Toy museums in Thailand (video)

Toys? No, never had. There was simply no money at home for that. Of course there was a goose board in the house, just like Worry-Not and some quartet games we played as a family. When I was about ten years old I got the Monopoly game with Sinterklaas, a true rib from my parents' body. At one point my big brother had about 10 DinkyToys, you can't call that a real collection.

I never missed toys either, we didn't need them, although we did marvel at a model railway that a toy store had put in its window. My friends from the neighborhood always played outside on the street, in the park, on a vacant lot or in a forest a little further away. We could always find “toys” there and otherwise we could still “pull a bell” or steal an apple from someone's garden.

However, according to experts, toys are good for childhood development, stimulate imagination and promote creativity. The sale of toys has therefore increased enormously over the years and children enough who collected all sorts of things. In Thailand, too, people have become addicted to this collecting rage and have set up a real museum of all those collected toys. I mention three:

Tooney Toy Museum, Nonthaburi

Somporn and Panin Poyu have been toy collectors since their teens. That collection grew to more than 100.000 pieces, dolls, model cars, cartoon figures and so on. They invested their money in the conversion of a restaurant into an exhibition space where the elderly can reminisce about their childhood and fathers and mothers can introduce their children to all these toys.

It is an amazing collection of all kinds of toys, ranging from classic car models, Coca Cola cans from around the world, Barbie and Disney characters in all shapes and sizes and models of contemporary superheroes from film and TV, as well as classic Hollywood heroes such as Captain America , Spiderman, the Hulk, Batman, Wolverine are not missing.

While boys let their imagination run wild with weapons and gadgets such as Thor's hammer, Harry Potter's wands, Captain America's shield and the Wolverine's claws, the girls can marvel at the many models in a special room and Princess Diana and Marilyn Monroe dolls. There is much more to see, one day out is hardly enough.

• Tooney Toy Museum
• 69/274 Soi Si Saman 8
• Pak Kret District, Nonthaburi

It is open Friday to Sunday, 10am-00pm and admission is 20 Baht for children, free for children under 00 centimeters and 100 Baht for adults. For more information, call (90) 150 086 and (626) 9521 080 or visit the website www.TooneyMuseum.com and Facebook/TooneyMuseum.

Millon Toy Museum, Ayutthaya

Krirk Yoonpun, a well-known Thai writer and illustrator of children's books, is the owner of the Million Toy Museum in Ayutthaya, which has now been in existence for six years. The two-story building houses a collection of thousands of toys from all over the world. It's an ideal place to relive your childhood memories and for the kids to discover the history behind these vintage toys.

In glass cases you can admire all kinds of dolls, wind-up tin toys, battery-powered robots and figures such as Micky Mouse, Hello Kitty, Doraemon

• Million Toys Museum
• U-Tong Road (next to Wat Banomyong,
• Ayuththaya

It is open daily, except Mondays, from 09:00 to 16:00. and admission is 20 Baht for children and 50 Baht for adults. For more information please call (035) 328 949 or (081) 890 5782 or visit the website www.MillionToyMuseum.com

Batcat Museum & Toys, Bangkapi

Located in the bustling suburb of Bang Kapi, the Batcat Museum, run by Somchai Nitimongkolchai, is home to 50.000 Batman figurines, superhero models, toys and collectibles from the 1960s to the present day. The 400m² space is easily recognizable by its colorful graphics on the outside.

Features include the Hot Toys Batman 1989 Sideshow Collection featuring mobiles, weapons and the Caped Crusader's iconic hood and the “Top 10 Batman Vintage Toys” which includes a Utility Belt worth 700.000 Baht.

But Batcat isn't just dedicated to the Caped Crusader. Visitors can also enjoy models of the cars from “Thunder Birds”, “Knight Rider”, “Ghostbusters” and “The Fast and the Furious”.

Batcat is near the Lam Salee intersection, Ramkhamhaeng Road. It is open on weekdays from 10:00 AM to 19:00 PM and on weekends from 09:00 AM to 20:00 PM. Admission is 100 Baht, but foreigners (ouch, here we go again!) foreigners pay 250 Baht. For more information, call (02) 375 9006 or visit Facebook / batcat.museum.

Below is a nice video about the Tooney Toy Museum:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utRuGM6nmEk[/youtube]

Source: The Nation