Andy Phillips explores the five levels of one man's shrine to playthings and collectables.
My eyes don't know where to look first. Should I gaze at the rare, pristine, unopened Star Wars figures in their original packaging? Or at the Flash Gordon comic - issue No.1? Pressing my face against the glass at the top level of the world's first purpose-built toy museum, it is difficult to know where to begin.
The MINT Museum of Toys, a five-storey establishment between tall buildings close to Singapore's Raffles City complex, is the manifestation of every big kid's dream.
Opened in 2008, it includes more than 50,000 toys from across the world, some worth tens of thousands of dollars. Among the displays is the only Batman sports car in the world known to exist with its original box and a 1950s Dan Dare water pistol now believed to be unique.
With the emphasis on toys of the past, a visit is as magical for grown-ups as it is for children - if not more.
Just as incredible as the sight of the shelves crammed with rare toys and games is the story of museum founder and owner, Chang Yang Fa.
From the age of six, the Singaporean started to collect toys but not in the usual way. Chang left his toys unopened and in their original packaging. By 2008, at the age of 57, he had so many that he was able to open the museum.
He was unable to use his first-choice name - Mint in Box - as the makers of the Men in Black movie franchise took issue with the abbreviation MIB. So he called it MINT, which stands for "Moment of Imagination and Nostalgia with Toys".
The monumental discipline he showed as a child has been rewarded with one of the world's most varied toy collections. Split across the five floors by theme, there are playthings from 40 nations - at last count.
The contemporary building in which the museum is housed has won several architectural awards for its undulating mesh frontage and minimalist interior.
Toys sit on backlit shelves so each gallery looks more like a high-end boutique than a museum and there is a rooftop wine bar and a basement-level cafe.
It is on the fifth-floor gallery of "outer space" toys that I find Star Wars figures from the original series, laid out in their sealed boxes. Behind me looms a life-size figure of Darth Maul, double-edged light sabre in hand.
There are also movie posters from the original Star Wars trilogy and figures of astronauts and space-aged heroes from China, India, Russia and Germany.
Down a flight of steps, level four is devoted to "characters" and includes one of the world's biggest collections of Batman memorabilia. Superman shows his face and there is a huge collection of "Disneyana".
Felix the Cat from the US and the lesser-known Bonzo the Dog (from Britain) are among the third-level floor of "childhood favourites", together with toys from Australia, Japan, Germany and Italy.
The evolution of toys is also covered, with a nostalgic lament on the impact of modern plastics on the hand-built pieces of the past.
Among the "collectables" on level two are examples of the ingenuity that was used in toymaking before they were produced on a mass scale. There are monkeys that climb ropes, the first wind-up toys and a pair of tumbling acrobats from Germany - a male and a female.
Just about the only character I don't see portrayed is Chang himself. There are no photos of him in the museum and it is clear that he gives few interviews.
But seeing his life's pride and joy throughout the museum reveals enough of his character to know that he's just like the rest of us: a big kid at heart.
MINT Museum of Toys, 36 Seah Street, Singapore, open daily from 9.30am-6.30pm. See emint.com.
Source:smh.com.au/
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