As announced by Bandai, opening April 28 in Tochigi prefecture
is the Toy Town Bandai Museum. This new museum will be based within
the Bandai Collection Center, which has been used as a management
center for Bandai's collection since 2003. They estimate 30,000
people will visit during the first year of operation.
The Museum consists mainly of 5 areas:
Toy History Museum - Consists of some 6,000 foreign and domestic
pieces on display from Bandai's 28,000-item toy collection.
Showcases toys made during Europe's Industrial Revolution and
traditional Japanese toys, the revival of Japan's toy industry
after the war with export merchandise, the birth of character
merchandising & TV games, to the modern era.
Edison Museum - Boasts approximately 300 of Thomas Edison's
inventions.
Project exhibit space - 1,000 valuable & rare railroad models
that are hard-to-find these days.
Hall - At the entrance of the Museum is the 6 meter RX-78-2 Gundam
bust and a Museum shop with toys and science education materials
related to the collection.
Outdoors space - Near the entrance, is the largest steam automobile
in Japan (the 1919-era, British-made "Pendle Princess"). In the
lawn garden, they also have a 1/6 scale mini version of the Bandai
Express electric railway gasoline 101 type, discontinued in
1969.
http://www.bandai.co.jp/releases/J2007040501.html
http://www.bandai-museum.jp/
Frm Gunota