About me: "Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum is known from coast to coast, like butter and toast. From headlines to bedlines, from school rooms to pool rooms, this place is like no other that can be found in the contiguous United States and other environs of the free world." I don't think I could have said it better. And if you have been to Marvin's, you would certainly agree with the above statement.
No one understands hyper-compression like Marvin Yagoda. His museum is sandwiched between halves of a shopping mall north of Detroit in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Inside he's packed dense masses of historical and modern arcade machines, sideshow wonders, fortune tellers, automatons, and curiosities. Marvin is a 60-something year old pharmacist, and Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum is a hobby that went out of control.
The museum contains items of magic, neon, antiques, posters, airplanes, robots, animation, and all sorts of odd and unusual coin operated games. The coin operated games are the main attraction, and range from the oldest gypsy fortune telling machine of the early 1900's, to the lastest video games. All the games are operational. Admission to Marvin's is FREE.
First visits to Marvin's won't be your last. The collection of vintage games, carousels, posters, and other oddities is sheer nostalgia for the entire family. I've been to Marvin's at least 100 times, and everytime I see something I have never noticed before. The amount of just plain 'odd stuff' on the walls, ceilings, floors is amazing. There is something for everyone. The newer video and redemption games will keep the kids fulfilled, along with the large selection of kiddie rides for youngest. You'll come away from Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum wanting to come back again and again.
Every inch of Marvins Marvelous Mechanical Museum's 5500 square feet of floor space with 40 foot ceilings containing an array of buzzing and clattering new and vintage mechanical devices and oddities. Overhead dangle signs, animatronic dummies, over 50 airplane models gliding along a steel rail, vintage fans of all types, and classic sideshow posters. Marvin himself travels the world looking for odd coin operated devices, both new and old. Some of his machines are custom made just for him, and can not be seen in operation anywhere else. Marvin's is also listed in the World Almanac's 100 most unusual museums in the U.S.
Who I'd like to meet: Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum will be featured on the History Channels show Modern Marvels 8/8/08 at 8 pm!!
DONT MISS IT!
Marvin's is one of the greatest places I have ever been, I've been going there ever since I was too young to even remember, umm but I do? Did I contradict myself?
