Exhibits

In May 2014, the Take Me There® gallery will transform into an immersive experience that will transport families to modern-day China! But, why China? Charity Counts, the museum's Associate Vice President of Exhibits, explains why.

Why explore China at the world’s largest children’s museum? Quite simply—the time is right! Not only is China the most populous country; but, it is also the fastest growing industrial nation in the world and finds itself in the headlines of just about every national news service daily.

But to truly understand how it fits into The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, you need to go back a few years. In 2009, the museum opened its largest permanent international experience, Take Me There®, which focuses on a single contemporary culture outside of the United States and changes cultural focus every three to four years.  

The museum’s goal for the Take Me There®  gallery is to foster awareness, understanding, and respect for other cultures. That is done through immersive environments based on real places, featuring real families with children in those countries, and through in-depth, participatory programs.

When selecting countries to feature in this changing space, The Children’s Museum explores interests of local families and then evaluates the existing community, national and international connections.

The museum first opened with Egypt, a country that many children are curious about due to its fascinating history (and of course mummies!). Museum leaders felt it was important to share what life is like for families in contemporary Egypt in order to balance what kids already knew about its history. The experience was made possible thanks to strategic collaborations with Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of Egypt at the time, as well as Dr. Zahi Hawass, Chair, Supreme Council of Antiquities, and Egypt Air.

From the day that Egypt opened, the museum staff began to explore options for the next featured country and China quickly rose to the top. Its history spans thousands of years and its brilliant past is matched only by its rapid development in the present. China has the largest population in the world and its economic relationships span the globe.  

As we look at our community, we recognize that many of our friends, neighbors, and work associates are Chinese. There are thousands of American citizens who were adopted from China and want to connect with their native heritage. Our city has a sister city relationship with Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. We at The Children’s Museum have been forging relationships with many individuals and organizations in China for years. One of our Dinosphere expert advisors is from China–Dong Zhiming, one of China’s leading paleontologists. In the coming weeks, we will share some of the other global partnerships that are making this exhibit an authentic reality.

Our staff members have had so much fun getting to know China through exhibit projects and are compelled to share its people and its wonderful, rich culture with families coming to The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. We can’t wait to share it with you!

Throughout the year, follow along on the China 2014 webpage as we prepare for Take Me There®: China! 
Be on the lookout for blog, photo, and video updates on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!

The Geckos exhibit has caused a lot of excitement around the museum, and many of you have had questions about how to keep geckos as pets. Luckily we have Anna Simpson here to answer those questions! Anna is a zookeeper and lecturer at Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland, an AZA accredited zoological facility in Pennsylvania. Anna has been in Indianapolis caring for the geckos  while they're here at the museum.

Leopard Geckos

Crested Geckos

Read the rest of Cathy's predictions in Part 1 of this series!

This is the first in a two-part series from Cathy Hamaker, the lead exhibit developer for Superheroes: A SuperPOWered Spring Break. Now that Round 1 of our Superpower Showdown has ended, Cathy takes an honest look at how the first round of the bracket should have shaped up if we consider the powers and weaknesses of the superheroes and villains in question. 

All character names and trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Round 1 Match-ups

Nightcrawler v. Hercules  
Sure, Hercules is a demi-god, strong and powerful and clever. But Nightcrawler’s quick and can teleport.  All he has to do is grab Hercules, *BAMF* out over the Aegean Sea, and let go.  Sploosh. Game over. NIGHTCRAWLER.
(Actual winner: Nightcrawler)

Mighty Isis v. Silver Surfer
Here we had two characters with seemingly limitless powers.  Silver Surfer has the Power Cosmic, but Isis has any ability she can make up a rhyming couplet about.  I figure she can probably rhyme something with “wipeout” on short notice. ISIS.
(Actual winner: Silver Surfer)

In this behind the scenes blog post, the museum’s Creative Director Ned Shaw tells the intriguing tale (…tail?) behind the making of one of our most popular commercials…Geckos! 

What was the best way to tell our members and visitors about our cool new exhibit Geckos? We knew that we couldn’t film them in their habitats, because those very habitats had not arrived at the museum in time to get the commercial ready. We had some video clips of geckos, and some sound bites of their songs, and a lot of photos of the slippery little lizards. But somehow that didn’t seem to capture the fascination that we all have for these strange creatures.

The New Caledonian giant gecko is a favorite in the Geckos exhibit—but this lizard doesn't have a cool name to match his cool personality! Now you can help us Name That Gecko—and also win tickets for you and your family to meet the New Caledonian giant gecko! To enter the contest, you'll need to submit your idea in the Facebook app. But hurry—the contest ends April 12!

• Our New Caledonian giant gecko is about eight years old and is from Reptiland in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. He's only visiting the Children's Museum, along with the other geckos, until May 15. 

• The New Caledonian giant gecko is the largest gecko species. Sometimes Aaron calls him the "Shar-Pei" of geckos because they have very loose folded skin, just like the Shar-Pei dog! The skin feels velvety and is not slimy at all—it looks almost like a jacket.

• In addition to his loose skin, he also has a very stumpy tail.

• Like many geckos, the New Caledonian giant gecko does not have eyelids. Instead, he licks his eyeballs to keep them moist.

• New Caledonians are the largest of the gecko species.They're found on an island and have very few predators, so over time they were able to grow to a very large size, almost a foot and a half! This is called island giganticism.  

• The New Caledonian giant gecko is a nocturnal arboreal species, meaning that he lives in trees. The species lives in the highest tree tops of New Caledonia and they spend most of their lives in the vertical position hanging on and inside of trees. 

• When in the wild they like to eat fruit and other lizards (sometimes even the New Caledonian crested gecko, which are also on exhibit!) 

• Our New Caledonian giant gecko loves fruit medley baby food! We don't feed him lizards, but once a month he does eat a baby mouse.

• Our New Caledonian giant gecko will often lick his "lips" and face after eating. Geckos are known for cleaning their mouth after they eat. (This makes dentists very happy!)

• Their scientific name, Rhacodactylus, means "spine foot."  He does have sticky toe pads, but above each toe is a little spiny claw.

• Geckos make very unique sounds, and the New Caledonian is no different!  They're called "Devils of the Night" by locals in New Caledonia because of the screaming noise they can make.

We have new friends visiting the museum for a limited time only. They're geckos--superstars of the lizard world! With more than a thousand different species of geckos, there is so much to learn. In This Week's WOW, Josh gets up close and personal (REALLY up close and personal) with one of the largest geckos--a New Caledonian Day Gecko. Check it out:

Take a peek inside our rarely seen construction shop, and find out what we're making this week. Almost all exhibit elements are designed, built, and tested inside this shop located in the basement of the museum. You just might see something you recognize! Plus, meet the team of incredible craftsmen that create the exhibits you know and love.



 

Not ALL geckos meow, but this one does!

It's hard to believe the holidays are over! As quickly as our winter exhibit Jolly Days went up, now it's time to take it down. It takes 2,700 hours for us to decorate the museum for the holidays, and more than 5 semi trucks to take it all away to storage. In This Week's WOW, see incredible timelapse video of the exhibit transforming from your family's favorite holiday tradition to a white box ready for the next big exhibit to arrive. The museum is always changing to ensure your experience is fresh and new each time you visit.

Check it out:

So what's next?! Geckos! Stop by the museum Feb. 2-May 15 and meet the superstars of the lizard world! 

Your kids love it. They race to the exhibit, put on their goggles, grab a brush, and start digging! It's the dino dig pit in Dinosphere! But what happens when those aspiring paleontologists actually unveil the fossils? What will future visitors do?

This actually happens quite often. About every month and a half our young visitors uncover the fossils in the dino dig pit and we have to cover them back up. The process for doing that is a unique one. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is all about AUTHENTIC experiences. So instead of using sand, which wouldn't give a true digging experience, we invented our own trade secret. In This Week's WOW, Dino Josh reveals how it's done . . . take a look:

And if that's not real enough for you, families and adults can actually travel with museum experts to Faith, South Dakota to dig for dinosaur fossils at the Ruth Mason Quarry, the largest fossil bed of duck-billed dinosaurs in the world. It's a once-in-a-lifetime adventure! Digs are on sale now: http://www.childrensmuseum.org/dino-digs.  Happy digging!

Did you know, Halloween isn't the ONLY time you can see mummies around The Children's Museum of Indianapolis! In This Week's WOW, Josh and Claire take you down to National Geographic Treasures of the Earth where Claire finds a very peculiar type of mummy. Check it out:

And if you're just looking for some good ol' fashion Halloween mummies, you can check out Wicked Workshop, the museum's Haunted House, now through Oct. 31. It's perfect Halloween fun for kids and families! Happy Halloween!

It's that time of year again! Our award-winning Haunted House, Wicked Workshop, opens THIS weekend and we can't wait for you to see it! The Children's Museum Guild, a group of amazing women, have volunteered THOUSANDS of hours to making this year's 49th annual Haunted House Fa-BOO-lous for you and your family. This is the museum's largest fundraiser of the year and goes to help fund initiatives for families and the community throughout the year.

One thing that makes our Haunted House unique is that we offer both IPL's Lights On Hours (for kids who scare easily) and Defender Direct's Frightening Hours (for kids who dare to be scared!) Every year parents ask us which we recommend for their child. This is a difficult question! Although each child is different and there is no right or wrong answer, we do have some tips for you. This year's "Head Witches" Kate Orme and Allison Steck share some of their expertise in this month's Indy's Child article:

Lights-on:

• Includes fun, upbeat music with all lights turned up.
• Friendly-faced greeters are in each room of the house passing out treats to visitors similar to trick-or-treating.
• Children can play seek-and-find with pictures of the annual Haunted House mascot— Witchkins this year—as they move through the rooms of the house to help play up the fun of each room.
• Each room also features a Halloween-related fun fact to ask your child such as "how many bones are in the human body?" (A: 206!)

Lights-off:

• Includes spooky music and minimal lighting.
• Haunters hide throughout the house to jump out and scare unsuspecting visitors.
• Although visual effects are used to maximize the scare experience, the frightening-factor of the Haunted House focuses more on the "startle" rather than gore.
• Many visitors will scream with surprise or fear as they move throughout the House.

If you're better with visuals, check out This Week's WOW for a sneak peek at this year's house and a look behind-the-scenes as the haunters prepare for Frightening Hours.

If you are still questioning which version of the Haunted House to bring your child to, consider how they handle scary books, movies and TV shows. If they are often afraid of spooky things outside of Halloween, they might prefer a lights-on experience for at least another year. Learn more and buy tickets!

Looking for more Halloween fun for kids?

• Create a Monster Face! Upload a photo, then morph your face into a zombie, witch, vampire, or werewolf! You can choose friendly or frightening options.
• Send a personalized Halloween eCard! Upload photos of your whole family and place them in the Wicked Workshop. Then send the card to everyone for a spook-tacular Halloween surprise!
• Get PIN-spired! From Freaky Foods to Costume Creativity, check out our Pinterest Boards to find Halloween-inspired crafts, foods, and games.

Today's guest post is by Ben Brunes, a local teen who loves to collect Hot Wheels cars! Ben is even featured in the Hot Wheels For Real™ exhibit that you can see at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis through Jan. 27, 2013.

Cool. . . exciting. . .  popular. . . valuable. . .  collectable. . . are just a few words that describe why I’m a Hot Wheels® collector! My name is Ben Brunes and I began collecting Hot Wheels cars about 4 years ago when I was 11 years old. I now belong to the Indy Hot Wheels Club of Indianapolis, Indiana. I like collecting Hot Wheels cars so much that I have more than 1,500 cars in my collection, including special edition Treasure Hunt cars, World Racer cars, Acceleracers and many special edition Red-Line cars.

I also like to draw and sketch pictures of Hot Wheel cars. After winning several art contests through the Indiana Principal’s Association, I started sending in drawing entries to the Hot Wheels magazine. Then, on my third try, they actually published one of my drawings of a ’67 Camaro in the Fall 2010 issue! It was very exciting!

Much of my Hot Wheels collection is in protective plastic packaging since I don’t have enough room to display my entire collection. I also keep some cars displayed on my desk and dresser, but have to keep many in storage so my cats don’t play racing games with them while I ‘m sleeping!

I especially like to collect muscle cars, which include Camaros, Chargers, Shelby Cobras,  Mustangs and GTO’s. When I’m shopping, I always keep my eye out for any special Treasure Hunt cars, or special edition cars and expensive models such as Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis and Audis. Maybe someday I might even have a collection of life-size models!

My favorite Hot Wheels Acceleracer cars are Rivited, Power Rage, Jack Hammer, Chicane, and Flathead Fury. My favorite World Racers are Twin Mill, which is one of the oldest cars ever made, 24/Seven and Slingshot.  I look for details like real rubber wheels and special paint colors. I collect replicas of real cars, but also really enjoy collecting made-up or fantasy styled cars. Larry Wood is my favorite Hot Wheels car designer who is well-known for both fantasy and real-life cars.

My favorite Hot Wheels track sets are the World Race Ultimate track set, and the newest Wall Tracks sets which can attach to any wall and run against the wall itself. I really like the large sets because you can combine them to make really unusual or really complex twists, turns and flips for the cars to race through. 

One of the things I really love about collecting Hot Wheels cars is that they are very inexpensive. A single Hot Wheels car only costs around one dollar! Hot Wheels cars are also the right scale size to use for HO scale model train sets when setting up train layouts. But perhaps the reason I love Hot Wheels cars the most is their size. They are nice and small so you can even carry one of your favorites around in your pocket!! Check them out, and you’ll become a collector, too!
 

By Tricia O’Connor, Former Children’s Museum Exhibit Developer

We get to do some pretty cool things at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis in the name of exhibit research. To prepare for the Hot Wheels For Real™ exhibit, a group of museum staff traveled to Los Angeles to learn about all things Hot Wheels.

We attended the 2011 Hot Wheels Collectors Convention, Mattel's Toy Fair, and then met with Mattel staff in the Hot Wheels Design Center.

On a second trip to Los Angeles, we collaborated with Hot Wheels designers to figure out some cool activities to have in the exhibit. Then we got to look at tons of cool cars, production models, and designer sketches so that we could pick out amazing objects to display in the exhibit.

As part of that process, we were able to go through the super top-secret “cage” of famous Hot Wheels designer Larry Wood. Larry started work at Mattel in 1969 and is now retired. For 40+ years, he stored Hot Wheels products and production materials in his locked cage in Mattel’s onsite warehouse.

“No one’s been through there in ages—even I’m not sure what all is in there,” said Larry.

What did we find? Check out the photos!

It’s an exciting time at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. Our exhibit, Hot Wheels For Real™, has students and visitors from around Indy, Ohio, Michigan and beyond racing to our doors.

You’ll learn a lot about the history of Hot Wheels®, as well as getting to see some amazing cars on your visit to the Children’s Museum. But did you know these amazing facts about America’s favorite cars?

1) The first Hot Wheels car that was produced was a dark blue custom Camaro in 1968. You may recognize the Camaro name from Transformers movies; Bumblebee transforms into the muscle car while saving the day. Watch Bumblebee transform at The Children’s Museum.

2) Mattel has sold more than 1 billion Hot Wheels cars since then. If they made one Hot Wheels car per minute, it would take more than 175 years to get to a billion cars, so they must be manufacturing them very quickly indeed!

3) The most anyone has ever paid for a Hot Wheels car was more than $70,000. One wealthy fan paid that price at auction for a Beach Bomb model that is extremely rare because the model wasn’t a big hit at the time of production. Now who’s laughing?

4) For the Hot Wheels 40th anniversary, a diamond-encrusted racer was commissioned to honor the occasion. Talk about extravagant. Would you like to drive a car covered in diamonds?

5) Leading up to the 2011 Indy 500, a real-life Hot Wheel car was driven by Tanner Foust down a ramp attached to a giant 10-story “door” and executed a world record jump of 332 feet. You can see a fan’s clip of the jump here. You can see a replica of this fearless jump in the exhibit!

5a) The exciting Hot Wheels For Real™ at The Children’s Museum runs until Jan. 27, 2013, so be sure to come and visit us before these cars hit the road.

 5b) Finally, you should know about this video and the 2,000-foot racetrack that was built up, down and around a Hot Wheels® fanatic’s home.

Today's post is by guest blogger Tom Nicklin, a local Hot Wheels® collector and enthusiast, and a Children's Museum of Indianapolis member. Tom's early introduction to Hot Wheels has turned into a serious hobby...

My interest in Hot Wheels started on the floor with my brother and me pushing cars around the house in long lines making engine sounds.  We would spend hours at a time playing with them, imagining driving real cars.  I played with them off and on throughout my youth but I eventually left them for plastic model kits, bikes and video games and eventually my own car. 

I discovered them again in 1997 when I happened to walk down the toy aisle at a department store and noticed the shape & scale of a Hot Wheels car—a Ferrari.  I started taking notice of other HW designs I hadn't seen before and it started clicking with me again.  I think I developed my appreciation for designs that have form following function when I was building scale model kits- ships, airplanes and cars. 

To me, Hot Wheels cars capture the essence of freedom and speed that our real cars give us and they can put you in a state of mind that was developed early on in life. 

The Hot Wheels collecting hobby can be approached in many ways, which shows when you get a group of collectors together.  No one really does it  the same way.  Some try to collect all of the different castings (body style), while others collect a particular type of car and others just a certain color.  Or it can be any combination of those and other interests.  Pink cars from the older generation Hot Wheels have become some of the most sought after and valuable cars with values surpassing $2,000 for a single car!  So far, the record highest price paid for a Hot Wheel is over $70,000- yes, the price of a house!  Pristine examples of older Hot Wheels in various colors regularly trade for $100-$500 each, so check your closets and attics!  

For me, I don't follow any particular collecting pattern, just what I find appealing.  I've been focusing my collecting for the past 10 years on the older "Redline" era Hot Wheels.  They hold the most interest (and value) for me. I have about 3,000 cars in my collection with about 180 being redlines. They're called redlines because of the red stripe that Mattel put on the side of the black wheeIs. They made cars with redlines from their first year, 1968, to 1977. They've begun putting red stripes on some models again as a tribute to the older era. 

There are many great events around the region and around the country tailored to collectors for buying, selling and just communicating with each other.  The thing I enjoy most about collecting is meeting other people in the hobby that share the same interests. Friendships are the best byproduct the hobby has. Finding a pristine car I've long looked for at a bargain is fun too!

Hot Wheel collecting can even be a form of investment if you take time to study market value trends and you're patient in buying and selling.  Some people even use the hobby as a form of income and have dedicated websites for buying and selling them, but enjoy I them too much to let a good one go!

As families and children of all ages continue to race in to see the Hot Wheels For Real™ exhibit, we reached out to local Hot Wheels® collectors from the Indy Hot Wheels Club to learn what they find so special about Hot Wheels. In this post, Peter Chen writes about his shared love for collecting Hot Wheels with his son, Simon.

Q: How long have you been collecting?

A: We attended the Hot Wheels 40th Anniversary Road Tour at the Indy MotorSpeedway in 2008, and have been hooked on Hot Wheels ever since!
 
Q: What is the most prized piece in your collection?

A: The 40th Anniversary Otto from the Indy 40th Anniversary Road Tour—it's my son's first Hot Wheels!
 
Q: Why is your collection unique?

A: We collect cars that have family meaning— we have a collection of state cars that represent all of the places my family has visited. We also have a collection of Honda cars because we drive a Honda.

Q: Why do you like collecting?

A: We like collecting because it's something we do together, as a family.  Whether it's attending a special Hot Wheels event or an Indy Hot Wheels Club meeting, or finding a new car to add to our collection, the joy we get from collecting creates family memories.