Austin: I Found Where They Keep Your Childhood Memories

Aug 27

A Memo from the desk of The Director

Location recommendation by Kevin Kolb

The Blanton is a must-see tourist attraction, but I found another gem of a museum in Austin. The Texas Toy Museum is three small rooms of flashback inducing fun.

Before you can even get up the stairs, you see that the walls are covered with posters and toy displays.

In the first room the docent/cashier/bartender/probable owner greeted us warmly and we paid the cover. Then he asked if we wanted a drink. I did want a drink. Next he asked if we wanted to go on a scavenger hunt. I did want to go on a scavenger hunt.

From there we wandered into the arcade that had a couple modernish gaming consoles but also pinball, QBert and some other classics.

Dragon’s Lair

I was able to keep my 39 year streak of not being able to play Dragon’s Lair intact.

“Why don’t you take a picture? It’ll last longer.”

The third room is wall-to-wall toy displays. Specifically, action figures that span from the 80s until now.

I recognized one hundred percent of the original He-Man line they had on display. They even had Snake Mountain (don’t call it Castle Greyskull) which my parents asked me to assemble on Christmas Eve 1983 for one of my younger brothers. Side note: A complete Snake Mountain, including Snake Microphone, is currently for sale on Etsy for $250. They even had Stinkor, but he was behind plexiglass, so I couldn’t tell if he still stunk. (It was only many years after 1985 that I found out what that Stinkor stink was. Patchoulli. “That gutter punk smells exactly like Stinkor.” Another person: “That’s patchoulli.”)