Former TV station director Zhang Yang and his wife Zhang Zhan play with metal toys. [China Daily]

For most native Beijingers who were born in the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s, one of their most precious toys is likely to be a "pecking rooster", a metal toy that looks like two roosters perched on a rod that lower their heads and peck at a plate in turn.

The pecking roosters, along with thousands of other metal toys, became a favorite toy of millions of children and a precious childhood memory.

But because of the potential harm their sharp edges might do to children's fingers and the boom in plastic toys, the formerly dominant toys had gradually disappeared by the early 1990s.

But for Zhang Yang, a former television station director and fervant metal toy collector, the old toys still hold a strong fascination.

"I won my wife's heart with a 'pecking rooster'," he said with a smile.

"I gave her the rooster but she didn't pay much attention to it at first.

"When she took it home, her father really took a shine to it."

And the father's love soon affected his daughter and Zhang won the heart of his wife, Zhang Zhan.

The romantic love story started as a childhood dream.

"I was a crazy metal toy lover when I was a child," Zhang said. "When I became an adult, I got a present of a metal train from my cousin and that rekindled my interest."

Since then, Zhang has collected more than 10 classifications of 1,500 metal toys for more than 12 years.

On June 1, 2008, International Children's Day, he managed to pile up all his collections into a 10-square-meter house in Xitao Hutong, Xicheng district, to open a private toy museum.

"The 1,500 pieces seem to be a little bit overwhelming for the space," Zhang said, opening the door at 7 pm after coming back from work. From then until midnight, Zhang and his wife are prepared to happily meet visitors who could be a friend, a friend's friend, a netizen, or a total stranger.

In the tiny room borrowed from his parents-in-law, hundreds of various metal cars, buses, figures and animals fill the shelves and dozens of guns and airplanes hang from the ceiling.

"What I've collected is just the tip of the iceberg," he said.

According to historical material, he said, metal toys with serial numbers made in China during the 1960s reached 7,000 different types. The range increased still further during the following decades.

The private museum has received guests from a wide range of post-50s people recalling their childhood memories. It has also drawn young designers seeking inspiration, Japanese toy collector Teruhisa Kitahara and well-known Olympic champions from all over the world.

The host and hostess often proudly demonstrate how their various toys work to visitors, explaining the history, production background and how they got them.

Visitors are also free to touch and play with anything they are interested in.

Those who arrive around dinnertime are even welcome to have a bowl of fried bean-paste noodles with the couple.

A netizen named Litao1020 wrote in his blog after visiting Zhang's toy museum: "My childhood dribs and drabs were suddenly all back in front of me when I saw this huge collection."

Zhang says it has been a lifetime obsession.

"My spare time has all been spent on treasure hunting," he said, recalling how he ran after a waste collector one time and how he has haggled with toy peddlers.

"I've become a celebrity in the toy-collecting community so dealers raise the price a lot when they find out I'm the buyer."

The couple has visited most second-hand markets in China, and also in foreign countries including Germany, Japan, Singapore, Italy and France.

"Every time when we find an old metal toy with the logo 'Made in China' in foreign countries, we always have a strong desire to bring it back to its homeland."

Even the couple's wedding ceremony in 2008 became a metal toy recycling site.

"All friends brought as many metal toys as they could for wedding gifts," the wife recalled. "One of them gave us 500 metal spring frogs!"

Now, with collecting metal toys becoming fashionable again and with more people are seeking commercial opportunities from it, the couple still insists it's the metal toys' charm that holds them, not their value.

"It was not until I began to collect those artworks that I realized metal toys used to be such an important light industry in China's history," Zhang said.

As the couple both work in the television industry, Zhang and his wife are preparing to make a documentary about the development of the metal toy. They are also looking for a formal space to display their collection.

"Now, we feel like our responsibility is to let more people know about its history and glory," Zhang said.

(China Daily November 16, 2010)