Recall the fun of childhood with these vintage toys

Entering Kkambu is like traveling back 15 or 20 years.
“I remember playing with a bunch of toys for hours and hours with friends,” says Lee Young-ho, 25, one of the co-owners of this shop. “It was so much fun, but now kids stay home and play by themselves with their PCs, which is no good.” So Mr. Lee and two friends opened Kkambu to sell the toys, games, dolls and action figures they played with as children. “I would like today’s kids to feel what I felt with all those toys,” Mr. Lee says.
Mr. Lee traveled around the country six years, patiently looking for the type of toys he used to play with as a child. He has amassed quite a collection: Bioman masks, colorful paper dolls with paper cloth to dress them in, Mickey Mouse watches, Rubik’s cubes.
Board games, a backlash against the computer-game trend, have recently made a comeback. Kkambu has vintage board games like Inspector Gadget, Goldorak, or Atom pogs ― and Mr. Lee is happy to demonstrate the games if customers do not know how to play them.
An impressive collection of robot and superhero action figures are on display, but not for sale.
Old-fashioned candies, kits for making candy and Monnani dolls are among the shop’s best sellers. One set of three dolls, each with a different facial expressions, was once thought to bring a house good luck. “They were placed on top of the television during hard times, but when things got better they were thrown away,” Mr. Lee says.
Mr. Lee has a message for the young customers who buy the antique toys and games he sells: “The feeling you have when you’re a child is really precious. Please protect and cherish it.”

Kkambu
Location: Ewha University, on street directly behind the police station.
Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily
Telephone: None
Web: www.kkambu.com

by Anne Lajoye