Indy Children's Museum Part IV OR Toys R Awesome

In part four of our look at the Indianapolis Children's Museum, we're gonna round everything up with exhibits that aren't only for kids, but really bring out the inner kid in all of us. This is the last in this initial series, so I thought we'd go out on a bang.

A Hot Wheels, hydraulics, and toys filled bang!

So crazy it'll knock you head right off your shoulders! Vintage style!

Remember when you were a kid and you had your collection of toy cars? They could have been models, Hot Wheels, Micro-Machines, or Happy Meal toys, but regardless of the type their designs very quickly left the real world and headed off into "You will never see an actual car like this in a million years."

Well it turns out a million years went by pretty damn quickly.

I can hear you saying, "Hot Wheels? For Real?"
My response: "For real, dude. For real."

This exhibit turned the tables on the idea of designing toys from full size cars, instead designing full size cars from the tiny toy ones. It's undoubtedly a very scientific process involving lots of math and artistic ability to get all of the details just right.

And the conclusion of this experimental design method? Awesome.

Why would you need two smaller engines instead of one big one?
Because AWESOME, that's why.

There was some blurring of lines. For example if a Hot Wheels design took an existing car and modified it for the toy car, then the people would take the existing car and give it the same modifications as the toy car. I realize that sentence is a little syntactically confusing, so allow me to illustrate with pretty pictures.

A friend in high school drove a bus like this. It was not nearly as cool.
...Or as pink.

This one is really just a hood modification and a paint job.
Oddly enough, also pink.

What really impressed me, though, was the car that as far as I knew never actually existed on any production line. I could be wrong, but dang...

This could be rolling out of the Alpha Centauri Motors factory as we speak.
Evidently they'd got some killer waves there, bro.

But say your child isn't a budding auto-enthusaist. Say they hate all things shiny and have a fear of flames being painted on the side of things. Say they love complicated machines that have no purpose other than to be awesome.

No worries! We got you covered.

A local museum where I grew up had one of these.
I spent literally HOURS as one of those kids.

"Great job, Willikins! Now what does it do?"
"Beats me, sir!"

And this was just in one corner of a huge room with tons of things to keep hyperactive kids occupied while they burn off all of the sugar they consumed from tasty treats downstairs in the cafeteria.

Kid 1: "This is how we get all of our drinking water."
Kid 2: "Yes yes, but how do we make a huge mess with those blocks?"

This model river features various systems of locks that teach kids how to
block canals and cause incredible economic havoc. Fun!

Kids: "Whhheeee!!!"
Parents: "Whoever planned this exhibit is a GENIUS."

But by far the single exhibit that made me giggle the most was located on the top floor, just past the carousel.

You heard me.

To get to this exhibit there were two routes: The one past the line of people to get on the carousel (the boring path) and the one through the hallways of wacky mirrors (the awesome path.)

One guess which one I took.

The mirrors were, of course, awesome, and neat. But to keep this post from getting too long, I'm making the artistic decision to cut it short and move on.

You see? I'm artistic!!!

What was this awesome exhibit? Toys and video games from the last few decades. Behold:

Other things may have also happened in the late '70s.
But only Pong counts.

Yes, that is a father thoroughly beating his son at Pong.
I'd feel bad, but the son probably killed him 300 times last night in Halo 4.

Kids, that thing in the center is a Walkman.
Like an MP3 player but with only album at a time.

"Hey! They made an arcade version of that game from my iPhone!"

This exhibit had two additional key features:
1)Parents telling kids what it was like when they were young.
2)Kids without any parents around enjoying the same games I did at their age.

Oddly enough, I gained a certain degree of pride in my childhood. Sure, we had to get our cheat codes from Nintendo Power or our friends, our portable music players skipped, and our handheld video games gave you carpel tunnel...

"See that book? You had to find a guy named Waldo."
"Couldn't you check the internet for his location?"

...But there was a line of kids waiting to play Super Mario Bros. The first one.

Also a group of parents forcing themselves not to say,
"No, jump on TOP of the sewer and you can find a Warp Zone!"

Overall, it was an incredible day, and an absolutely incredible museum.

When I was a child we lived about an hour and a half from Monterey Bay Aquarium. My parents bought us memberships, and a few times a year we'd head down to the aquarium. I have many fond memories of wandering around that aquarium as a kid. It was an awesome kids place that was close enough to be a regular thing, but far enough away to be special.

I went back with my wife a few years ago for the first time in over a decade. It was just as incredible as I remembered, and I spent the day with a ridiculous grin on my face.

As I wandered around the Indianapolis Children's Museum, I kept getting visions of that museum being a similar place for my children, even though they don't exist yet. And I was truly glad to have my own Awesome Kids Place About an Hour Away. (An AKPAHA.) My kids had better like it as much as I do, because I will drag them around it anyway.

But honestly? I think they'll love it.

And now, to avoid ending on a sappy note: All of the Lego Harry Potter sets in one place.

Wizards made of small plastic blocks? Madness!
...Awesome, awesome madness.

Thanks for reading the Indy Children Museum posts!