Nick Chan Dot Net

Mint Museum of Toys in Singapore

Written by Nicholas Chan on November 9, 2009 – 2:04 am -

Thanks to Nuffnang and Uniquely Singapore, I got to join this Uniquely Singapore one day blogger tour for free. This is part of the Nuffnang Blog Awards trip to Singapore and happened on the next day of the blog awards night. I slept quite late on the night before, spending some times on the Internet and woke up at around 7.45am, it’s like 5-6 hours of sleep.

Freshen up. Put on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, got my camera and off I was. The bloggers tour were divided into groups and I was in Group A with bloggers from Malaysia, Philippines, Australia and Singapore too.

First stop of the one-day tour was Mint Museum of Toys which is also a cafe, restaurant and wine bar. Pretty cool right? A toy museum which is quite different with the one in my hometown here in Penang.

Located on Seah Street, very near to Raffles Hotel.

A 5 stories building with a basement, it doesn’t look like a museum from it’s outer contemporary view. It’s a sponsored tour, so I need not to pay the S$15 entrance fee, which I would say a little bit expensive but worth it if you are a museum hopper and a toy fans. There’s so much to see in this little cozy space.

We had already been divided into group, but at here, we were divided into a smaller groups to tour different floor because of limited space and guide. Randolph Chew was so kind to guide us around and told us almost everything about the toys and the stories behind.

The top floor is a bar which house a lot of old school coffee shops advertisement plates. It’s like travel back in time to the olden days.

It’s a very modern-ish, contemporary gallery of toys. Everything are well-displayed with very sweet lighting on the acrylic illuminated shelf, which makes photographing easy and nice.

It’s all about toys from around the world, America’s, Europe’s and Asia’s. You see the above King Kong’s poster? What’s so special about it is that it’s one of few which features King Kong itself on the World Trade Centre instead of the Empire State Building.

The owner of the musuem is a serious hardcore toy collectors. I would say he turned hobby into investment, and he must be eff-ingly rich! Just look at the price tag and imagine how much he had spent on the toys. Oh my god, pro.

I know only a few of them, eg. Popeye, Disney’s characters, Tin Tin, Star Wars, Star Trek, Astroboy and a few more. I realised that there’s no Japanese cute anime figurine, where are they?!

I am not really a fan of cartoons now. Do you know that Astroboy was actually Astro(girl)? The Japanese felt weird and later changed her sex into a boy, and the girl character had became Astroboy’s sister.

See the above’s mouse. They are evil Mickey Mouse created by the English to defame the real Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse. Interesting stories back then when there’s no patent about toys and cartoon character, everyone copys.

Ugly bear.

Another cool piece is the the wagon. The wagon is not cool, but the box is because it came in from Penang’s port and travelled to Ipoh and lastly, lies in this museum. Penang yeah!

Free door gift too! Nice tour.

Next stop: Chinatown Heritage Centre and more!

Tags: blog awards, contemporary, cool, free, Freebies, modern, museum, nnawards, nuffnang, singapore, Tour, toys, Travel, trip
Posted in Cool Stuff, Lifelog, Singapore, Travel, Uncategorized | Comments