Toy museums are museums for toys. They typically showcase toys from a particular culture or period. These are distinct from children's museums, which are museums for children, and are often interactive â€" toy museums may be aimed at children or adults, and may have interactive exhibits or be exclusively for display.
Notable toy museums around the world
The following lists only museums specializing in toys, whose collections are open for public viewing. Some museums such as the American Museum of Natural History have toys on display in their permanent collection, but are not full-fledged toy museums and as such are not listed here. Also, organizations. such as The Doll and Toy "Museum" of New York City that hold toy collections but are not open for public viewing are not listed here.
- Tidö Toy Museum Västerås Sweden
- Spencer Doll and Toy Museum Spencer, North Carolina
- The Museum of Childhood (Edinburgh), on the Royal Mile, in Edinburgh, Scotland.
- The Swiss Museum of Games, in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland.
- The National Farm Toy Museum, a museum located in Dyersville, Iowa that specializes in preserving and displaying scale models, replicas, and toys based on farm equipment.
- The National Toy and Miniature Museum in Kansas City, Missouri boasts a collection of more than 300,000 items.
- The Museo Valenciano del Juguete de Ibi (Alicante) Spain. Founded in 1986. Toys of XIX and XX centuries.
- The Museu del Joguet de Catalunya (Girona) Spain. Opened in 1970. Regional toys.
- The Museo de los Soldaditos de Plomo (Valencia) Spain. Set in a historic palace. Tin soldiers..
- The Toy and Plastic Brick Museum in Bellaire, Ohio, USA. Founded in 2006.
- The Nuremberg Toy Museum - a toy museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1971.
- The Mechelen Toy Museum in the Nekkerspoel hamlet of Mechelen, Belgium. Founded in 1982 and officialized in 1998.
- Pollock's Toy Museum - a small museum in Covent Garden, London, first opened in 1956.
- Shankar's International Dolls Museum, a large collection of dolls in Delhi, India, opened in 1965.
- Strong - National Museum of Play - a Smithsonian affiliate in Rochester, New York, founded in 1982, that documents the history of play in American culture. It includes the National Toy Hall of Fame - a hall of fame for popular toys, opened in 1998.
- The Istanbul Toy Museum - a small museum founded in 2005, and located in the Göztepe district of Istanbul, Turkey.
- The Brighton Toy and Model Museum, in Brighton, Sussex, England, has an extensive collection of toy and model trains, as well as many other toys, dolls, and construction toys, such as Meccano.
- The Saint Petersburg Toy Museum - a non-state cultural establishment, Russia. Founded in 1997.
- Penang Toy Museum in Penang, Malaysia displays more than 120,000 items of figures, dolls and 60 life size figures.It is the largest collection of toys in the world. It was founded in 2002 by a professional engineer.
- Malacca Toy Museum in Malacca, Malaysia.
- The Ore Mountain Toy Museum, Seiffen, in Germany is an internationally known toy museum with a collection of unique wooden toys typical of the Ore Mountains region.
- The Harold Bell Wright Museum/Toy Museum as known as The World's Largest Toy Museum displayed American toys from the 1800s to 1990s including Star Wars and 1950 Western toys in Branson, Missouri.
- Rhodes toy museum Greece, the first toy museum in Greece with exclusive Greek toys.
- Suomenlinna Toy Museum, est. 1985 http://www.lelumuseo.fi located in Suomenlinna Sea Fortress http://www.suomenlinna.fi/en in Helsinki, Finland.
- Tartu Toy Museum in Tartu, Estonia. Was opened in 1994 and now holds more than 20,000 items.
- Hong Kong International Hobby and Toy Museum, was opened in 2011. Exhibits include toy cars, dolls, action figures, cartoon characters, science fiction collectibles, model rockets, Japanese anime, classic toys and more.
Former museums
- The Bear Museum, a teddy bear museum, founded in Petersfield, Hampshire in 1984. Closed in 2006.
- The Teddy Bear Museum of Naples, a teddy bear museum, which opened in 1990 in north Naples, Florida, and closed in 2005.
- The Toy Town Museum is located in East Aurora, New York, the home of Fisher-Price. It was located on the Fisher-Price campus although it operated as an independent entity. It is currently looking for a new location.
