When I was in Penang last year, I stumbled across the Toy Museum along Tanjung Bungah Road. My first reaction was: whoaaaaa. It remains one of the strangest, most fascinating places I’ve ever been in.

The Museum itself is a shop lot of about 650 sq ft, located beside Copthorne Orchid Hotel. It feels suspiciously like an old night club with a bad ‘Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt’ theme: gilt fibreglass statues and fake hieroglyphs abound.  Inside, rows and rows of shelves house over 100,000 figurines, collectibles, models and toys from a mind-boggling span of western popular culture.  It was like walking into a dragon’s hoard, only instead of gold, this dragon preferred toys.

To walk amongst someone’s obsession is to truly lose sense of time, because I spent more than two hours wandering around that little cave. What I love most about the Toy Museum is its homeliness (notwithstanding its status as holder of 2 records in the Malaysia Book of Records!). The collection is divided into categories like Chamber of Horror, Cave of Dinosaurs, Fields of Combat, etc, but it’s obvious that the order of the museum is distinctly personal. You get the sense that the curator/owner spent many happy hours going over his treasures, arranging them according to what pleased him most.

So much of what propels art stems from obsession. Being subject to manias myself, I recognize and appreciate it in others. What is wonderful about the Toy Museum is the generosity implied in sharing one’s personal obsession for the enjoyment and entertainment of others. I speculate it’s that generosity that closes the gap that so often exists between museums and viewers. There’s a coldness and preciousness in most institutional museums. It always seems like someone invisible is lecturing to you about the subject at hand.

Consider this a discussion on whether some collections are more important than others and must thus be treated with more ‘heft’.  Can public museum exhibitions ever achieve the intimacy and accessibility of private collections? New York’s Museum of Modern Art appears to be heading in this direction with their Artists’ Choice series, in which an artist plays curator and selects work from MoMA’s vast art collection to create an exhibition. Perhaps we should propose this to Balai or Muzium Negara in order to revive the public significance of their permanent collections.

And what about the issues involved when a private collection is given the ’eminence’ of being in a public institution? Balai will soon launch this year’s ‘Koleksi Saya‘ series (last year’s was the collection of the late Rahime Harun) by showing the private collection of Farouk and Aliya Khan, among others. This is another can of worms and we should begin debating the issues involved.

But for now, it’s a beautiful Tuesday afternoon. I leave you with a photo gallery of the Toy Museum. May it lift your spirits, encourage your obsessions, or at least put a smile on your face.

The Penang Toy Museum belongs to Mr. Loh Lean Cheng, a kind gentleman who sits at the entrance greeting visitors. To learn more about the museum, please click here.

Location: beside Copthorne Orchid Hotel, Tanjung Bungah Road, 11200 Penang.
Visiting hours: Open daily 9am – 9pm, including weekends and public holidays (Last admission 8.30pm)
Contact: +6 012 460 2096
Entrance fee: RM 10 (Adult) RM 6 (Child)

NOTE: The photo gallery reflects my own um… preferences. There is so, so much more to be seen.

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Here be dragons, behind plastic.

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Do you prefer new school Batman…

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…or old school? I’d give my right arm for this classic Batty.  I’m positive it’s worth a fortune.

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A Tim Burton shrine! Agghhh… be-still my heart.

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The Castle of Skull-Ra Skelletor! My childhood is come again.

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It’s classic Voltron! OMG. Voltron was this robot made up of five robotic tigers who lived in different elements like fire, water, earth, etc. It totally blew Transformers out of the water. I hope they NEVER make a Voltron movie.

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Another Voltron one just to drive home how damn cool it was. Voltron lovers, show me love. I know you’re out there.

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I became obsessed with minature dioramas, like these Pokemon ones. Look at Pikachu all by his cutesome in his idlyic forrest abode.

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Ever wanted to know what’s in Yoda’s head? Another little Yoda, d-uuuhh!

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The entire cast of Harry Potter, in 2cm minatures! *Squeal* I want to walk around with these in my pocket all day long.

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Death by cuteness has a name:

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It’s because he got so very, very excited. Do you really blame him?

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Bit of gore to offset the cuteness. The unsettling but deeply fascinating Hellrasier cast.

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A full-sized (but still unattainable) Ms. Croft for you desperate fan-boys and girls.

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Pirates of the Carribean memorabilia. That ship in the bottom left corner is actually attached to a fuctional ‘whirlpool’. Experience the barky go down into the briny deep! Just because you can.

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Another absolute gem: figures from the Yellow Submarine animation! And yes, that IS the bottom half of a commemorative John Lennon in the background.

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And finally: Spy VS Spy. This made my entire week.

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