Tribute to Takuro Morinaga: A Life of Passion to the Very End
“I am a maniac.”
In Tokorozawa City, Saitama Prefecture, there is the “B Treasure Museum,” where over 10,000 items from Morinaga’s Glico toy collection are displayed.
“The Ezaki Memorial Hall, built by Glico’s headquarters, displays about 3,000 toy items. I have more than three times that amount. I have a good relationship with Glico, but recently, someone from their public relations team told me, ‘Could you please stop saying it’s three times as much? We still have many items that haven’t been publicly displayed yet.’ I wonder if that’s really true (laughs).”
While he sometimes received items through connections, his primary acquisition method was online auctions. He checked Yahoo Auctions daily.
“If you get caught up in bidding wars on online auctions, the price keeps going up. A single item can skyrocket to 200,000 yen. It never ends, so I try to stop bidding at under 100,000 yen. The highest price I’ve ever paid was 80,000 yen—for a paper sidecar and a tin Mazda three-wheeled truck. In total, I’ve spent about 1 million yen on this collection.”
According to him, Glico toys reflect the times.
“During wartime, they were mostly fighter planes and tanks. Due to material shortages, they were made of roughly fired clay. After the war, there were many toys featuring flowers and international flags, symbolizing peace. The 1960s featured home appliances like TVs and refrigerators, reflecting the rapid economic growth. In the 1980s, boys’ toys were mostly space-themed, while girls’ toys had a fairytale-like charm. Recently, due to the eco-friendly trend, wooden toy cars have become popular.”
He opened the B Treasure Museum in 2014.
“Building a museum was a long-held dream, but it’s tough. The annual maintenance cost is 10 million yen, while the revenue is only about 1 million yen, leaving a 9 million yen deficit each year. It’s like I’m working just to cover this loss. My wife sighs, ‘If you hadn’t done something so foolish, we could have had a comfortable retirement.”
There are 25,000 different types of Glico toys. “My dream is to collect them all,” he once said.
