Today we spent some time in the Prague Toy Museum, just inside the outer walls of Prague Castle. I was prepared for this to be a letdown but it was actually really cool. Perhaps above all else it really highlighted how timeless some of these hobbies, like wargaming, really are. These are a few photo selections. A bunch more photos are in the Flickr gallery.
The sheer size of this cohesive set is pretty cool. Then you read the placard noting they have dozens of boxes more of this one set in storage.There were a lot of dollhouses of dolls playing with dolls in dollhouses. It's just so damn meta!Now this is what I'm talking about, naval miniatures and toy boats!Civilian vessels.The main fleet.I really liked these dock pieces. They're really abstract and highly simplified but yet they're going to all the detail of having a dock in the first place.Sort of an early LEGO precursor, with the bonus of being able to be all busted up to show damage---the future of miniatures wargaming is... a hundred years behind us?Similarly, there were a couple of these block castles. I'm pretty sure the giant pig (upper right) is going to break the siege...This didn't photograph well, but is an awesome mountain and all sorts of miniatures, everything made out of tin.There were a bunch of these dioramas with clockwork mechanisms underneath that made pieces up top move around and act out vignettes.An interesting point was made by one placard that at one point, early in the development of steam power, toy engines were almost more intricate and doing more elaborate things than real ones.I also really like early models of airplanes and flying machines, almost as complex as the real thing.The plentiful simple tin models of dirigibles and zepellins also really appeal to me.Early wargaming terrain... that looks like it would fit right in today.A really cool diorama/playset.Detail on the main action.Action Man, precursor to GI Joes and a pretty sweet male Barbie knockoff.Most probably the awesomeest Barbies ever made...I was almost devastated in the final room to see Star Wars and Star Trek all jumbled together. But then, do I see? Is that the sly Mr Solo taking a similarly poorly rendered Capt Kirk hostage so Obi Wan can chat up a redshirt? This I can get behind.
Again, a bunch more photos are in the Flickr gallery. They’re worth checking out for those into these sort of things. You know, toys and dolls.
