In Madrid, the “Toy Hospital” is experiencing its last Christmas
Antonio Martínez Rivas learned at his father’s side to fix toys, which were then sent to him from Spain and Europe. With the programmed disappearance of the workshop, due to the lack of buyers, a whole part of the history and spirit of the game disappears.
Antonio Martínez Rivas, 70, sews a soft toy “The Lion King” in the “Hospital del Juguete” (Toy Hospital) workshop, in Madrid on December 20, 2022.
Oscar del Pozo/AFP
With his white coat on and a screwdriver as a scalpel, Antonio Martínez Rivas examines a remote-controlled car in Madrid’s “Toy Hospital”, a unique workshop that will close its doors after half a century of repairs.
Looking focused behind his glasses, this passionate 70-year-old “doctor”, who will retire on December 31, is busy on his operating table a few days before last Christmas in his workshop.
“Now I’m going to fix it,” said this mustachioed man, with a terrifying voice, to one of the clients, referring to the third cancer he was battling.
Lit in pale neon and lined with tools and spare parts, his operating table is a veritable corner of Ali Baba’s cave where thousands of colorful toys overflow from shelves to ceiling.
Dolls, board games, stuffed animals and wooden horses sent from Spanish clients but also from France, the United Kingdom, Portugal and even Uruguay: his workshop is also a time machine to the beginning of the last century.
“We were the only ones to dedicate ourselves to (restoration) any kind of game” in Spain, confirms this madril man, who learned with his father a craft “that we do not teach in any academy”.
“spirit of the game”
And Antonio Martinez Rivas notes that the clients “who come in the most are adults who are nostalgic for what they had as children.”
Some tell me Don’t change it, if you put in a new filling, go for the same filling because that’s the soul of the gameWhen other people “talk to their doll,” he notices earnestly before being interrupted by a customer.
David Hennogal, 40, came to collect a stuffed monkey that shrieked when pressed on its stomach.
“It’s a gift I brought to my mother-in-law,” from a trip to Mexico, “and we’re very attached to it,” confides this tourism employee with a smile.
Curious people sometimes cross Spain to see Antonio’s studio, like Julia Fernandez, who came from Barcelona with her husband. “We knew the toy hospital was about to close,” she explains, “and it seemed very interesting for us to visit.”
“It’s art and we get nostalgic” from her shop, exclaims the 60-year-old teacher who saw in the workshop a small slide projector and a horse made of paper similar to what she had in her childhood.
Recycling and video games
“It’s a shame it closed (…) because it’s a way of recycling games, of not consuming more,” said David Hennogal.
Putting an end to this family adventure, Antonio Martinez Rivas adds, “We have to give value to the game” because “if we continue like this, we will be overwhelmed by waste.”
His father opened a small craft toy factory in 1945 before gradually going into reforms in the face of the massive arrival of plastic toys in the 1950s and 1960s, which he was unable to produce.
“When I got back from college, around 12-13 years old, I finished my homework and sat with (my dad) at the workbench, learning “a profession consisting of DIY (do it yourself), arts and crafts, watchmaking, mechanics or electricity,” he recalls. .
Antonio, who took over from his father in the 1970s and has no staff, for his part has had to come to terms with the arrival of video games, which has led to a waning interest in traditional games. “Now they’re all with the tablet, mobile phone or console,” he laments.
Because of his many children, he never reprendre the affaire and his rare stagiaires pass by the boutique ont bien compris «that ça ne paye pas», éplore-t-il, en évoquant a major salaire de «8 to 10 euros de the hour”.
“After so many years of work, all you’re left with are emotions and sadness, because there are so many clients who are no longer just clients but friends,” he says.
In his honor, his friends, who willingly helped him, put up a sign behind the counter: Here, “We sell (almost) everything” except “Chef”.
France Press agency
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