00:03Hi, I'm Pamela. Hi, I'm Isaac from Toy Doctor. We fix your soft toy, we mend your cho-chow.
00:11Let's say buy a toy from Basse Mak Lam. It's cheap. The person who make it use inferior material,
00:17so they don't look into bologuing the lifespan of the toy. They don't think that you will use it
00:22for 20 to 30 years. So it's not just restoration. You have to think, you know, how to make this
00:27toy
00:28better so that you can stay with the owner for a longer period.
00:30Can you see the doctor now? All right, all right.
00:36Welcome to Toy Doctor. Thank you. So, can I take a look here? Yeah. Wow, it's so big.
00:40Okay, I didn't know it's so big. Yeah, I wasn't kidding. It's giant. It's been through a lot.
00:45If you look at the seams, multiple attempts. It's quite dirty, so you require a wash and
00:51a restuff as well? That's right. Okay, good.
00:56One of the services we offer is cloning or replication. So a customer brought in an elephant.
01:03As you can see, the old fabric is very brittle, so it's quite difficult for us to sew again. They
01:09even
01:10use tape. Based on the customer's specification, they say they want printed fabric, so we go around
01:18shopping. This is a mock-up. Let the customer approve. If everything is good, then we'll use the fabric that
01:23we
01:23purchase to create the elephant for him. The first step is that we need them to let us know what
01:31material they need. I hunt everywhere for pattern and then send to them. In the end, they say they
01:37like this one. And if I'm not wrong, this one is from here. I think it's down here. I can't
01:43remember where.
01:43So usually, I might spend a bit of time in a certain shop because I might be looking for few
01:49pieces for some customer.
01:53There was this hippo that we received. The soft toy maker actually used a kind of nylon rope to make
02:03the
02:04nostrils for the toy. The lady wants us to replace that. So it can be anything.
02:09It's like every job is like a puzzle. Yes. So when you take the toy to us, we will look
02:14at it and we will
02:15try to suggest some better solution than the original. Some of them, they say, like what the original?
02:21But we will tell them that you're going to do it this way, you're going to come back to me
02:23again.
02:24So it's not just restoration. You have to think, you know, how to make this toy better so that you
02:29can stay
02:29with the owner for a longer period of time. White colour. Yeah, white colour. Ah, white colour. Yes.
02:35So now we got those sales. It's 50% over per yard. Yeah, so we're getting a good deal.
02:45Okay, thank you. Thank you.
02:49So we started out as toy makers. Back in 2016, there's this lady who had this check-up cap which
02:55she wanted to get it fixed. But she couldn't find anyone to do it for her. So she thought that
02:59the
02:59next best thing to look for is actually somebody who makes soft toy. That's how she found us. We just
03:05do the fixing for her on the spot and then she blocked about us. And then suddenly there's a lot
03:09of
03:09inquiries coming in. And that's where we realised there are people out there who read our services. So
03:15that's why we started this business called Software Hospital. Two years ago, Mandai actually approached
03:21us. She says like, if we build a hospital for you, can both of you run it? We nearly fall
03:25off our chair
03:25because we're thinking, why would you want to have toy restoration in the zoo?
03:30Toy Doctor actually is located right here in Mandai Mandai Reserve. In Mandai, we sell a lot of plush toys,
03:36always our number one bestsellers. And as the years go by, we see a lot of guests coming back to
03:42ask us
03:42if we can repair their beloved plush toys that they have gotten it from our parks many, many years ago.
03:47So that's when we started to think about, hey, we can also do something to bring the idea of
03:51restoration and conservation of beloved plush toys back into Mandai.
03:58Since there's a hole ready, so we will open from here to remove all the stuffing.
04:05Then we can proceed with the washing. After some time, we realised that the number one cause for
04:15toys to be damaged, do you all know what is it? It's actually human.
04:23If you would have, let's say, a few thousand dollar dress, then how would you wash it? Do you
04:28throw it into the washing machine? You don't, right? You tell me that, oh, I would hand wash
04:31because it's delicate. So I said, that's exactly what you should do for a soft toy.
04:34And some mothers say, yeah, wash so many times in the washing machine, no issue.
04:39Yeah, but we do not know when such accident will happen. We are using natural, no chemical
04:46washing agents. Yeah, all plant-based. When we use hand, right, we have the tendency to do this.
04:53Yeah. So use a brush, something soft that can help you to brush off the dust.
05:03Sun is actually not good for the fabric. So prolonged period in the sun will cause discoloration
05:11and also the fabric turning brittle. Before we leave the office, we actually switch on the
05:16dehumidifier to absorb all the moisture.
05:23I think super the biggest toy we receive is about 1.8 meter. How much we charge for the 1
05:30.8 meter?
05:31To wash and be stuffed, I think a few hundred dollars. 200 plus. They quoted me, I think it's
05:37about 500 dollars. I recall it's about 120 dollars. It'll be 180 dollars. All right. All right.
05:44Money is not an object because these are two dolls that I want to keep for quite a while. It's
05:49quite
05:49strange. When I see a doll with eyes and face, to me, that's almost like something that's live. I
05:55like cannot just stick and throw. Let's say that if it's too exorbitant, I'll still keep them in that
06:00condition. But okay, a few hundred dollars for them to repair, I think it's quite an invisible thing. And
06:05I know that it's quite difficult for them to hand sew it in. Let the professionals handle it.
06:10It has been with me since growing up, so I thought I'll just preserve it as much as possible
06:16over buying a new one. Where probably the cost of repairing is much more than purchasing a new one.
06:22Who gave you a tiger?
06:24Papa.
06:26In 2022, which is the year of tiger, ESO came back with the Baby Tiger Series. So I just collect.
06:33I would expect to be having kids, so I just thought, collect the colours, pass it down to them.
06:47Hi, hello. Welcome back.
06:50Okay.
06:51Wow! Oh my god. This, it looks like not the first time I got it off the shelf.
06:57Whenever a toy is fixed, we are not only happy for the toy.
07:03Yeah, because it's like we did the job. But when we see the customer receiving the toy,
07:08the way they express themselves and the bonding with the toy, I think that is one of the great
07:14satisfaction.
07:15When I was working as a centre manager, every day is just working. You don't feel like what you do
07:21actually have an impact on somebody's life. Toy restoration is a bit different. Somebody actually
07:26bring a toy, feeling sad, and then after you fix it, the person becomes happy. Yeah,
07:30that's the human connection there. How long would you say you want to keep on this one?
07:34As long as we can be. As long as my eyes can still see, I can still stitch.
07:39As long as my head is not shaking.
07:46I didn't want to let it go. I was like, uh, can I hold on to it while the doctor's
07:53talking to me?
07:53I think it's just a picture, I would beгляд.
07:58And if I leave.
08:05I won't do it yet.
08:06Okay, keep on listening.
08:07I hope you enjoyed, so as long as you watch it.
08:07I think I love that fact is not what you see, but there is...
08:07I hope you, too!
08:07You should see what you see.
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