First collectibles museum opens tomorrow

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Lee (left) and Ling pose with the 10-foot tall Hulkbuster at Toy Universe Museum.

The Ninja Turtles statues on display at Toy Universe Museum in Sibu.

SIBU: The country’s first action figure collectibles museum, located at Lane 7, Pahlawan Road here is set to debut tomorrow, showcasing about 70 limited edition displays.

The Toy Universe Museum, costing about RM500,000 to set up, will be the latest attraction to the town which is currently hosting Visit Sibu Year 2017, said Sanyan Road Recreational Club (SRRC) president Richard Lee Ning.

The museum occupies two floors of a shophouse and displays action figures of super heroes and villains, he added, pointing out that the second floor houses life-sized figures.

Lee said the museum, operated by SRRC, is open to the public on Saturdays from 10am to 8pm, and on Sundays from 10am till 5pm.

Entry tickets are priced at RM10 for children and RM15 for adults. There is a RM5 charge for photo-taking.

“This Toy Universe Museum is the first action figure collectibles museum in Malaysia. Although there is one in Penang, they are more towards plastic toys, while ours is more on statues.

“It took us about two years to plan for this project and we spent about a month to set up the whole thing. We are doing this to make Sibu proud, showing to other countries that Sarawak too has such kinds of attraction.

“In countries like the United States and Brazil, such museums are very popular among tourists. Our intention is to make this toy museum as another attraction to lure tourists to Sibu,” Lee told reporters yesterday.

Also present with Lee yesterday was SRRC vice president Peter Ling.

“In fact, when I uploaded the information onto the Internet, collectors from as far as the United States, Argentina, Brazil and England had expressed their desire to come to check out the museum here. My friend from Kuala Lumpur had already made preparations to come to Sibu,” Lee enthused.

Adding on, he said the action figures are from his personal collection spanning over five years, which he obtained from the US and Japan.

He pointed out that the 10-foot ‘Hulkbuster’ statue costs RM70,000 – the most expensive collectible in the museum.

The Hulkbuster, on display on the museum’s second floor, is also the tallest figure on display.

On why it took him two years to start the museum, Lee explained that they had to do a lot of preparation as well as research.

“I had done the AGE (Artistic Gaming Entertainment) Convention and several auto shows here to gauge the acceptance of local folk on something new. From there, I started with this (museum) and want to ensure it is the best in the state, not just doing it for the sake of doing it.

“These involved in-depth preparations and carrying out research.

“That is the reason why it took us about two years to plan for the project before starting it,” he explained.

Asked on his future plan, Lee said they might want to invite popular artistes to come to Sibu, where there would be autograph-signing sessions.

He recalled during the San Diego Comic Convention in the US, many movie stars participated in the event.

“That is why I wanted to do this (museum) as a start – making it an attraction for people to come to Sibu. In future, we would like to invite artistes to come to Sibu for autograph sessions with their fans.”

Lee also hoped to increase the number of collectibles in the museum over time.

He did not discount the possibility of increasing the number of days for the museum to be open to the public in future if there was good response.