Japanese tin toys from the Yoku Tanaka Toy Collection will be sold at Bonhams on August 25 in San Francisco, highlighted by a rare Astroboy Mighty Atom bus.

Astro Boy, or Mighty Atom as he is known in Japan, was one of the first successful mangas and is credited with starting the anime craze

The collection features some of the finest tin-lithographed toys, which have become highly collectible in recent years. With Astroboy - also known as Mighty Atom - among Japan's most popular characters, the bus is expected to sell for between $1,500-2,000.

Astro Boy was the most popular manga (comic) series in Japan, and one of the few to find success in the West. It later became the first popular animated series worldwide, and is credited as the original anime series.

Sharing the bus' estimate is a Condor Motorcycle tin toy, which is accompanied by the carved wooden prototype - an extremely rare find.

Yoko Tanakas collection of buriki, or tin toys, focuses on vehicles of all sorts

Also starring is a fantastic 10 ?� inch Japanese tin-lithographed airplane with pontoons. A scarce example and in good condition, it will sell with a $1,200-1,500.

A JNF-made toy of a Mercedes-Benz 300S, complete with its original decorative box, will sell at ?�1,000-1,200.

Japanese tin toys are known as buriki, and the Yoko Tanaka collection has some of the finest examples ever seen.

"At first I wasn't that keen on them, but one day I went to look at a friend's collection and was amazed by the quality of the Japanese examples he had on display," he told Studio International.

"That night, I was so excited I couldn't sleep. At last I realized that I should focus on tin-toy cars, and then I devoted my efforts to acquiring them."

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