The stores that line the toy market street called Pasar Gembrong in East Jakarta are packed with big Doraemon, Hello Kitty and Snoopy toys, wooden trucks and plastic swords.

The line of shops stretches over a hundred meters of the busy road, near Jatinegara area.

Most of the shops are open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Kid's heaven: A visitors looks for toys at Gembrong toy market on Jl. Basuki Rahmat in East Jakarta. (JP/Agnes Winarti)

In one shop, Barbie-look-alike dolls peer from a basket, their blue eyes glaring at customers while they sit still like pageant queens waiting to be graded.  

They do not have “Barbie” branded on their packaging, and they cost a lot less than their picture-perfect, plastic sisters.

However, they have the same blonde or brown hair, flexible arms and legs, and impossibly slim waist.

Here a “fake Barbie” doll will cost you Rp 15,000, while the real deal at department stores will set you back about Rp 120,000.

Motorbikes are parked carelessly along the street, while their owners pace the market, bargaining for monsters, remote-control cars, fishing games or live turtles.

Buyers might have a fun time choosing between a green-eyed robot or a dollhouse for their tomboy niece.

One couple, still on their motorbike, pulls up in front of a shop. They ask how much a Raggedy Ann doll with orange hair costs.

The market is located in South Cipinang. If you are traveling from the Jatinegara bridge parallel to the south-bound toll road, turn left before the Pisangan tollgate.

The first shop starts there. It is a one-way road.

It is best to park your car at the other end of the market, where the street is wider.

If you follow the road, you will get to Duren Sawit and Pondok Gede in eastern Jakarta. The first U-turn will take you back to Central Jakarta via Jl. Casablanca.

A lot of people visit the market on weekdays, browsing the shops brimming with toys.

On weekends, however, the market attracts even more visitors, with children tugging at their parents’ arms, bouncing between shops.

Besides toys made in China, the market also sells locally made toys like wooden bajaj and public minibuses.

“People often ask for them, but the toy suppliers have not brought any new bajaj over the past two weeks,” a vendor said. “We have becak [pedicab] though.”

But they were plastic becak, and they did not look like the becak that used to roam Jakarta’s streets. They looked like rickshaws in China.  

Pets are also for sale at the market. Half way along the market, little bunnies in a cage munch on tiny portions of green vegetables.

They are on sale for Rp 40,000 each. Bunnies with floppy ears are sold at Rp 150,000.

The toy market also has shops of plastic accessories and colorful bags. Many of the toys and accessories have “Made in China” stamps.

Many others were made locally, such as stuffed animals from Bandung, West Java.

They are almost no different than the ones at shopping centers. But here, you can bargain for everything.

If you would like to try your luck at bargaining, start with half the price, then you will meet the agreed digits somewhere in the middle.

You can take a tiger, or a dolphin, with a price tag of Rp 80,000 home for Rp 60,000. (iwp)

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