Israel (Lev) Levarek

Israel (Lev) Levarek recalls his love for antique shows drew him into the toy business. During antique show presentations, he noticed the one thing that was consistently missing was vintage toys. This realization prompted him to begin collecting vintage robots, which were also his first purchases. For the past 21 years, Mr. Levarek has excelled as chief executive officer of Toy Tokyo in New York City. The emporium features rare and collectible toys from famed toy designers such as Funko, Kaws and Ron English. In addition, he also sells unique vintage toys, model kits, games, dolls, and stuffed toys.

Mr. Levarek maintains a warehouse in New Jersey from which he personally trucks items to the store’s 2nd Avenue location. Finding success among the masses, the store has been voted Best Toy Store of the Year by Clutter Magazine. Before opening Toy Tokyo, Mr. Levarek operated a mail-order toy business entitled “It’s a Small World” which, he says, produced the first four-color catalog exclusively devoted to toy sales. On the first day of operations, he put up a sale that sold for more than $85,000.

A graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mr. Levarek has been a world traveler, spending a year in India, then traveling to Katmandu, trekking in the Himalayas, visiting Iran and Afghanistan, as well as living in Israel for six years and Japan. In the coming years, he intends to expand, opening stores in Bellevue, Washington and Xinjiang, China in its Future City shopping mall. In addition, Mr. Levarek hopes to open a museum for his artifacts, toys and collectibles in Manhattan or New Jersey. His motto goes, “Enjoy what you collect.”