They’re Baa-aaack!
The good news: as of April 28, 2007, the Bandai Museum will be officially back in business. It has relocated to “Omocha no Machi” (“Toy Town”), the site of Bandai’s now-dormant domestic design and manufacturing operations. (Not to mention the location where the third specimen of Garada K7, the world’s rarest Japanese character toy, was discovered.)
The bad news: it’s located in Tochigi prefecture, roughly 2.5 hours outside of Tokyo, and apparently only open on weekends and holidays, meaning it won’t be nearly as accessible as the former location in Chiba.
The weird news: in addition to displaying some 7,000 items covering the “history of Japanese toys,” it will include a number of the inventions of Thomas Alva Edison, a super-deformed rendition of which appears to be the museum’s new mascot character. What would the famed American inventor make of seeing his creations displayed alongside Jumbo Machinders and a life-sized mockup of Mobile Suit Gundam….?
P.S.: A sampling of some of the toys displayed at the former Bandai Museum in Matsudo, Chiba can be seen here.
