--- title: 3 Toys With a Better Rate of Return than Your 401(k) description: Do you have an old Gameboy? authors: - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 160 covers: - Investing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Lifestyle - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/ewolffmann former_staff: true published: '2016-01-08T20:07:23.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T09:40:24.000Z' section: Investing tags: - collecting - Investing - pubdesk - Retirement - Toys word_count: 304 canonical: https://money.com/toys-better-rate-of-return-than-401k/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Nintendo Game Boy, 1989.](https://img.money.com/2016/01/gettyimages-90766172.jpg) The Internet recently discovered that, incredibly, [Lego sets have performed better as investments than gold](https://money.com/lego-investment-compare-gold-return/) and a suite of other investment options. Although you can't exactly play with the toys if you're expecting to sell them at a profit lest you break them, scratch them, or even (gasp!) open their packaging, it's still fun that stuff meant for kids is suddenly throwing back an impressive return on investment. Besides the Lego, here are three things that are doing quite well these days, [according to Mashable](http://mashable.com/2016/01/08/classic-toys-401k/#.xe9nD__6EqN). **Star Wars Action Figures** It will surprise you very little that a Star Wars product is on this list. Clearly, the brand is impervious to the effects of time. But right now, if you have any Star Wars action figures, they're worth $1,000 for some classic pieces, and up to $12,000 for rare ones. They sold for around $3 in 1983. That's a total [rate of return](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/returnoninvestment.asp) of 33,233%, or around 997% a year. If you had put that $3 in the S&P 500, you wouldn't even have $100. **My Little Pony** Weird Internet stuff has somehow boosted the value of MLP sets a considerable amount. A rare set can be go for up to $1,500 on eBay, [according to Mashable](http://mashable.com/2016/01/08/classic-toys-401k/#.xe9nD__6EqN), which calculates the rate of return at a solid 33%. **Original Gameboys** You may have an original Gameboy. I know I still do somewhere. And if it's unopened, you sell it off for a cool $420—far more than the $90 you paid in the '80s. That's a little under the S&P 500, but you do have the intangible benefit of saying you made money by flipping an old Gameboy...which frankly sounded much better in my head than on the page, and definitely better than saying it out loud. Maybe that's not something to brag about. 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