Engineers and Nostalgia belong to different parellels

I was privileged enough to be part of the entourage that was invited to the Mint Museum of Toys, on the eve of my birthday, coutesy of my client. After a sumptuous dinner spread and plied with a lot of wine, we were given a private tour of the Museum.

Housed in a 5-story building along Seah Street, just opposite Raffles Hotel, the museum holds about 5000 pieces of the private collection by avid toy collector, Chang Yang Fa. Some of these antiques can be traced back to toy makers dating back to more than a century, from more than 25 countries, yet most of which are still in mint condition. Some of the iconic playthings include 1903 Steiff bear, a Batman dispatched in Superman packaging by mistake, a 1930s plush Mickey with creator Walt Disney's signature on its sole, and Golliwogs that were banned because of its perceived racial insensitiveness.




Allow me to digress from my story just so that I can make an insignificant, neutral-toned interjection that my client came from the IT industry, and to simplify my point, the party is pre-dominantly attended by engineers. Computer engineers, software-something-engineers, just engineers in general.

At first the tour didn't generate a lot of intereast amongst the group who made polite nods and lame attempt at small talk during it. Not because the displays were anything less than impressive, but let's just say that toy collection is a very niche past time, and even then, the most avid of toy collectors usually specialize in a particular line of toys, that they can relate to. I would know. So the bunch of engineers were basically just standing around clutching the stem of their tall wine glasses and making feeble attempts to crack some jokes.

Simply put, nostalgia and the historical significance of all these pop-culture relics on display were lost on the herd of C++ professionals present. It was not until the Operations manager started rolling out the value (very very high) of individual items of all these pieces, that engineers around me jolted to attention.

Operations Manager: "This Robot that you see in the display, it's now worth USD$30,000"

Engineer: "Where, where, where? I want to see the $13,000 robot." (Takes a picture for keepsake)I take picture to tell my son so that he can keep his robot.

Operations Manager: "This piece that I'm currently showing is the only one that you'll ever see in public display. The only other 2 in the world remains in private collection."

Engineer: "Is this expensive too? I want to see all the expensive pieces. Bring us to see the most expensive one."

Engineer in symphony:
-"How come this kind of things also can be so expensive ah?"
-"If I had known, I'd ask my mother to keep all my toys."
-"How much is the most expensive toy here? Bring us to see the most expensive one"

Dear engineers, can I just roll my eyes at you?

(i) Out of the 1000 toys that you have, you will probably only have 1 that is worth that much. And only a truly passionate toy lover would be discerning enough to spot it. Those drool-filled puzzles and plastic pirated spiderman figures that you bargain off the Pasar Malam at Chinatown, they might even be tossed out after being excavated by archaelogists 10,000 years later. It will only probably be worth something if human being morph into creatures with tentacles and are born with inverted fishbowls over our heads.

(ii) Toys and comics might just just junk to you, it is in many conscious or subconscious way, a reflection of the pop-culture and mass sentiments during the period. Did you know the implications of having a superman character during World War II? Did you know why the procelain monkey figurines from Hong Kong were patterned with flower prints that is faintly remniscent of the British country side? Did you know the social implications of a Golliwog?
Contrary to what you think, the showcasing of toys from the "good old days" doens't mean that "the rich culture of the past is dead". Culture never dies. It moves on, it changes form, and the shift from wooden, tin and cloth toys to the mass manufacture of plastic toys is a clear indication of that. There is nothing sad about toys made of plastic. They are durable and they can be made to look very good.

Perhaps its the snob in me that is looking down on their ignorance, but I think it's a shame for such colossal effort at sharing history to be undermined by people who measure everything in monetary terms.

Let me put it in a very crude way: it doens't matter how much money it fetches, because it will never be yours.

*PS: The owner of this toy collection happens to be an engineer too. :P So logically speaking I should put the adjective *MOST* in my title, but I think the title sound more catchy without.