Monday 2 September 2013

Toy Museum - Penang

A place that claimed to be the largest toy museum in the world caught my eye on the tourist maps while I tried to identify places I would visit while I stayed on Penang in George Town. I think the place has moved since many of the tourist maps were printed as I managed to get myself to the exact location depicted on the maps and described by various tourist publications only to find that the giant Ninja Turtle expected to be welcoming me had been removed.

iron manThe local swimming club guys were nice enough to give me fresh directions for another 10-15kms north. An adventure followed with many loops before I managed to find it only 30 minutes before it closed, through Batu Feringgi to the village of Teluk Bahang. If you get to the Telok Bahang Dam, you have gone too far, although the drive is wonderful. The museum is roughly a few hundred meters east of the mosque near the school, but up a dirt driveway and behind some buildings. It was not easy to find, but well worth it.

On arrival, a school group were departing, so I had a bunch of munchkins flocking around for a few minutes while I purchased my ticket. On seeing the Australian number plate, the managers told me they were staying open an extra half an hour to let me view the display. Take photos, the told me. So, I did. Here are just a few of the life-sized statues housed in perspex display cases - walls and walls and walls of them.

It looked to me as if the place had been transported from an original location and remained in the shipping crates. On discussion with one of the staff, it seems I could have been correct as some of these were going to be removed and set up around the place. They even had plans to allow people to be able to play with some of the toys once they were set up. If it wasn't already heaven for a geek like me, that would have sold it.

Not only were there life-sized statues of many icons of comics and games, but there were many shelves with heaps of different toys from various themes and television shows. Some I had never even dreamed could exist, like Mars Attacks or Nightmare Before Christmas toys. There were racks and racks of Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, and other collections. Here is a very small taste of what I found.

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