“You’re past the age of playing with toys.” I still remember that moment when I threw away my toys and dolls that filled my room. Toys were always a lovely items when we were young. However, we ended up saying good-bye to the toys that had been with us in our childhood. Then, where are our toys now? Here is an enormous collection of toys and old items from a generation that Mr. Hyun (Hyun Tae-Joon), a toy collector, had collected for ten years. Now, all you need is to have only 2,000 won and be ready to meet the toys that wait for you in the Pollala Museum.
Say Pollala
If you first visit the Pollala, you would say “Pollala” the word Mr. Hyun made that means it is so happy that one doesn’t know what to do. In the Pollala museum, there are about 20,000 items from a variety of domestic toys to foreign figures and plastic models. It took about a year to arrange what he collected. This collection makes you see the whole changes that took place in toys as well as recall childhood with a lot of old items that keep the memory. Because here are all kinds of items that contain children’s dreams at that time, it is called “a treasure house of toys.”
Display Children's Dreams
When I came in the Pollala, I felt strange because a great deal of toys in the glass stared at me just as they were alive. So I carefully looked into them for a long time. One of the most surprising things for me was that in the girl’s toys corner, there were a pretty mimi doll, a Barbie doll loved by most Korean girls in the mid-80’s and 90’s. While I was happy to meet them again recalling memories of childhood, I was sorry to them since they couldn’t sleep on a girl’s bed anymore. But soon, I could meet other toys playing with me when I was young, such as LEGO, a game boy made by Nintendo and a sticker of Pikachu, (A character of Japanese animation, Poket Monster) including cheap plastic toys in a stationery store. In addition to that, there are even various toys that are older than me and might be the popular toys our parents loved so much. With these lovely toys, each word Mr. Hyun wrote on the toys makes you laugh, which is the real charm of this collection.
Back to the 20th Century
After turning the toy corner, you will see a variety of daily goods as well as toys in the twentieth century. When I saw the old items matchbox, stamps, books, and magazines easily seen in those days, I felt the history dwelling in them somehow. Especially, one of the most impressive things for me was junk food most of us liked to eat. It was also interesting to see photos of popular stars from the 1980s and 1990s on the goods. Also, there is an opportunity to go back to that time, enjoying old games we loved playing in childhood. Nowadays the items and goods could be only looked at as the thing that stimulates some memory in childhood, but that could be a relic of another age that helps the later generations catch the current culture trend.
Toys for Adults
“The Pollala museum is a great dating course for couples tired of their love,” Mr. Hyun said. Actually, however, this is no place only for couples or children but for adults who regard themselves as adults. In order to become an adult, anyone has to undergo parting with their toys. But they have lost the memory in childhood and even innocence of childhood naturally. Where is our lost time? What is the frame of adult we have made? You will find the answer in the “Pollala” spirit contained in his collection.
