Educational toys are home

Our reporter Jigme Wangchuk visits a different toy store in Thimphu and finds out the intelligent games on offer

As dusk descends on Thimphu valley on Tuesday evening, Gongzin Lam in the heart of the city is much quieter except for the noise of shutters being pulled down some distance away. But the children are out. They have found a new hangout, by far the best they have ever had, as they say. Lately, parents have had to do some rounds in The Magic Box, the new toy store in Thimphu. It’s their favourite too.

“I have always been fascinated by intelligent games and what they can do to human mind,” says 28-year-old Neten Chhetri, dusting off the toy-filled shelves as Bryan Adams calls out Please Forgive Me, gruff and rasping. “Nothing helps shape our idea of things better than intelligent games.” That is the reason, says Neten, why he decided to open a decent toy store specializing in intelligent games for both children and adults.

Neten was a lecturer at Royal Institute of Management in Thimphu six months ago. He quit because civil service bored him. His love of intelligent games and bit of market study gave him The Magic Box. In there, Spiderman, Ben10, and Beyblade (Japanese manga series) toys and the like have no place. The Magic Box keeps only the educative ones.

Five-year-old Kelden loves aeroplanes and deluxe cars. His parents own a travel company. So he likes to imagine that he is bringing in tourists to Paro in his plane and taking them to different places in Bhutan in his little SUVs and luxury cars.

If the tour is around Thimphu with older and high-paying tourists, he takes them sightseeing in his red little Ferrari. If the tourists are young and outdoor lovers, he has his SUVs.

“If they wish to go eastward, it’s got to be in the SUVs. Road condition is bad in the east,” says Kelden, burring and slobbering as his little SUV whizzes off from one end of the table, on which is laid a crisscross of yellow tracks, to the other with a pack of tourists. He has reached Bumthang.

“Games like this can be very educative. They help children imagine a lot and help nurture dreams and ambitions for themselves,” Neten said. “I hope such culture of providing kids educative toys will grow in Bhutan. It must.”

Kelden calls Neten a rich man, because Neten has countless cars, all classic, high-end and chic. Neten thinks Kelden is intelligent with ambition and big dreams. They are friends.

The Magic Box also has Transformer toys, Hot Wheels cars and tracks, starting from 1 loop to as many as possible. It has collectibles like Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari, Toyota, Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4, BMW Z4, Mercedes-Benz SLK, Audi TT, Porsche Cayman, Lotus Elise and Chevrolet Corvette.

Toys are all handpicked, says Neten, who get them all from India. “I like these toys. And children love such toys,” he says. There are a lot of custom toys with which children learn a great deal of physics and dynamics of machines. Neten keeps board games on one side and cars, crafts, drawing and pottery on the other.

For nine-year-old Seldon, Pot Mania is the favourite game. She paints the specially designed pots and uses them as miniature flower vases. She decorates her little room with scores of them, some on her table and others on her windowsills. Seldon likes Fantastic Jewel too. She creates her own designer jewellery with tiny little things.

“It helps children become more creative with such games,” says Pema, Seldon’s mother, for whom The Magic Box has become her latest favourite hangout with her daughter.

Neten has some personal favourites, which he encourages his little customers to try out. Wildlife, the only DVD board game on wildlife in the store, is a grand safari in the Serengeti wild. There are over 200 magnificent film clips of lions, elephants, buffalos, giraffes, zebras and other wild animals. Questions like how many vertebrates there are in giraffe’s neck and how loudly a lion roars are asked in the game which helps children learn and spend their leisure time productively. Every time the player answers correctly, an animal card is the reward, with the help of which the player move around the board.

Sea Life is not much different. It is a dive into the deep sea, where you get to see more than 400 great film clips from Jean-Michel Cousteau (a French explorer, environmentalist, educator, and film producer) on sharks, whales, dolphins, sea turtles, octopi and other marine animals.  As the players progress in the game, they are faced with barrage of quiz questions like how big the largest whale is and how fast a shark swims. Players get a marine animal card as a reward for getting the answers right and progress deep into the sea world.

Globetrotter is hot on the trail of trivia game in which players can jet their way around the world, answering questions all the way from east to west, north to south. The game is a voyage of discovery that brings out players’ knowledge of world’s culture, sights and tastes as they travel around the globe, visiting different continents and answering questions about people, places, entertainment, sports, food and all things related to a particular region.

RISK is a strategic conquest game and Neten’s best. On the first day of opening itself, all five RISK game sets were sold out. It takes nerve, determination and courage to accomplish the military objective before the player’s opponent. The game is a favourite of management students the world over. It helps players gain power of analysis and develop critical and strategic thinking.

“This game is all about careful planning and risk-taking, which are very important for students and managers. It stimulates the embryonic power of critical thinking,” says Neten. “It’s very encouraging to see lots of parents urge intelligent games on their children. That should indeed happen.”

2 Responses to “Educational toys are home”

1. domakhamto says:

   December 15, 2011 at 11:53 am

   this is a very good product in the market especially when our kids are exposed to all kinds of toys these, cheap, unhealthy and dangerous.

   in developed countries, there are certain safety and quality standards for toys too. for. e.g. toys should not contain harmful chemicals/materials or the size of toy should not be too small as infants might try to swallow them when parents are not around.

   so, do we have any such safety and quality standards for toys???

   Reply
2. Aloke Bharali says:

   February 28, 2012 at 6:23 pm

   We wish Neten all the Best.

   ALoke
   KSA.

   Reply