When Praephan “Prae” Thammawattana travelled overseas, she would notice how Thai tourists loved buying souvenirs from Disneyland. That is what gave her the idea to open a toy shop in Bangkok.
Her vision became reality with the recent opening of Playhouse, a flagship store that is set to become known as “Thailand’s Disneyland”, since it offers Disney toys, with all the much-loved Disney cartoon characters for toy lovers.
Located on the third floor of Siam Square One shopping centre, the 330m² emporium is sure to become a favourite haunt of toy lovers young and old.
The store is divided into zones: Disney toys, toys for boys, Marvel and designer toys, all of which guests were able to browse to their hearts’ content at the opening.
Many arriving with their young children in tow availed themselves of the in-store activities such as the storytelling show by famous cartoon voice-over actors, painting and the playground zone.
Store decorations reflect famous Disney cartoon characters, ranging from a zone for Mickey and Minnie Mouse to the virtual castle of Sleeping Beauty. Other famous brands include Enesco from the US, Funko pop-culture characters and Gund soft toys, famous for Boo the Pomeranian puppy. There are also limited edition models of Marvel superheroes, such as collections from threeA, Hot Toys, Coarse, Foxbox and Kotobukiya on display at Playhouse.
At the grand opening of Playhouse, five celebrities, Pattamon “Jan” Taechanarong, Pimdao “Mudmee” Panichsamai, ML Athadis “Mootang” Diskul, Ploy Horwang and Pongsathorn Thammawattana, were invited to share their childhood memories of their favourite toys which were also exhibited.
Ploy grew up watching Disney’s Snow White while being driven to school, and has been to almost every Disneyland, most recently the one in Tokyo. She brought along a model of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to display on the day.
Pattamon feels that the original Disneyland in the US helped to spark a lot of her imagination, and she collects teddy bears. She is also fascinated by the weird and wonderful characters in Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland, as well as cartoon baddies such as Cruella de Vil.
Mootang is a Stitch fan because the character is so playful and cheeky. On the day, he brought along see-through gummy bears with visible skeletons from Designer Toys, since he collects anything to do with bones.
Pongsathorn is a fan of Marvel superheroes, particularly Iron Man and Thor. For the opening, he presented two gangster models from a Designer Toys limited edition collection.
Like most girls, singer/actress Mudmee was brought up on Disney cartoons, one of her favourites being Aladdin. She brought along a Jasmine doll, saying she used to dress up as Jasmine whenever she had to go to a fancy-dress party.
Also attending were several celebrities who were big fans of Disney and Designer Toys such as Nantawan Saengthamkijkul, Tan Pasakornnatee, Prachayamon Buranasiri, Preerati and Nisa Bhirombhakdi, along with many more.
The highlight of the grand opening was a delightful fashion show by young celebrities in famous cartoon character costumes joined by supermodel Khemanit “Pancake” Jamikorn as a Disney princess.
