The Speelgoedmuseum on the Brink holds one of the largest collections of historic toys in the Netherlands — about 26,000 items, ranging from medieval whistles to nineteenth-century rocking horses to twentieth-century Märklin trains, Schuco cars and tin-plate robots. It is housed in three adjoining merchant houses with their original interiors, so the museum doubles as a quick tour of historic Deventer domestic architecture.
The collection is strongest on European toys from 1870 to 1950, including some genuinely rare items: working steam-powered models, automata, doll houses with their original miniature furniture. Children get hands-on play areas, costume dressing-up and seasonal activities; for adults it is unexpectedly evocative.