Mint Museum of Toys in Singapore
Who would guess that at 26 Seah Street in Singapore, you might rediscover your childhood? The Mint Museum of Toys is a five story museum with more than ten thousand toys accumulated over a time span of thirty years. Depending on your age, you may transported back in time much farther than that as you see again early 20th Century spinning tops and mechanized toys. You’ll see dolls of Batman and King Kong, Barbie, Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop. Who remembers Robbie the Robot? Many people recognize the iconic robot, but few might guess that its origins were in a 1956 movie called Forbidden Planet, one of the movies that some people think the equally iconic television series, Star Trek, was based upon. Forbidden Planet combined Shakespeare’s The Tempest with a science fiction standard plot of humans exploring an alien world. The robot became famous, even used in other movies, such as 1957′s The Invisible Boy. In Singapore, you can see Robbie the Robot again.
In addition to these toys, you’ll also find Star Wars toys, trains, soldiers, Beatles merchandise, Monkees merchandise, and many Asian genres of toys. It’s an incredibly complete collection. The price of 15 dollars for adults (half for children) may seem a bit much to spend; however, what’s the price of reliving a moment from your childhood? You’ll find a shop within the museum that sells duplicate items from the collection at a reasonable price. So, who knows? Perhaps you’ll find that toy you’ve been missing for decades.
It might be counter-intuitive to think a museum like this one would not be as good for children. Certainly, kids will like it; however, it’s really a place for adults to relive their past. It’s not interactive; kids won’t be able to play with these toys, and there will be a great deal of temptation — shelf after shelf of it. You can take pictures of the toys, but not with a flash. This is in order to protect the items; lighting is also fairly dim within the museum, and some toys are displayed behind glass, with backlit shelves.
If you’re into board games, though, this museum may not be the place for you. There’s not much of that here. Another indicator that the museum is for adults? Some toys, made for children in the early part of the 20th Century, tend to present African Americans and Africans in stereotypical racist terms; the sociological and historical of the toys are obvious, but children may need help understanding what they’re seeing if they come across them. For the adult, though, the museum overall contains an amazing opportunity to see how the world once played. See the toys you remember as a child, even buy a few in the gift shop, and take them back to the hotels in Singapore to relive those early days.