How Incheon’s Free Toy Hospital is Revitalizing Broken Toys and Community Spirit

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EBS1’s Korean Journey, part 4 of the Value Tour series, visits a free “Toy Hospital” tucked inside an old underground shopping arcade in Incheon. Retired men in their 70s and 80s carefully repair broken toys, faded mobiles and torn dolls. Former university professors, electrical company technicians and school principals volunteer their skills, helping to revive children’s memories and offering quietly moving moments.

An aging underground arcade in Incheon shelters an unusual workshop that operates unlike a standard clinic. Visitors don’t pay for treatment; the place is a favorite for children and a trusted emergency repair spot for many parents. It’s known simply as the Toy Hospital.

There, broken toys, threadbare mobiles and dolls with their stuffing spilling out are given new life. Under the hands of the so-called toy doctors, many items are restored to their original condition. These “doctors” are retired men in their 70s and 80s who once worked in different fields—university faculty, electrical company staff and school principals—and now apply their skills and experience to help others for free.

Interestingly, the Toy Hospital is organized much like a medical clinic, dividing work by specialty—similar to family medicine and orthopedics. The entire operation runs on voluntary service. Some days dozens of packages arrive, leaving the volunteers physically exhausted. Yet a single “thank you” posted online can lift their spirits and give them renewed energy.

Each day, these “Zepetto” grandfathers in Incheon come in to restore objects that hold someone’s precious memories. As long as their caring hands continue, their warm, daily work will mean a great deal to individuals and will remind the wider community of the value of giving.

EBS1’s Korean Journey first aired in August 2009 and has become one of the network’s long-running documentary staples. The program quietly documents natural scenery, local culture and the everyday lives of people across the country.

Korean Journey emphasizes how regions and residents change with the seasons. Each week the show explores a single theme across five episodes, with each episode running about 30 minutes. The series conveys different local lifestyles and atmospheres in an unobtrusive, natural way.

The show favors a restrained directing style. Rather than staging dramatic scenes, it captures the flow and feeling of places as they are. Narration is kept calm so stories about people and nature come through plainly.

The program covers a wide range of settings—mountain villages, fishing communities, farming areas, island towns and urban neighborhoods—and consistently introduces regional life and culture that viewers rarely encounter in daily life. In that sense, Korean Journey has recorded the character and living conditions of many communities.

The series still airs regularly on EBS 1TV and brings viewers a new region and theme each week.

Korean Journey airs Monday through Friday at 9:35 p.m. Broadcast information is available on the EBS1 Korean Journey preview page.