The Mini Time Machine – your journey through time and space in miniature
Tuesday–Sunday from 9am – 4pm
Closed Mondays
The Mini Time Machine museum is definitely a gem and for me personally, it’s the best museum in Tucson. It might be more interesting for adults than for kids as there are not a lot of interactive points, but nonetheless, it’s great entertainment for all ages!
Let me tell you first why I loved this place so much… My own passion for miniatures started in my childhood when I was looking for old miniature models of houses built by my grandfather. He bought them back in Germany and assembled them from the kits. He actually never allowed me to play with them, only to look… Now I understand why. As a kid, I could easily destroy fragile models, but at those times it deeply disappointed me.
Many years later we started building our own railroad model with my husband and it was a great pleasure and fun! Finally, I could touch all those small things on my own! At the same time, I realized how difficult is to build all that, and how much time you need to assemble something that looks so small. And so cool! Painting small figurines, attaching bushes to the landscapes, making fun road scenes in front of buildings… All those are the sweetest memories. Memories that are as strong as built miniatures are fragile.
Given all that, if I see rail road models or miniatures museums, sorry, I just can’t resist. Now back to the museum… In the case of The Mini Time Machine, nobody should resist the temptation. Just go, spend some time and I swear you’ll have an unforgettable experience.
The Mini Time Machine
The main museum collection is dedicated primarily to the houses models collected from all over the world and the earliest ones are dated at the end of the 18th century. It’s very interesting to see the interiors of different countries and how they evolved through time. That illustrates the name and the concept of the museum built by Patricia and Walter Arnell. They started their own collection in 1979 and as it was growing more and more it transformed from a private collection to a museum. Now more than 300 houses and room boxes are displayed at over 10,000 square-feet exhibit space.
The concept of “the mini time machine” was born out of the notion that a visitor would be seemingly transported to different eras by the stories and history of the pieces in the collection.
History
Miniatures exist and keep surprising us for thousands of years. Archeologists found small replicas of real things, houses, and even some sceneries in the tombs of ancient Egypt. In ancient times they primarily had religious and spiritual purposes. Some of them were telling the Bible stories like Jesus’ birth, in other countries (for instance Thailand), miniature houses served as dwellings for kind spirits.
But in the 16th in Europe, they took on a new role. The first models were actually built as replicas of real people’s houses. Done by wealthy families, they served as an illustration of their richness and inventory of their goods. Also, wealthy dads constructed them as doll houses for their lovely daughters. Although the main goal of such dollhouses was not playing but rather pursuing educational purposes. Sometimes they put themselves into the scene or their friends, or house workers. In the 19th century, those houses became alive as inventors added mechanisms that allowed small figurines to move. That was the real magic! Such mechanical houses with automated figurines were a piece of art and could be also gifted to royal persons.
As the art of miniatures was evolving, nowadays they feature all variants of creations like mythical castles or scenes from futuristic underwater homes. Modern technologies allow easily printing any digitally designed model using 3D printer, so it’s limited only to your imagination. But one thing remains unchanged… Every miniature has its own story to tell and it’s only up to us to carefully watch and listen and discover all mysteries and untold stories.
Also, you can find some miniatures in the museum that are telling such well-known world-famous stories as Sheherazade and 1001 night, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and some others.
Exhibits
The museum can be separated into the main collection and temporary exhibitions. Halloween and Christmas exhibitions got so loved by the visitors, that they permanently stay now as parts of the Enchanted Realm Gallery. Haunted mansions share the huge hall with the winter frosted sceneries and mystical lands of fairies and wizards. Besides that, there are a lot of frequently rotating exhibitions showing the diversity of art and masterpieces displaying the huge world on a small scale.
The Enchanted Tree
The Enchanted Tree has already become an iconic centerpiece of the museum. Located in the middle of Enchanted Realm Gallery, it’s over 12 feet high and has three distinct sides representing different seasons. Moving clockwise from the smiling Summer face, you’ll pass by the spooky Fall one and finish with the Winter tree appearance with hanging down icicles, snow-covered eyebrows, mustaches, and a beard. Every side of the tree has its own sound effects and different lighting.
The tree trunk is also an exhibit by itself and it opens a completely different world to the visitor – the realm of very small folks, the Mice Habitats. Those little folks are so busy with their daily routine that it seems that they will never notice a gigantic observer watching them.
Besides the mice, there’s one more hidden resident in the tree realm. But it’s not so easy to catch her! Fairy Caitlin is hiding in the huge knothole and appears there for only a couple of seconds once in a minute. A trail of sparkles moves towards a knothole, letting you know that a fairy is coming. I bet all kids love Caitlin and her magical appearance a lot!
Jim Roark’s Metal Monsters
It is a very cool collection of rusty vehicles that look like abandoned cars spent tens of years untouched in the desert. Working as a professional designer, Jim had a hobby of modeling since his childhood. He started with modeling classic automobiles from kits, but then this idea came to his mind. After that, he spent hundreds of hours building and then literally taking apart ready car models. He added layers of paint and homemade rust to decay them and so create an ideal small model of an authentic and destroyed vehicle. That looks really impressive!
The Addams Family Mini Mansion
This mansion took 10 years to be completed. Started as a doll house kit, it was completely remodeled and customized to show inspiration from the old 1960s television series and the Addams Family movies from the 1990s. Ara Bentley, the creator of this unique miniature house, put a lot of effort into every design of incredibly detailed furnishing. Every famous character is in his own place with a lot of accessories showing his or her personality and if you’ll have a chance to view it try to find it all!
After the house was partially made and she recognized that this long-running project might be successful, Ara started her youtube channel where she posted her progress and tutorials for the miniature creation. Other miniaturists were so excited by her work that they even gifted some entourage items to this amazing project. Give a try to Ara’s website and also her youtube channel with walkthroughs for her creations.
Tickets
Adult $11.50
Senior (65+) $9.50
Military $9.50
Student $8.00
Youth (ages 4–17) $8.00
Child (ages 3 and under) Free