Istanbul Toy Museum

İstanbul Oyuncak Müzesi

Istanbul Toy Museum was founded by poet/author Sunay Akın on 23 April 2005. The museum which houses the most favorite examples of toy history, spanning from 1700’s to today is located in a historical mansion.

Istanbul Toy Museum was established with toys that were purchased from auctions and antique shops for over 40 countries in 20 years by Sunay Akın. The museum offers the history of world to the visitors with more fun and catchy learning methods. For example an attempt to reach the moon which is established in space toys section and industrial revolution toys which is established in train toys section are described by the language of toys. With this in mind the decoration of the museum was designed by stage design artist Ayhan Doğan. With the distinction of being founded by a poet and designed by a stage design artist, the museum constitutes to be the first in the world.

One of the most important features of the museum is embracing the families with all its members. With this feature the museum is the place for three generations to spend time together and where they can share happiness. Grandfathers/grandmothers, fathers/mothers and grandchildren enjoy to tell about their periods to each other while hitting the roads towards their childhoods in a time machine. The museums hallways resonate with the sounds that describe the childhood memories with the sentence “I had it”.

The gap about the toy museums in Turkey was filled with Istanbul Toy Museum and Istanbul Toy Museum has gained an importance place among its examples in the world. On November 2012 TOYCO Istanbul meeting (European Union of Toy and Children Museums) was held by Istanbul Toy Museum in Turkey for the first time. Istanbul Toy Museum has thus been a pioneer about establishing children and toy museums in the world and made Istanbul to win the title “the capital of toy museums”.

Istanbul Toy Museum became a model for the other toy museums to be established in our country. In 2011 Antalya Toy Museum (belongs to Antalya Metropolitan Municipality) and in 2013 Gaziantep Play and Toy Museum (belongs to Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality) opened their doors to the  visitors under the counseling and the curating of Sunay Akın who is the founder of Istanbul Toy Museum.