Creepy things at Musée Méchanique

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These days, children typically bow their heads and immerse themselves into the digital world of games. However, once upon a time, children trooped to the penny arcade to test their skills in collecting knick knacks using the claw or to beat machines at arm wrestling. 

One afternoon, I drifted into a museum with "free" admission. I was delighted because I didn't have to pay to go in! Little did I know that I was about to enter the world of the creepy penny arcade toys... where the games could be operated for a fee. 

It wasn't called Musée Mécanique for nothing. The toys were all mechanical: music boxes, automatic pianos, fortune-teller dolls, pinball machines, dioramas, and peep shows, among others. And then there were toys on the violent side; there were quite a few which featured decapitation with an ax or with a guillotine. Perhaps, these were the old days' versions of today's violent video games.

One of the biggest characters I saw in Musée Mecanique was Laffing Sal. She's a giant quite literally; hence, she must have been  intimidating when she was still being used in amusement parks.


There were a few miniatures of fairs with merry-go-rounds and pavilions. People were supposed to put coins in but I'm not sure what would happen. Perhaps, the merry-go-round would move?


And then there was the barbershop quartet. Since the characters are all men, the voices must be tenor, bass, baritone, and a melody. Because I had no coins when I visited, I wasn't able to hear them sing.


What excited me the most, though, was the older generation's version of the Sorting Hat. I'm sure that this did not assign people into the different houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Instead, it probably dishes out randomly selected fortunes to those who put coins in. I suspect that it talked too. That would have been cool, a good way to bridge the generational gap between children living post-Harry Potter and their grandparents (assuming that they played with these toys, of course).


My experience at the Musée Mecanique was unexpected. The arcade game selection just totally threw a curve ball at me. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see other tourists try their hand, and use up their spare change, on the toys that I normally only saw in movies such as "Big".

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