Easter Holidays Are the Perfect Time to Visit Brighton Toy and Model Museum

Brighton Toy and Model Museum are currently running an Easter Bunny Hunt; children under 16 are encouraged to find as many toy rabbits and hares as they can in order to win varying levels of membership at the museum, from a full family membership to a day pass.

Entry to the museum is free dependent of a visit to the museum at the usual rate of admission and winners will be drawn out of the hat on April 30^th.

Go along to the museum, enter the competition and enjoy admission at the current rate. Unfortunately the price of admission is due to increase after the Easter break, however, the museum staff and trustees are planning to introduce new concessions when the increases are introduced. Look at the website or the museum’s facebook page for information as it is released.

A Bunny Thing is Hoppening at the Museum this Easter

To join in the Easter celebrations and also commemorate 150 years of Alice in Wonderland, we’re all going mad here and offering annual family, junior and day passes as prizes to children aged 16 and younger, who can find all of the rabbits in the museum.

That’s right, just come to Brighton Toy and Model Museum between the end of March and the end of April, explore our collections and exhibits and count all the toy and model rabbits you can find). We don’t like to split hairs, so hares are included in the final count too (although we’re not counting pictures of rabbits and hares). It’s as simple as that. If you can find and count up all the rabbits and hares and get the same as us then you could win a free entry to the museum for a year, a free junior annual membership or a free day pass to the museum.

Just one of the Bunnies

The competition opens for entries on 30th March and the last entries will be accepted on 30th April 2015.

The winner will be drawn from the correct or nearest entries on 1st May.

You could win:

• 1st Prize: Family Membership valid one year
• 2nd Prize: Junior membership valid for year
• 3rd Prize: Family DAY pass (2 adults + up to 3 children)

Competition entry is free, however, you’ll need to have bought a ticket to the museum in order to count the rabbits and hares. Entry is open to children aged 16 and younger.

We’ve been around and around on several rabbit hunting expeditions and if you can find the same number as us, your name gets put in the hat and we will then draw the winners for first, second and third prizes.

Good luck!

Brighton Toy and Model Museum will be closed to visitors on Saturday 18th of April.

Brighton Toy and Model Museum will not be open to visitors on April 18th because of a prior booking. The museum shop and Visitor Information Point will however be open, so someone will be able to help those who’ve lost their way or need advice on other attractions and places of interest throughout the Brighton and Hove area.

Because we want to avoid disappointing people who love the museum and other potential visitors, we are discussing the possibility of opening to the public on the day after this closure, Sunday April 19th. Do feel free to call us on 01273 749494 to confirm if you’re in any doubt.

We regret that this inconvenience will cause to our friends and visitors and hope that anyone who is going to miss out on a visit to the museum on that date will be able to make alternative arrangements for another day.

If you have a group who are interested in taking advantage of Brighton Toy and Model Museum’s availability as a venue for parties, group outings or any other sort of special event then please do get in touch either by calling us on 01273 749494 or alternatively emailing us on info@brightontoymuseum.co.uk 

Please keep an eye out for updates re: alternative openings, we should be able to let you know very soon.

Anyone For The One Show?

Owen as Compo in
Last of the Summer Wine

If you’re in Brighton on Monday 23rd March, how about coming along to Brighton Toy and Model Museum and getting your face on TV?

The BBC’s flagship primetime sofa based discussion programme The One Show will be filming a piece using our mural of a Pullman as a backdrop. Perhaps they’ll come inside for a look around? Who knows?

Bill Owen, best known for his portrayal of Compo in the BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine will be the subject of a profile on the One Show. Owen, who died in 1999, was famous as the Nora Batty chasing scruffbag lothario alongside Peter Sallis as Clegg (also known for his voicing of Wallace in the Aardman animated movies featuring Wallace and Grommet) and Brian Wilde as Foggy who famously played Mr Barraclough in Ronnie Barker’s prison comedy Porridge.

Owen as Mack  with Daphne Anderson
and Maria Remusat at The Royal Court

Owen was born in London as William Robotham in 1914 but moved to Brighton. However, his work commitments as an actor of stage and screen meant that he was often on the Brighton Belle commuting between the City and the sea, hence The One Show’s interest in our mural. Hard as it is to imagine now, Owen was once worried that his role of Mack the Knife would typecast him as a vicious hardman. In his own words: "Down in Brighton, where I live, I even get bus conductors calling me that."

A producer from the BBC called us here at the museum to see if filming would be possible. They asked about the mural and explained the reasons why they wanted to film outside our premises, however, we don’t anticipate them filming inside the museum which is staffed but not open to the public on a Monday.

So, do come along to the Museum, walk up and down, look interested in the museum and the tourist information we provide and maybe you, yes YOU, could appear fleetingly in the final segment.

Well That Was Quite An Event!

Brighton Toy and Model Museum were proud to host a very successful corporate function on Thursday night.

Local engineering firm AMA took advantage of the space we have to offer here at the museum to hold an evening’s entertainment. Attended by engineers and architects, the evening went like clockwork. There was music, the trains ran on time and there was a special appearance by our resident steam loco impersonator extraordinaire, Chris Littledale!

We were able to host their evening, not only providing the museum space as a venue but also laying on a pre-paid bar offering both drinks and hors d’oeuvres as well as bringing in silver service waiting.

If you have an event you’d like to put on which you think would be enhanced by the unique exhibits within the museum along with the services we can put on, including licensed bar, waiting and entertainments then just get in touch. Call on 01273 749494, email tig@brightontoymuseum.co.uk or drop in for a visit where one of our staff will be more than happy to show you around and explain the benefits of holding your event with us.

As Heard On BBC Sussex

If you’re listening to the BBC’s Sussex station then you may have heard one Mr Chris Littledale waxing lyrical about the toy museum, its history and the exhibits that it currently has on display.

Simon Jenkins, the BBC Sussex reporter telephoned Chris this morning and asked for an interview. Chris leapt at the chance to take advantage of this fantastic piece of media exposure and so Messrs Jenkins and Littledale spent a few hours walking around and talking about the museum, its history, and the many toys it has on display.

By all accounts Simon Jenkins was extremely interested in everything that the museum has, the trains, the Corgi cars, the stuffed toys, in fact everything that you know the museum for.

If you would like to hear the interview then you can hear it throughout the day today (19/1/2015) and tomorrow and then on the BBC’s Listen Again service for another week.

If you don’t get a chance to listen to the interview though, don’t worry. You can always come along to the museum and see what it is that we have on display that gets everybody so excited! 

Hello and Welcome to 2015!

We hope you had a good Christmas and New Year and that you’re looking forward to an even better year in 2015.

Here at the toy museum we've got a lot to look forward to and can’t wait to tell you all about it. We’re looking forward to a new website which we hope will make the museum a much easier resource to use. With clearer layout and new links to the Toys in the Community project and educational resources we think that it will really be something we can be proud of.

Biscuit Tins As A Zoo Train

Speaking of the Toys in the Community project, most of the filming has been completed, we've interviewed young and old, people from abroad and those who've barely ever left the Sussex region and from all walks of life to hear about what they remembered about their toys. There are a couple of interviews left to do and then Andrea will be editing them all down and putting them up online in advance of the book and mobile exhibition that will be appearing as a part of the Toys in the Community project. When I say there are a couple of interviews left to do, that doesn't include the interviews that we’re hoping to conduct during Brighton’s Festival Fringe. If you keep an eye out for the bathing machine the Fringe has generously offered to let us borrow, you could still be an interviewee if you have any toys you’re particularly keen to tell us about.

The Corgi Car Extention

If you are still interested in sharing your memories of toys and you live in the Brighton area you can still get in touch. We can film or record your words at home, in the museum or anywhere else that suits you. You just have to let us know. To book a time to talk about your memories of toys and play you just need to contact Andrea on 01273 749494 or email on memories@brightontoymuseum.co.uk and we’ll take it from there.

 As well as these exciting new developments it’s important to remember that we’ll still be doing the our tried and tested events too; the museum’s booked up right through to Spring with school visits.

I took a look around the museum earlier on today and noticed a number of new things that weren’t here last year. For instance there’s a new exhibit of biscuit tins. These days we’re only used to biscuits being sold in square or oval tins for special occasions so it’s surprising to see the array of different tins it used to be possible to put biscuits into: aeroplanes, mushrooms, birds’ nests, even a steam loco pulling a number of carriages!

Double O gauge Funicular Railway

Opposite the biscuit tins we've built a new cabinet which is going to facilitate our growing display of Corgi Toys. I spoke to Glenn, the owner of the exhibit who was setting out the new cars. Over 20 years collecting Corgi Toys means that he is able to share hundreds of cars and trucks through the museum. Many of them are special editions, Corgi exclusives or export editions which come in different colours, have different features or are in many other ways special and unique.

As well as the new exhibits, it’s also good to see some of the older exhibits’ refurbishments are nearing their completion. The 00-gauge train diorama is coming on, featuring as it now does a few local sites of interest such as the Hastings Funicular Railway and the Long Man of Wilmington.

I’d just like to add that everyone here is missing our fantastic museum manager Tigger. She’s under the weather and hasn’t been able to make it in to the museum recently so everyone here would like to take the opportunity to wish her a speedy recovery. Get well soon Tig!