Monday Motion In The Museum

Did you come to the Kinetic Carousel event we held on Monday?

Last week Brighton Toy and Model Museum opened specially on a Monday. It was half term and we had a Brighton Science event so we thought 'why not open all day?' And it was a great success for all involved, and, as often happens, the adults actually outnumbered the children!

The Kinetic Carousel is a rubber band powered toy which, once you have wound it up, spins wildly. The toy is designed to achieve several principles of science, including stored potential energy being converted into mechanical energy, and the spectrum. The theory being that if you colour in the roof all the colours of the rainbow, when it spins they merge together and appear white.

The design in the manual suggested the traditional horse motif for the outside of the carousel, but Brighton's children are a little more imaginative than that, so, we had a variety of carousels, including Abstract Pattern Carousels, and a designer who clearly had little faith in the project, who created a Flying Pig Carousel.

We regularly take part in local and national events, including Museums at Night, Brighton Science Festival, Half Term and school holiday events, and exhibitions by the students of the Brighton MET college.

A Pie And A Pint And Museums At Night

We just wanted to say a huge ‘thank you’ to Higgidy Pies and Bedlam Brewery for the generous donations they’re making for our Museums at Night event, Two Halves of Guinness.

The idea for a pie, a pint and a performance came from Trevor Littledale, the star of the show (and our founder Chris’ brother) and since we all at the museum love to watch a show with a pie and a pint in our hands, we thought this was fab!

A Life Examined

The show centres on the well beloved actor Sir Alec Guinness’ introspection at the time of the release of Star Wars. Sir Alec himself was in no way fond of the movie, and worried that it would be his lasting swansong. He dreaded being remembered for a part he had no liking for. He’d had a career which had lasted several decades, and included roles such as the entire D'Ascoyne family in Kind Hearts and Coronets, the eponymous Man in the White Suit and Colonel Nicholson in Bridge on the River Kwai, the role for which he won his first Academy Award. 

Being immortalised as a mystic who spouted “florid, breathless and embarrassing” lines was something that made him “shrivel up a little.”

Guinness had converted to Catholicism in 1956 and tended to consider the role of a Jedi mystic something of a fraud. He said in an interview with Talk magazine while promoting his autobiography ‘A Positively Final Appearance’ that it was his idea to kill off Ben because: "I just couldn't go on speaking those bloody awful, banal lines. I'd had enough of the mumbo jumbo."

The show Two Halves of Guinness is Brighton Toy and Model Museum’s Museums at Night event. In the past we’ve had great fun with Museums at Night. It’s an opportunity for museums to do something a little out of the ordinary to appeal to people who might not necessarily be interested in museums and galleries to come along and get involved. One year your correspondent bought up all the Barbies and Sindys he could find in every charity shop so that we could make dresses, give them makeovers and make them a little more relatable.

It’s important that we thank our sponsors too. What would a pie, a pint and a performance be without a pie and a pint?

Higgidy Pies are a local pie company who make a variety of delicious pies and pastries, and they’ve given us enough pies (both veggie and meaty) to sustain the hungriest of audience member for the evening. (check out their website, they’re not stingy with their recipes for all kinds of pies, pastries and confectionary either!)

Likewise, Bedlam Brewery, again a local company making fine bitters,ales, and lagers who’re helping us out by letting us have crates of the stuff to share with our visitors on the night.

We really are grateful, as it’s contributions like these that let us do things that would otherwise be outside our scope thanks to expense and inconvenience. You guys are great and we’re looking forward to putting on many more events with your help.

To book your ticket, please follow this eventbrite link

Alive with Music, History, Science and Theatre

We’re pleased to announce our summer/autumn schedule of events. After such a successful and full spring/summer we needed a little break, but now we’re back with a completely different flavour. During the Brighton Festival Fringe we hosted a number of different shows, including comedy, magic and authors. The staff played a huge role in making this a successful Fringe, with many of the shows selling out. Buoyed up and excited with that under our belts, now on with the new.

Brighton Toy and Model Museum is now working closely with Folk Room, a part of Folk Room Records, hosting many of their signings’ live events in our upper arch. The space is perfect for unplugged folk as it is so intimate, and the acoustics so rich that many previous performers have commented on what a great place to play it is.

All the information on the performances from August through to November can be found on our Facebook Events Page, but for quick reference they are:

*August 24, Jess Morgan
*September 7, Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith
*September 22, Ewan McLennan
*October 6, Emily Mae Winters
*November 9, Mairearad & Anna

Folk Room have done so much it’s been incredible. It’s a privilege to work with people who have such commitment and dedication to folk music.

Heritage Open Day

As well as these fantastic gigs, we’re also putting on several other events which should be of interest to all, not just those who are folk fans. Firstly we’re putting on anther Heritage Open Day on September 15 where you will be able to take a guided tour around the museum by people who know much more about the building and its history than just its toys. You can find out about the building’s history as a stables and depot for Bass Breweries, how it was bought two and a half decades ago by our founder Chris Littledale and converted into the museum as it is now. And of course you’ll find out about our favourite pieces in the collections. Tours will take place at 5.45pm 6.15pm and 6.45pm

Brighton Science Festival

If heritage were to have an opposite, it would surely be looking into the future, and that’s exactly what he try to do when we host Brighton Science Festival’s 'Kids In Science' events. This spring we had an absolutely fantastic time with our balloon car races and making moving images. With that in mind, we’re especially keen to open our door yet again to the kids, and their parents, who make this such a great event. Brighton Science Festival exists to show that the sciences can be fun, and make up every part of our lives, rather than being the preserve of the chemistry or physics laboratory. This autumn's Kids in Science events will take place on October 22, with a 'Kinetic Carousel's' theme.

Two Halves of Guinness

And Last, but far from least, we have the intimate portrayal of Sir Alec Guinness in Two Halves of Guinness, a one man show by Trevor Littledale. The play looks, from his own point of view, at the career of Alec Guinness shortly after the release of Star Wars. He worried that this blockbuster might define his career, leaving his performances in films such as The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Man in the White Suit, and Kind Hearts and Coronets forgotten.

For all booking details visit our Facebook events page or call us on 01273 749494 for further details.

The Brighton Toy and Model Museum Heritage Open Day

As part of Heritage Open Days, Brighton Toy and Model Museum threw open its doors to visitors and provided free after hours tours of the museum, its exhibits and architecture last week.

We welcomed several groups of people who were led on tours by Eric and

Jan, who pointed out the rarities and unique artefacts that we are lucky enough to be custodians of. Not only did we learn that The Princess Elizabeth model train was top of the range for Hornby but we also learned that it was so expensive to buy that HP agreements were available to customers to buy it. We also learned that the buildings used to be the stable and cellar for the Bass Brewery, the holders of the first ever trade mark. They trade marked their symbol, the red triangle so that everybody, whether literate or not, was able to identify genuine Bass beer.

The photos in this article show the guests that our new Deputy Manager, Jan showed around. Jan has only been with us here at Brighton Toy and Model Museum for 4 months and this was her first event guiding visitors through the museum and telling us about its history. 

A Human Touch

Many of the items on display have a local or human connection. If you’re familiar with local Sussex landmarks you’ll recognise many of the features on the OO model layout, from the Wilmington Long Man to the Clayton railway tunnel entrance, designed to look like a mediaeval castle. We even have a working model of the East Hill Cliff funicular railway in Hastings.

Exhibits which don’t conform to the local aspect generally fall into the category of ‘human connection’. Most of the exhibits were collected by donors and contributors as a part of their own drive to build up a collection of their own which is not only so good, but so big that they no longer have space to display it themselves, and rather than packing it away, they choose to share it through the auspices of the museum. That human touch isn’t limited to the way the toys and models were collected. If you’ve been to the museum, you’ll probably have noticed that we don’t have a huge collection of modern toys, despite their being incredibly collectible and popular. The reason for this is

mass production. Rather than have toys that were produced in huge volumes which are still available in collectors markets and vintage shops in any town throughout the land, we concentrate on toys that were built by toymakers and craftspeople who would have taken the time and patience to hone their skills building miniature engines, sewing miniature clothes or painting miniature figures.

But what else did we learn from our Heritage Open Day?

• Frank Hornby sent his sons to school, one in France, one in Germany, so they would be familiar with the markets when the Hornby and Meccano brands expanded into Europe.
  
• Dolls were deliberately made with emotionless, blank expressions because infant mortality was so high that it would seem inappropriate to have a laughing doll, just in case.
  
• Tri Ang was established by three brothers whose surname was Lines. 
  
• Spot On were made by Tri Ang, produced to be in perfect scale to one another (1:42) where previous cars, trucks and vans had all been approximately the same size. 
  
• Hilary Page at Kiddicraft invented the interlocking brick, a design which was later ‘adopted’ by Kirk Kristiansen in a toy which became universally known as Lego.
  
• The Marklin model bridge in the centre of the O gauge display is the only known surviving example of this Eiesenbahnbrucke. 
  
• The model of the Kamov co-axial helicopter was built on the original designs supplied by Kamov themselves, despite the fact that the Cold War was ongoing at the time. 
  
• The Kamov 'Hormone' as it was known by NATO, and all the other large scale model aircraft you can see hanging from the museum ceiling are fully functional and have flown.
  

The Toy Museum will be playing host to many more events and using our space as a venue for installations and performances in future. We do our best to keep everyone informed about what we do, but to be sure to get all the latest news, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to get all the news first.