What’s Happening at Brighton Toy and Model Museum?

The school holidays are upon us and for many parents that means hot and bothered kids lolling around the house complaining about being bored. Well, we think we have a solution! 

All through the summer, Brighton Toy and Model Museum will be opening on Mondays, meaning that we’ll now be open six days a week. On weekdays we open at ten, eleven on Saturdays. You can see our admission prices and a few details about our exhibits on our website. As well as a vast array of toys, models, puppets and games, we have air con and plenty of seats, just so you know!

Our next Playday takes place on August 21 and the theme is “The Jungle”. How cool is that? There will be jungly themed activities including arts and crafts, games, facepainting, and a story too. Activities take place from 2pm to 4.30pm and if your kids want to dress up as lions or tigers or bears (oh my!) then we certainly encourage that.

Our guided tours are still available on Thursday afternoons too. If you’re a particularly big fan of any of the toys or models that we have on display then come along for a free tour. They take in many of the aspects of the toys that we have on display, giving you details that it wasn’t possible to fit on the cards. The tours are particularly good if you have a special interest in something and you’d like a chat. You can ask somebody to show you around any time, but the scheduled tours take place on Thursday afternoons at three. (regular admission fees apply)

What's Happening in the Museum in December?

Our next PlayDay is on 13 December so I bet you’ll never guess what the theme is going to be. That’s right, IT’S CHRISTMAS!!!

We’ll be hosting an afternoon of festive fun with all our usual attractions, including face-painting, arts and crafts, toys to play with and a story teller. The story will naturally be on a Yuletide theme and the crafts will centre around making Christmas decorations, including the basics such as paper chains and snowflakes to garlands, angels and stars. Face-painting will be on a similarly festive theme, unless you want something else, we can paint you up to look like anything you want.

If you want to join in then you can come to the Brighton Toy and Model Museum any time between two and five. Children's Playdays are held every second Sunday of each month. Admission is £5 per child and groups of up to 4 children can bring an adult for free, any additional adults would have to pay the regular price of adult admission.

In other news, it’s not too late to book tickets for Harry’s Tricks. Harry’s Tricks play 1920's, 1930's and 1940's popular music from Britain and America. They are led by the unique vocal and guitar style of Mike Potter, who combines the influence of Fats Waller, Al Bowlly, Slim Gaillard and Billie Holiday. They’ll be playing in the museum from 7pm November 21. It’s a child friendly event so you can feel comfortable bringing the whole family. Tickets for the Harry’s Tricks performance will be £8.00 for adult audience members, £5.00 for children.

November's Playday Won't Be What You Expect

Brighton Toy and Model Museum’s Last Playday was a Hoot, a Scream, And a Bump in the Night

We had a great turn-out of visitors who all got into the dress-up spirit and enjoyed all kinds of creepy games and activities on a Halloween theme. November’s Playday is going to be the same, but different.

Because it’s taking place on the second Sunday of November you’ll be thinking fireworks and bonfires, gunpowder, treason and plot, right? Well, actually, you’d be wrong. As we haven’t had an opportunity to mark the occasion until now, we’ll be celebrating the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland.

Crafts will include colouring blow-ups of artwork by John Tenniel that was used in the first iterations of Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass, making masquerade masks and crafting sculptures from play-dough. As well as these activities there will be the other regular diversions that Playdays are known for. And, as always, if you feel like dressing up, you’re free to do so! We’ve always found that putting on a costume helps to create a fun atmosphere and lets you show off your haberdashery skills. So if you feel like being Alice, the Mad Hatter, a White Rabbit or even the Queen of Hearts, then November’s Playday is the place to let yourself go!

If you want to join in then you can come to the Brighton Toy and Model Museum any time between two and five. Children's Play-days are held every second Sunday of each month. Admission is £5 per child and groups of up to 4 children can bring an adult for free, any additional adults would have to pay the regular price of adult admission.

Another event that we’ll be hosting in the environs of the Museum will be a performance by Harry’s Tricks, playing popular British and American music from the height of the Jazz Age. We’ll be opening our doors at 7pm November 21, tickets for the night’s performance will be £8.00 for adult audience members, £5.00 for children. To get a taste of what Harry’s Tricks we’ve added a little video. Seeing the band live is an altogether different experience, especially in the setting of the Museum.

Ghastly Ghostly Goings-On Will Feature in this Month's PlayDay

It surely goes without saying that October’s Playday is going to be Halloween themed. Because Halloween’s so much fun! It’s always been a favourite with kids as there’s so much to do, with games, crafts, dressing up and scary stories. And that’s why we’re going to be pulling out all the stops to make our Halloween Playday extra spooky!

If you’ve been to one of our Playdays before, then you’ll know that we like to make the event special and different from the last. The staff dress up, there are stories, facepainting, crafts and toys to play with. Because of the Halloween theme in October there will be pumpkin classes where you can learn how to safely carve a Jack o’ Lantern, traditional Halloween games like Snap Apples, Nelson’s Eye and everyone’s favourite: Eating A Chocolate Bar Using A Knife And Fork While Wearing Gloves.

Unfortunately, because of the inherent mess involved in pumpkin carving, we won’t be doing that. On the other hand we will be helping design pumpkin templates and masks which children can wear or put on pumpkins to carve at home. (We were going to blame Health and Safety, but here at Brighton Toy and Model Museum we encourage putting sharp objects in sticky little hands, we just don’t want to have to clear it all up afterwards!)

Because we’re an inclusive bunch here we won’t just be sticking with the traditional British and American Halloween entertainments, we’ll be drawing Sugar Skull designs, facepainting, telling stories, and a host of other traditional Halloween inspired crafts and entertainment. To find out more, you’ll just have to come along! There’s no need to book in advance and you can turn up any time between two and five. Children's Play-days are held every second Sunday of each month. Admission is £5 per child and groups of up to 4 children can bring an adult for free, any additional adults would have to pay the regular price of adult admission.

FLYING SCOTSMAN RUNNING DAY AT THE BRIGHTON TOY & MODEL MUSEUM Saturday - 17th October 2015

Brighton Toy and Model Museum will be holding a train running day on the theme of "The Flying Scotsman” on Saturday October 17th. The Museum's "0" gauge layout will feature models of locomotives and trains which operated as "East Coast Joint Stock" and "Special Scotch Express" from 1862, and from 1924 under the LNER, as the "Flying Scotsman".  The museum’s finest 0 gauge models of this iconic train will feature on the day, these models include many rare examples not often seen running.  The Museum's refurbished 00 layout will also feature more recently manufactured representations of the period’s rolling stock and locomotives.

"The Flying Scotsman" ranks alongside "Mallard", "Concorde" and "QE 2" among the pride of British transport achievements, and it should not be forgotten that we have Sir William McAlpine to thank for  returning it to the UK, in 1973, following a tour of the USA. The Brighton Toy and Model Museum is proud to have Sir William as Honorary Patron. Next year the Museum celebrates its 25th year of being open to the public, a series of special events being planned.

As well as Running Days the museum will be hosting a wide range of events over our jubilee year including PlayDays, a new dolls house exhibit, live events, guided tours and parties. The week of the anniversary itself will start off with a private function to thank all the people who’ve supported us over the past 25 years and will end with a party where we can thank all of our visitors, and those who have enjoyed the museum and made that work worthwhile. In between those events we will be holding guided tours around the museum. We’re currently looking for suggestions from our visitors, telling us what they would most like to hear about. To submit your suggestion tweet us using the hashtag #mytoysuggests or write a comment on our facebook page.

The Museum is directly below Brighton mainline railway station. Admission for the Running Day is: Adult;£10, child ;£5.(see our website for regular admission costs)The Museum is open 10.30 to 5.00, the train running times on the day will be :11.00 to 1.00 and 2.30 to 4.30.
Tel 01273 749494 ( www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk. )

Once Upon A Dream In A Toy Museum

Brighton Toy and Model Museum is the venue for another Playday on Sunday, this time it will be all about myths, monsters, fairytales and fables. 

Monsters. Some Scary, Some Not So Much

The theme for Play-Days different every time. The last Play-Day held on 16th August was called "To Infinity and Beyond" and focused on space and science fiction. The dozens of children present that day had a lot of fun and we expect the same from the next event which will be held on 13th of September. The theme of this one will be fairytale and myths, the title is "Once upon a dream..." Expect to see Hansel and Gretel, ogres, monsters and many other fairy-tale characters helping out around the museum.

Playdays have been an on and off institution at Brighton Toy and Model museum for several years but in advance of our 25th anniversary, we are aiming to make them into a regular feature of the great variety of things that the venue has to offer to the local community.

The Play-Days are aimed at children aged between 3 and 12 years old. The activities on offer include face-painting, storytelling, arts and crafts, colouring sheets, building sets and plenty of other games. The volunteers of the Museum help the kids with their creation in a friendly atmosphere and everyone is invited to dress up according to the theme.

The children's Play-days are now held every second Sunday of each month from 2pm to 5pm. Admission is £5 per child and groups of up to 4 children can bring an adult for free, any additional adults would have to pay the regular price of adult admission.

Did you also know that it’s possible to book the Museum for corporate events or as a venue for your various functions? If you’re looking for a totally unusual place to hold a meeting, party, conference of stage any other kind of event, then talk to one of our managers in person, over the phone on 01273 749494 or email us at info@brightontoymuseum.co.uk for prices and availability.

Brighton Toy And Model Museum PlayDays Are Back For Good!

After an unwelcome hiatus thanks to circumstances beyond our control, Brighton Toy and Model Museum’s PlayDays are back, and they're a roaring success! 

 Thanks to our manager being unwell recently, we hadn’t the time or wherewithal to organise our popular PlayDays. But with the taking on of Nadege, a former volunteer and now our full time Events and Volunteers Manager we now have the driving force needed to make these events successful. Take for example our last PlayDay, held on 16th of August which attracted dozens of visitors. Themed around science fiction and space exploration, there were all kinds of activities for children of all ages to get involved in, including playsets, stories, facepainting, as well as arts & crafts.

Playdays are aimed at children of all ages, so young children are catered for just as much as bigger kids and tweens. Children need to bring along an adult to look after them but the adult gets their admission free making each play event quite a bargain.

Our next PlayDay will be held on 13th of September. It will be entitled “Once Upon A Dream” and the theme will be fairy-tale and myth, so if there are any Grimm, Disney or Hans Anderson characters that are a particular favourite in your house, why not dress up and come along? We promise any Satyrs or Ogres will be on their best behaviour (at least until closing time)!

Our volunteers and helpers will be adding to the theme by dressing up in costumes evocative of a life lived ‘happily ever after’ and we encourage all our visitors to get involved too. Of course it’s not mandatory, we just really love fancy dress and think everyone else probably just needs an excuse to enjoy it as well!

Now that Nadege has taken over the PlayDays’ organisation, we’re happy to make it official that they will now be held regularly on the second Sunday of every month, with a different theme each time. There’s no need to book in advance, just come along and join in. Tickets are £5 for children, their first adult goes free (however, extra adults will need to pay the regular museum entry fee) and as the event is held in the museum itself, you can look at all the exhibits as well as taking part in the special activities laid on.

We love our PlayDays and are naturally quite excited about the next one, so we hope to see you then!

We're Bringing Playdays Back!

Now that Nadège is on the case as our Events Manager, we're able to get back into the swing of having regular Play Days again. So, on Sunday 16th of August we will be having our first Playday of 2015, and, in honour of NASA taking those awesome pictures of Pluto this event will be themed on Space Exploration and Science Fiction. Expect papercrafts, art, stories, play and most importantly FUN! All based around rockets and aliens, astronauts and space stations.
Thanks Nadege, we couldn't even planet without you!

Thanks To All Who Came To Our Christmas Playday

We here at the Toy Museum just wanted to say a big thank you to all the visitors who came along to our Christmas themed Playday last weekend.
We all had such a great time welcoming all the visitors, children and adults, who all seemed to be having a great time with the trains, making Christmas cards, snowflakes and glittery gifts, we enjoyed ourselves so much it was hard to get the last visitors to leave, but leave they must. So we hope that they will all come along to the next Playday which is scheduled for February, a time of year  when thoughts turn to love. And Spring. And warmer weather.
In the meantime, all of the staff and volunteers at the museum would like to wish all of our visitors the best of the season, a Happy New Year and most of all, that you get lots of fun toys in your stockings this Christmas!
And just to remind you that Brighton Toy and Model Museum will be close from the 23rd of december until the 26th and then again for New Year from the 28th until the second of January.

Christmas Playday At The Toy Museum.

December’s Christmas Themed Playday Sunday 7th 2pm - 5pm

It’s almost time for another of Brighton Toy and Model Museum’s Playdays. December’s Playday takes its theme from Christmas so there will be lots of seasonal things for kids to get up to.
As usual, there will be toys to play with, arts and crafts to create, including greetings cards and a story performed by one of our fascinating storytellers. As well as these activities there will also be a facepainter making children into elves, princesses, pirates and penguins and a Loom-Bandologist teaching us how to make beautiful pieces just in time to give us plenty of ideas for things to make for Christmas gifts. Each child can take their bracelet or Loom gift away with them.


The Playday is on Sunday December 7th and starts in the museum at 2pm and finishes at 5pm, although the doors will be open throughout. Admission is £6 for this event and includes craft materials, loom bands and light refreshments. Naturally, since the Playday is taking place within the museum, children have access to all of the exhibits as well as taking part in activities. This includes our model railways, stuffed toys, construction kits and model aircraft. As usual, the museum shop will also remain open, with a great selection of toys and models, including pre-owned trains and trackwork, Star Wars toys, buses, cars and tanks as well as new toys and seasonal gifts.

Each child or group of up to four children will be entitled to have one adult guest come along free to accompany them. The Playday is targeted at children from 3 to 12 years of age, children under 8 will have to bring someone over 18 to look after them. Faces cost an extra pound to paint and some activities may cost a little extra if additional materials or products are used. Healthy refreshments will be made available too.

Admission to this event is half price for Junior Members.

Museum Junior Membership is £20 per annum for children and includes access to running days and other special events hosted by the museum including free access to the museum on all ordinary days of business. If a Junior Member brings along an adult, on an ‘ordinary’ day, who isn’t also a member then the adult pays £1.00 instead of the normal admission price of £4.50 (£3.50 for students and senior citizens).

Children's Play Day!

Brighton Toy and Model Museum is hosting a Children's Play Day from 2 - 5pm on Sunday 5th October.

It's going to be a great day with a variety of toys to play with (including train sets!), facepainting, storytelling with the Celestial Storyteller and arts & crafts! Healthy light refreshments will be available.
Have a look here at some photos and drawings from one of our Children's Days last year.
£5 per child.

Don't miss out on the fun!

Our second Childrens day of 2013

David Lucas reading us his story

It's round two of our special Children's Play Day event. Another fun day of art activities, stories and trainsets. We had three major events: Arts and crafts where visitors could make their own jumping Jacks, a drawing/story area where children's author David Lucas gave us advice on making characters and then read us one of his fabulous books, the train sets which eventually grew to take over a good quarter of the museum and a second story area in the Puppet Corner.

TRAINS! TRAINS! TRAINS!

There was some serious business going on at the trainsets; how many bridges could be built? Could we get a track and road system intermingling? Most importantly though; How many crashes could we make? The answer; Lots! Not a single train managed to stay on its rails for the whole day. Altogether we are very proud of our visitors ingenuity for destruction.

Our French Interns really enjoyed the train set

We admire this young man's Thomas the Tank engine footwear

With destruction comes construction and at the crafts table many a Jumping Jack came into being. Child and Parent worked as one to make their new toys to fantastic success. Coming in a range of designs, the table was very popular and a great opportunity for parent and child to work together.

Dad and Daughter working together

Mum and Daughter are not to be out done and also work together

The main event though was the drawing and story sessions with David Lucas. He read us one of his wonderful stories and gave us a wide range of advice on writing stories and making characters for them. Our visitors (and not a few of our volunteers) created plenty of amazing pictures.

David Lucas tells us some of his secrets!

An All mixed up Unicorn, Cheesy flower and firey mouse!

King of the Clouds

A Skeleton Pirate hangs 10

A man turning into a rainbow and a clown/duck/alligator? I love it!

As an added bonus and to keep us all energized for the day cake, fruit and drinks were available. I can happily attest to their deliciousness!

Hornby Children's Play Day - 19th of May

As part of the Frank Hornby 150 project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, we hosted a Children's Play Day event featuring a host interactive activities.

The museum was divided into four themed activity areas: Art, Craft, Meccano and Trains. In each section, volunteers led a gaggle of very excited children through activities involving toys inspired by the legendary British toymaker, Frank Hornby. Activities included making paper crafted airplanes and helicopters, colouring sheets (designed by the museum's founder Chris Littledale and project coordinator Eric Baird), sponge painting etc. The most popular activity, with the kids, parents and grandparents alike, involved running the wooden toy train sets laid out on tracks across the floor of the museum. Not only were the activities fun, but also educational, good for developing children's imagination, focus and co-ordination.

As a special treat, the children were allowed  to take home all their work, including paint-your-own ceramic money boxes. A lot of them said that they were looked forward to using them for storing their treasures at home.

To finish it all, there was a delicious Frank's Birthday cake for all to enjoy and regain energy after hours of playing.

It was a joy to see museum's arches filled with excitement and activity this Sunday!

The event was run almost entirely by museum volunteers. Thank you all for participating!