How Many McElroy Figures Exist?

 

This is one of the most debated questions in the collector community — and the honest answer is: nobody knows for certain.

The McElroy brothers themselves once claimed to have built around 100 figures. Most serious collectors believe this number is inflated. The current best estimate is somewhere around 28 to 30 documented figures, all in private collections or museums.

Think about that for a moment. Thirty figures. In the entire world.

They are owned by a very small group of collectors and institutions: the Vent Haven Museum, Dan Willinger's Ventriloquist Central Collection, Jeff Dunham, David Copperfield, Andy Gross, and a handful of others. Some are displayed. Most are not.

The brothers only built figures for a few years — roughly 1936 to 1941 — before moving on to other work. In that short window they created something that collectors are still chasing nearly ninety years later.

Scarcity alone doesn't explain the obsession. Plenty of rare things exist that nobody particularly wants. What makes the McElroy figures different is that they are also, genuinely, the best. The rarest and the finest, at the same time.

That combination is almost unfair.

Alessio