Bandai Museum, Toy museum in Mibu, Japan
The Bandai Museum in Mibu houses a collection of toys from Japan and around the world, ranging from rare historical pieces to contemporary action figures. The displays show how Japanese toy manufacturing evolved over the decades and its influence on global popular culture.
The Bandai Museum opened in Matsudo, Chiba, on 19 July 2003, with the Gundam Museum and Character World among its sections; it drew a million visitors by November 2004. It closed there on 31 August 2006, and the collection reopened in Mibu, Tochigi, on 28 April 2007, with a renewal following on 29 April 2010. Its Edison collection was assembled over 25 years by patent lawyer Henry Koda and Bill Ando before Bandai acquired it.
The Japan Toy Museum section holds about 20,000 items, from Edo-period clay menko tiles and toys made of natural materials to export goods that helped Japan's postwar recovery, 1960s character toys and electronic toys. The World Toy Museum keeps about 7,000 pieces shown until 2007 at the Karuizawa World Toy Museum, among them a 250-year-old wooden doll, steam-powered toys and clockwork bears.
The museum sits near Omochanomachi Station and is open daily to visitors. Plan for an hour or two to comfortably explore the main displays at your own pace.
The coal mine diorama in the entrance hall was shown at the 1924 British Empire Exhibition. An English couple, the Phelpss, spent 18 years from 1904 building it, and about 170 figures re-enact a day in a 19th-century mining town.
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