San Diego Toy and Doll Museum completed

The San Diego Toy and Doll Museum is finally completely finished.

The museum opened to the public at its permanent location at 14031 Midland Road, in the Old Poway Village Shopping Center, in late November with a gift shop and Lego room, but the main part of the museum remained unfinished until recently.

The entrance fee for the museum remains $2. It is open on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The museum is also now holding special once-a-month workshops for kids which usually include a craft the kids can take home. This month, the workshop is “Lucky Leprechaun Day” with two events being held at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 14.

Kids can find the leprechaun and his pot of gold somewhere in the museum and receive a prize. They will also make their own leprechaun doll that they can take home.

The March workshop will be $5 and requires an RSVP in advance. To RSVP, call 858-486-1446 or swing by the museum and sign up for one of the two time slots.

The newly opened section of the museum features a wide variety of antique and vintage dolls, action figures, doll houses and board games from around the world.

One new addition to both the main area and the Lego room are new televisions that show looping videos. The Lego room now features short films about the history of Lego toys.

The Lego room houses a collection of rare Lego toys, including the wooden toys the company made before switching over to the plastic bricks in 1960. The vintage toys are on permanent loan from the LGauge Museum.

It also has a Lego wall with bricks available for visitors to play with and leave a creation for others to enjoy.

The newly opened main area of the museum features a collection of Star Wars action figures and dolls. A television also shows the first Star Wars movie on repeat.

Another screen shows short demonstrations of the museum’s collection of vintage coin banks and wind-up toys.

There are several vintage doll houses on display, as well as a collection of Lilli dolls — the dolls that inspired Barbie dolls. Lilli dolls were made in Germany, before Mattel bought out the company.

The museum also has on display several old-fashioned favorites, including an original Mr. Potato Head, an original Etch-A-Sketch and several other original vintage toys and games.

“It’s nice to have it fully open,” said Elisa Ballard, president of the museum.

The museum is still accepting donations of antique and vintage toys and plans to keep evolving and growing its collection in the future, said Ballard.