRANK: Tom is getting this crazy look in his eye.
MIKE: Do you have the pole?
TOMMY: I’ll find you the pole.
FRANK: 35 with the pole. TOMMY: We’ll find it.
MIKE: 35 with the pole. TOMMY: We’ll find it.
MIKE: 35. TOMMY: You got it.
MIKE: I’m doing it.
TOMMY: I didn’t wana do it, but you got it.
MIKE: I know you didn’t wanna do it!
I know you didn’t wanna do it!
TOMMY: I didn’t want to do it!
MIKE: Alright, let’s move this.
MIKE: They’ve been packing this place for decades.
The chance of finding this pole is pretty slim, and without the pole, it takes the value down a few notches.
TOMMY: The pole’s laying down on this, it’s…
MIKE: You see it?
That’s a wooden leg off a pinball machine.
MIKE: So we finally wheel Tusko out.
MIKE: There he is!
FRANK: He’s seeing the day of light!
MIKE: Now it’s in the light, and when I look at the faded and cracked paint on this piece, it almost makes it look… like actual elephant skin.
MIKE: Ahh… epic!
TOMMY: What are you seeing back there?
MIKE: Raccoon turds.
FRANK: We better find this pole!
MIKE: Lift this up!
Whaaaa! Whoa!
TOMMY: That’s it! MIKE: Whoa!
TOMMY: That’s it, baby, you got it!
MIKE: Whoa-ho-ho!
Daddy found it! Oh, yeah…
There he is. Ahh…
TOMMY: Original Tusko.
MIKE: Oh yeah… Tusko.
MIKE: I gotta find the guy that appreciates this piece for the condition that it’s in.
There’s not a huge margin, but it’s so cool, I want to pull it out of here.
FRANK: Hey, now look at these.
JOE: We got horses here, they’re the duals, which are very rare ’cause you always see the singles.
FRANK: These are dual horses that came off a carousel.
JOE: And I think there might have been 6 or 10 of them on…
FRANK: On the ride?
JOE: …the carousel that went around on the ride.
FRANK: The paint is chipped and peeling, but it’s just right.
And they’re complete, because they have the original carriage.
These are really hard to find.
JOE: Cast iron. FRANK: Cast iron?
JOE: All original.
JOE: Well, the carousel horses are always fun, because not a thrill ride, it doesn’t go fast, it doesn’t go up and down, it doesn’t drop you on your head.
TOMMY: They said a proven fact that more accidents occur on a carousel than any other ride, because people are more like, ha-ha, it’s a slow ride, whatsoever, they get on, they fall off, the horse comes down, whack them on the head or something.
FRANK: How much are the dual horses?
JOE: Uh… I’d do it for like 1,800.
FRANK: What about 1,200 bucks?
TOMMY: Umm… I’m wheezin’.
FRANK: You’re wheezing? JOE: 15!
FRANK: 13 and a half.
TOMMY: 14… ninety, ninna-ninna-ninna…
FRANK: Nah, I can’t go 1,500 on ’em.
TOMMY: Yeah, you can. FRANK: I can’t, I just…
TOMMY: Yeah, you can. FRANK: No, I can’t.
TOMMY: I know you can. I said you can.
FRANK: I’m going to pass at 15, I just don’t think I can…
I don’t think I can recoup.
TOMMY: 14… 80!
FRANK: 1,350. 1,350.
It’s missing the bells.
JOE: 1,350?
1,350, alright, well, we’ll, we’ll…
we’ll break down and give it to you for 1,350, alrighty.
FRANK: Alright.
FRANK: Joe and Tom are tough.
Sometimes you gotta be willing to walk away to get a decent price, and this time, it worked in the end.
MIKE: Today was a good day.
Tom and Joe actually remind me of my brother and I.
MIKE: Here we go, Frankie.
MIKE: Being brothers, you automatically have a bond, but being able to strengthen that bond with them collecting together, is pretty cool.
That takes the brother relationship, and kicks it up a couple of notches.
MIKE: Okay. TOMMY: Okay, dude.
MIKE: Alright, man, thank you.
You got to be proud of these guys.
JOE: Come again! SONNY: I am.
TOMMY: I’d definitely say we taught them a few things.
TOMMY: And you got my number, so if you see any mannequins…
JOE: And I hope we was fair with them, that we didn’t beat them up too bad on some of the stuff there.
I mean, you know, it’s all in the ballgame there, let’s see who’s going to kick who, you know.
MIKE: Happy mannequin to ya!
TOMMY: Okay, see ya! JOE: Bye.
[honks horn]