Sunday, October 9, 2011

Penang Toy Museum "World's Largest Toy Museum" Part II – 1/6 Figures and Larger than Life Statues

Continued from previous post...

This is the second part review of my visit to the "World's Largest Toy Museum" – the Penang Toy Museum which houses over 100,000 toys, dolls and others fun collectibles. This museum does not have any tin toys (which I'm happy about since tin toys are something I don't have a liking for) but a whole lot of plastic action figures. What's a toy museum without 1/6 figures right? There are 12-inch Barbie dolls and military figures and larger than life models. Scroll down to see them if you like :)

For a start, here are some pictures of the 1/6 scale 12-inch military figures displayed in this museum. Not a whole lot but some, and rather old ones too. They are mostly Dragon Models and Hasbro 12-inch military figures from way back then (late 1990s and before year 2000, I think).


The Ultimate Soldier 1/6 scale M5 Light Tank and AH-6 Little Bird looks impressive together, along with the 1/6 scale modern era M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle. It's a mix of vehicles both old and new and a whole clone army of Dragon Models Limited (DML) Lt. Colonel Hal Moore 12-inch figures manning the guns, talking on the radio and what have you. Everything's off in terms of time period of vehicles and figures but does look impressive to a visitor who has no knowledge of what's going on.



There are even some fighter planes (not to scale) squeezed together at the back due to space constraints. Everything's packed too tightly and not organized properly in terms of time era and soldiers matching vehicles. I felt that this could have been done better. It's like the owner rushed into putting this together without giving careful thought or simply didn't care about the details or accuracy.


Some other WWII 1:6 scale vehicles on display, alongside some smaller scale military figures


G.I. Joe 1/6 scale Desert Light Strike Vehicle parked next to General Omar Bradley. No relation in time or otherwise.


A smaller scale M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle with equally small military action figures alongside some boxed DML WWII German 12-inch figures. The museum displays figures in boxes too. I would think only retail shops do that.


A Toy Museum won't be complete without Barbie dolls. I don't collect Barbie dolls but it was nice to see these pretty ladies posed side-by-side and by the numbers


I think Barbies outnumber 1:6 action figures by a whole lot and the evidence is clear, even in this toy museum. There were racks upon racks (pun intended heehee) of Barbie dolls.






There were even Asian dolls wearing traditional Chinese costumes, a nice contrast with the more commonly seen and usually Western styled dolls.


Check out these beautifully decked Chinese Wayang 12-inch dolls, with their intricately detailed costumes.


Famous Chinese movie stars were also present at the Penang Toy Museum, albeit in 1:6 scale, namely Jackie Chan and Andy Lau.


One cannot miss out Mr Bean either although this is not the EnterBay Mr Bean figure. There weren't any Hot Toys figures at the World's Largest Toy Museum either. Those would have set the owner of the museum back by quite a lot if he were to collect both EnterBay and Hot Toys figures although going by the amount of toys on display, I think he could probably afford it. Problem is lack of space and proper display cases to house the figures. The gray bases the figures are standing on are actually glass shelves that have since been covered by a thick layer of dust! A true toy collector would never allow that to happen to his passion.


Larger then life models / statues were also present at the Penang Toy Museum. There's Jeri Ryan as the liberated Borg, Seven of Nine, on Star Trek: Voyager. Gorgeous statue, don't you think?


Lara Croft is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Square Enix (previously Eidos Interactive) video game series Tomb Raider. She is presented as a beautiful, intelligent, and athletic British archaeologist-adventurer who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world. Having nice bosoms does help in the appeal factor, especially with the predominantly male gamers ;p

What's Tinker Bell, Popeye and Pinocchio doing with Lara Croft?

The Penang Toy Museum is certainly running out of space. The owner has put in other unrelated figurines / statues inside the displays that hold the Larger than Life models / statues. Lara Croft has to share space with these cartoon characters.

Is Lara Croft in Mars now? There are Martians at her feet!

The owner of the museum must like Lara Croft a lot because he has at least three statues of her in the small space that seems to be getting smaller by the way the toys and figures are being cramped together.

No upskirts, you pervs!

And then there's Aragorn son of Arathorn, also called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor. He of the Lord of the Rings fame. In the Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) directed by Peter Jackson, Aragorn is played by Danish-American actor Viggo Mortensen who took over the role from Stuart Townsend after four days of shooting because Jackson felt Townsend was too young for the role. Viggo Mortensen has since made the role his and his alone. Can't imagine anyone else filling Aragorn's shoes.


Another famous character with the sword: Captain Jack Sparrow, the main protagonist in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and portrayed by the brilliant Johnny Depp. Jack Sparrow was conceived by Elliott and Rossio initially as a supporting character, but Jack was brought to life and into the central role by Johnny Depp, who based his characterization on The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and cartoon character Pepé Le Pew.


In Konami's Metal Gear video game franchise, Naked Snake is an American covert operative. In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Naked Snake is virtually identical to Solid Snake from the other Metal Gear Solid games in terms of appearance. He loses his right eye when a bullet fired by a young Ocelot skims his eyeball and begins to wear his characteristic eye patch late in the game. His primary outfit is a battle dress uniform with changeable camouflage patterns.


Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, was first introduced in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, set in 1936. The character is presented as an adventurer reminiscent of the 1930s film serial treasure hunters and pulp action heroes, whose research is funded by Marshall College (named after producer Frank Marshall), a fictional college in Connecticut, where he is a professor of archaeology. The larger than life statue looks nothing like Harrison Ford and more like Nicholas Cage!


Big and bada$$ Batman gets a horrible treatment with the bright and pink striped Chesire Cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland placed right where his crotch is supposed to be. Being a HUGE Batman fan, that is a big NO-NO in my book. Placing Pluto in the display doesn't help at all either! It's minus 20 points for me. I was not pleased with this at all :(


Where there's Batman, the Joker cannot be too far away. As it turns out, the Heath Ledger JOKER statue was just around the corner, intend on giving visitors a hair-raising experience with his creepy clownish look. Why so serious?!


And then there's this Japanese anime / mange character who seems to have a similar taste with the JOKER in terms of color: Purple is most prominent besides the brown and brass combination of her armor. I don't know who this character is and am not sure even if she is supposed to be male or female. The chest armor and shape of the chest says female but the head / face is too sculpted and chiseled to be of the fairer sex. Perhaps it's supposed to be a transvestite.


And that's Part II of my coverage of my visit to the Penang Toy Museum, "World's Largest Toy Museum".

Part III is next. The coverage? STAR WARS! May the Force be with you :)

What has come before:
Penang Toy Museum visit Part I: Chamber of Horrors

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That last life size figure looks like a Night Elf from World of Warcraft
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYK_Gqyf48Y

Super-Duper ToyBox said...

what they need over there is a consultant! i know just the man to do it (nudge, nudge) ;)

Jason How said...

why don't we guys get together....buy over the museum and bring over to singapore :) will make big bucks selling tickets for tourist to see :) ???

alex teo said...

thanks impul5se :) much appreciated

thanks Colin for the vote of confidence ;p