Just toying around
An ‘eh’-musing experience at Tooney Venue
Whether you’re a fanboy or an obsessive otaku, you’re likely to have a few nerd-out moments at Tooney Venue, which has positioned itself as a toy “museum”, although the place feels more like someone’s personal home stuffed with collectibles. Tooney Venue is made up of two areas. In front is a café and toy store, while a large two-storey building serves as the museum. An area of artificial grass with some playground equipment is located in front of museum building.
The first two rooms serve as reception and living area. There are some plush dolls and armchairs perfect for your basic, cute Instagram pictures. Kids can colour a fish, a starfish or a crab on a special piece of paper and place it on a panel, which displays the image on large monitors.
The first exhibition zone awaits you upstairs. It’s a hallway lined with figures of American superheroes, Gundam, Masked Riders, robots from the Super Sentai series and more. A larged, pixelated Mario figure serves as a precursor for the second zone, which is most impressive in terms of design. The high ceiling is decorated with giant film strips, and the room is lined on both sides with collectibles featuring Mickey Mouse, Coca-Cola, Lego and more. The next zone is obviously catered to girls, featuring Barbie dolls, Monster High dolls and the Disney princesses. The final zone contains dolls and toys from Japanese anime and Pixar movies, among others.
Most interesting to us are the Hot Toys figures. The Hong Kong-based company is known for its super-realistic figures from Hollywood movies. It’s quite interesting to see Robert Downey Jr’s bearded Tony Stark (and Iron Man) in a 1:6 scale. Another highlight is a large display of life-sized replicas of iconic movie props, such as Captain America’s shield, wands from the Harry Potter series and Wolverine’s claws.
At first you will feel like a kid lost in a toy store, but the novelty quickly wears off. Although we are impressed by the sheer amount amassed here, we think the museum needs better organisation (we found Chucky next to Kermit the Frog). Items are encased in glass boxes, but are not presented engagingly. There are boxes of information to be read here and there, but that’s dry for a toy museum. Ticket prices are very reasonable (B150 per person, B100 per child — add B100 for foreigners), but we suggest you check it out only if convenient. Tooney Venue is at the mouth of Si Saman Soi 8, Si Saman Road, in Pak Kret district of Nonthaburi. The museum opens Fri-Sun, from 10am-8pm. The café opens daily, from 9am-7pm.Visit fb. com/TooneyMuseum.