Mint Museum of Toys

Chang Yang Fa spent decades collecting toys and opened this museum in 2007 in a purpose-built tower of five narrow floors, holding around fifty thousand pieces from more than forty countries, dating mostly from the 1840s to the 1980s. The floors are themed: outer space, characters, childhood favourites and collectables, with early tin robots, Astro Boy, Batman, Popeye and a great many things nobody else kept. It is a private obsession made public.

Background

The name MINT stands for Moment of Imagination and Nostalgia with Toys. Chang Yang Fa began collecting in the 1980s, bought the plot at 26 Seah Street in 2004 and had a building designed for the toys, which opened on 5 March 2007. Its front is a wave of 26 shaped glass panes, and in 2007 the Chicago Athenaeum gave it an International Architecture Award. The collection includes a doll said to have belonged to Alice Liddell and a Steiff teddy bear from the early 20th century. In 2017 robot toys such as the Television Spaceman and Hero Robot went on loan to the Barbican Centre in London.

Source: Wikipedia, "Mint Museum of Toys"

What you'll find

• The tin robots - early Japanese space toys, among the collection's strongest sets.
• The character floors - Astro Boy, Popeye, Batman and other licensed figures.
• The vintage range - pieces from the 1840s to the 1980s across forty countries.
• The tower - five narrow floors purpose-built for the collection.

When to go

Year round; the museum keeps daily hours. Weekday mornings are quietest. It is entirely indoors and works in any weather.

Practical notes

The building is narrow and the floors are cramped when busy. Entry is expensive for the size. It is a collector's museum and the appeal depends on caring about the objects.

Nearby

Raffles Hotel is beside it, and Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho is north.

Key facts