The Canik Toy Museum, one of the world's leading toy museums, is offering children the opportunity to have fun, while also taking adults on a historical journey.
There are around 1,000 toys in the categories of "traditional," "fabrication," "foreign," "antique" and "domestic" in the museum, which was established in the Canik district of northern Turkey's Samsun. The well-known poet Sunay Akın, also the founder of the Istanbul Toy Museum, provided consultancy on the museum's concept.
The oldest toy in the museum is from the 18th century. Also, many different and valuable works such as the first toy car produced by Ford in 1920 as well as the first teddy bear produced in Germany in 1903 are exhibited.
Having been opened to the public in 2018, the museum offers quick response (QR) codes that help visitors listen to the story of the toys from Sunay Akın's voice.
"The museum consists of toys from Sunay Akın's collection, with toys collected from auctions in 25 different countries, and auctions and purchases from antique dealers," museum director Gülay Uslu said.
"Due to the epidemic, our museum was closed for a long time. We have hosted approximately 7,500 visitors since August. Families and children can visit our museum together for free, as on April 23, National Sovereignty and Children's Day and other special days," she added.
Oğuzhan Öztürk, a father of three visiting from Ordu with his family, said that they saw the sign of the toy museum and came to visit the museum with his family in an unplanned manner.
"It's a good thing that we came. It caught my attention more than my children's. It was really nostalgic for me to see the toys that I played with in my childhood. The voiceovers about the toys are very nice, introductory and instructive," he said.
"I have realized that toys have a philosophy, they are sometimes used as a propaganda tool. It created an awareness that the toy can also be used as such a tool. I thank all those who contributed to the establishment of this museum," he added.
Expressing that he had never been to a toy museum before, "My wife said it was in Istanbul, but this is Turkey's largest toy museum, in terms of the number and quality of toys. When we see toys made in the 1850s, one naturally travels back to the past," he said
"Thinking about the number of hands that have handled the toys is impressive. I didn't think it would interest me this much," he added.
