In the Gift Shop at the Museum

[vilakins]

Yesterday, kerravonsen and I went to the Auckland Museum where we saw a doodlebug, a Spitfire, a torpedo, a gun bigger than Bayban's, three stained-glass windows with a military theme, a creepy gas mask, retro future furniture, a monster ammonite, a Maori cultural show, and some very bizarre gift items in the shop, most of them due to the current Darwin exhibition (I mean, plush Darwins!)

All of my pictures of the above are in this gallery, but here's a selection.


Huge fossilised ammonite--this monster is bigger than me and took three days to uncover.


Maori warriors posing for us after the cultural show kerravonsen and I went to.


Plush Darwins! And they all look so unhappy.


Pile of plush Galapagos turtles with a Darwin plushie on top


Great Scientists Finger Puppets: Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin.


Assorted finger puppets: Click to see the full size one: Thomas Edison, William Shakespeare, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Anna Freud, Edgar Allan Poe, plus two plush Galilei in front!


Great Psychologists Finger Puppets: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Anna Freud, and a couch!


Racing Nuns! I don't know why.

Comments

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I think the Darwins all look really surprised rather than unhappy. Maybe someone just told them about the tide of creationism in the US?

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Doggone it, I was gonna make that joke (more or less) and you beat me to it. :)

And, man, I want those scientist finger puppets. I don't know why. But I do. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I was extremely tempted too, but wondered how often I'd use them. But they're magnetic! You can stick them to your fridge!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Perhaps 'distressed' is more the word. :-)

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

That is one huuuge ammonite. Very creepy gas masks.

The Maori warriors mugging for the camera are cute as are the Darwin plushies! And great psychologist finger puppets with their own couch! heh

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The couch featuring as a Great Psychologist really tickled me.

[nautile26.livejournal.com]

The plush Darwins are very cute. Perhaps they're unhappy at always being portrayed as old men. Darwin was only in his 20's when he sailed on the Beagle. I guess 'old' scientists are more convincing than young ones.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Or there's a portrait of him that entered the public consciousness like that engraving of Shakespeare.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

Oh, I want the plush Darwins!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Aren't they cute! The range is called something like Unemployed Philosophers.
[googles] Here's the site with the full range! (http://www.philosophersguild.com/index.lasso?page_mode=Home&category=Little%20Thinker) We've both been sitting here cackling at the characters.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Our Darwin is Erasmus, Charles' grandfather. The Science and Engineering Society organise a memorial lecture each November. This year, Prof Steve Jones on "Why Evolution is right and Creationism wrong"

I want Racing Nuns

[quarryquest.livejournal.com]

My dad taught Steve Jones. He send one of his books to him with a lovely little note that his history lessons at school helped him on his way to thinking out of the box. Dad was must chuffed.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Dad was must chuffed.

I bet he was, to be remembered like that.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you can buy them there. And I've just watched the Sarah Jane ep with the nuns. :-P

[executrix.livejournal.com]

The bearded Darwins remind me of a puppypile of Dumbledores distressed by revelations about their private lives.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They do!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

There's something strangely beguiling about a James Joyce finger puppet.

[shimere277.livejournal.com]

I want the great psychologists. The idea of sticking a finger up Freud is perversely appealing...and I could stage combats to the death with Jung.

The Racing Nuns look alarmed. I feel like they ought to be posed in compromising scenes with Galileo and Darwin.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

The Racing Nuns look alarmed. I feel like they ought to be posed in compromising scenes with Galileo and Darwin.

They still move!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They look very alarmed! I considered buying them and racing them pursued by Daleks.

[san-valentine.livejournal.com]

Your museums have better gifts than I've ever seen in any other museum shop. I think it would be worth travelling to New Zealand just for a set of Racing Nuns.

The plushie Darwins are fab too. Perhaps theur strange expression is because they've just seen the Racing Nuns.

And what a bizarre selection of finger puppets ! Do you think they sell many Emily Dickinson finger puppets ? Actually, I'm now beginning to feel like I've wandered into the Jasper Fforde's universe, with Milton conventions and Willspeak machines. I bet Thursday Next has a Shakespeare finger puppet somewhere.

I love that the psychiatrists come with a couch finger puppet ! Did they run out of famous psychologists, do you think ? How to tell if you're the unpopular kid - you always get given the couch to play.

[kerravonsen]

I bet Thursday Next has a Shakespeare finger puppet somewhere.

LOL!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I think it would be worth travelling to New Zealand just for a set of Racing Nuns.

I'm pretty sure they're imported; most things are. I've found the other items on line and will put up a new post. I'll google those too; you never know.

Do you think they sell many Emily Dickinson finger puppets ?

Well, there was only one there. Perhaps the American tourists did a run on them.

The couch is so funny! It's a character in its own right!

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

And how come they have an intact doodlebug, those things normally explode.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It obviously didn't, and it looked as if it had been panel-beaten back into shape. I'm assuming they removed the bomb. ;-)

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

The nuns look... filthy.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I think they look as if they're fleeing from Daleks.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

Very nice... those plush Darwins need some hugs, I think. :-p

I've seen the Racing Nuns in the Newmarket Magazzino shop... right beside a George Bush Voodoo Doll kit. 0_o

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the site I link to in my next post sells "Axis of Evil" finger puppet sets which include George Dubya, and they double as pincushions. ;-)

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

Perfect! :-p