If money is not an issue, what toy would I buy?

The question really got me excited and made me feel like a kid in a toy store given the freedom to pick any toy free of charge. Lots of toys come to mind, with the Nintendo Switch and a brand new mountain bike being the top choices. The Switch gives me the convenience to play the latest games with anyone and anywhere. I have yet to master biking and I like to travel a lot, so a bike is a no brainer, not to mention its health benefits. However, while I was looking for what toys I played with when I was younger, I came across this old picture of mine.

Here you can see me (smallest girl in the picture) holding a doll which I got as a gift on my 4th birthday. My sister beside me, whose birthday is a day before mine, also got a doll as a gift. I remember I used to play with her with those dolls a lot. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed to know that we don’t have other pictures of us playing with these dolls, or any toys I received when I was little. Perhaps it’s this void that I want to fill or the sudden rush of nostalgia, but I decided to change the toy I want to have right now. I began to search for a new kind of toy – not dolls, but DOLL HOUSES. I looked for the best and most expensive ones. Finally, I found the perfect doll house for me. If I were to have any toy in the world, it would be Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle.

Created by film star Colleen Moore, this “doll house” reimagined to a fairy dream home was built in the 1930s as a result of Moore’s love for dolls, doll houses and miniatures. This 9-square-foot castle took 7 years to complete, and was crafted by over 100 workers. It consists of 12 rooms which can be disassembled and kept in specifically designed containers.

As you can already see in the pictures, the castle features about 1,500 miniatures. Each has it's own touch of history. It has a library of tiny books that you really need to use lenses to read. The tiniest bible was written around 1800's and other books signed by well-known authors with Agatha Christie and John Steinbeck on the list. The tapestries were created by a master needleworker from Vienna, three statues of the Egyptian goddess Isis—more than 4,000 years old and a dozen other pieces of original artwork from various artists, which includes my favourite - a painting of Mickey and Minnie Mouse donated by Walt Disney.^[1][3]

I’d like to highlight my favorite room, Cinderella's Drawing Room. The room is made of bejeweled with precious items. The floor is made of rose quartz and jade from China while the chandelier is made of gold. There is also a miniature chess table set that is ready to be played at anytime. There is a mural of Cinderella painted by an L.A. artist, George Townsend Cole. The amber-carved vases along the door going into the good hall are already about 500 years old, which came from the gathering of the Dowager Empress of China.^[2]

During the Great Depression, Colleen Moore organized a national tour of the Fairy Castle to raise money for children's charities. Its last stop was in Chicago, where it was donated and thus found a permanent home at the Museum of Science and Industry. It is displayed in a controlled environment with the right temperature for it to last for the future generations. ^[1]

Now on to the question that some of you are probably thinking about right now – how much would it cost to purchase this masterpiece? I am not even sure if the Museum of Science and Industry will entertain that thought. But what I am sure of is that at the time the castle was created, it cost nearly $500,000. Converting this to US dollar’s value today using an average inflation rate per year, this is worth nearly $10 million dollars!

Regardless of the price, I am totally in love with this piece of art, and I have always wanted to visit and explore a real castle one day. I am also fascinated with the miniature pieces and the work it took to create them. I can imagine the castle relocated here in my house (I’ll have to find a way to fit it here and plan its restoration). I’ll look at it every day and discover something new each time. A good thing about this item (or any toy that you take good care of) is it will last a long time and I can pass it over to my future children and grandchildren.

I really enjoyed writing about this topic, and I learned new things along the way. First is that toys are like photographs that can take us back to a specific moment in time. So let’s make sure we take good care of them and take pictures with them. Finally, toys also have this of way of aiding our creativity by stimulating our imagination. I may not have physically owned Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle, but it’s okay to dream, right?