Barbies 80: Doll Exhibition #3 : Munich Toy Museum

Hi all,

This summer i went to Bavaria, in Germany, on vacation. I mostly went there to visit the castle of Neuschwanstein built during the reign of Ludwig II, king of Baviera.

It was unbelievably beautiful, i was truly amazed. For those who don't know, this castle was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle, and kinda felt like Aurora visiting it!

Anyway, during our trip we also stayed a couple days in Munich and it gave me the opportunity to visit the toy museum there. I like to visit toy museums when i travel. If you sometimes see similar vintage dolls or trains etc, you also get to see specific toys related to the country's history and i always find it interesting.

For example, one of my first post here Tack! was about the toy museum in Stockholm, and i found Pippi Longstockings dolls there, remember?

The toy museum in Munich is called the Spielzeugmuseum and it's located in the old town, in the old City Hall.

There are three floors in a small tower.

On the first floor, are some lovely doll houses and furniture. Even though most of them are too small, i thought some items could easily be used for Barbie diorama and it would be so beautiful!

These in particular were pre-1875 and apparently made by a company called "Rock and Graner". You can easily find pictures of this company's doll furniture on the internet. It's gorgeous and very expensive!

In the next display, were old tin toys. I looove tin toys! I think they can tell so many stories and they're simply just so beautifully made.

Some of them here were made by french manufacturer Charles Rossignol at the beginning of the 20th century.

This particular toy got my attention and was made by a german manufacturer. The little bird was filled with soap water and by blowing through the tube it would flap its tail feathers, move his head back and sing as a nightingale as soap bubbles came out of its beak. Isn't it great?!

At the back of the first room, was an old time favourite of mine : the train!

This one is from Märklin (1891-1918) and was presented for the first time at the Liepzig fair. Clearly the ancestor of the modern electrical trains we now play with!

The last display of the first room was a presentation of some mechanical dolls made in Germany. The walking and talking (it says "mama") doll was made in 1855 by Nicolas Steiner and the ballerina was made in 1880.

I had no idea what to expect in this museum, so i had a lovely surprise when i arrived at the second floor !

Hello Barbie !! I'm no vintage Barbie expert as I'm an 80's girl but it says "the first complete classical series of 21 pieces of clothing from the year 1959".

Seems like the display was put together for B's 50th birthday as we can read a little text explaining how Barbie was a "model" and not a "discouragement" as some people would say.

I especially love the one with the beige wool coat, brown beret and green purse :)

I couldn't take too much close up pictures as many people were interested in the display!

In the back of the room you could also find different types of toys including miniature farm and zoo animals. Animals are important in Munich, as the worldly known Steiff Bear was created in Germany, in Giengen Ar Den Brez near Munich, and also because the Munich Zoo (opened in 1911) was the first "modern zoo" in Europe.

It presented for the first time animals in enclosures that were from the same biotope in the wild and had "Africa zone" and "Asian zone" instead of "all big cats" or "all monkeys" from all over the world.

Anyway, being an assistant veterinary as well as a toy lover, I'm into those :)

The bear that you see in this first picture is very rare and known as the first clown bear, it's from 1909.

So i think this is a good introduction to the third floor : The bear floor !!!

If you want to know more about the Steiff bear, it was created by Richard Steiff in 1902 and presented at the Leipzig toy fair. When an american trader bought 3000 and brought them back to America, it gave him the name Teddy (like president Roosevelt). The Steiff bear is the world's first stuffed toy bear!

It seems Richard's inspiration came from the circus and bears that were shown at the time. It's the reason you could also find toys and stuffed bears with a muzzle.