A kiddy ride maker's life of creating happy childhood memories

SINGAPORE — Mr Lee Kim Leng looked as us keenly, a steady and bright-eyed gaze that belie his 78 years. He waved his hand animatedly to interrupt his daughter, Catherine, in mid-sentence. Leaning forward, he pressed his throat and tried correcting in Hokkien what she just told us in a hoarse, nearly inaudible murmur.

Catherine cracked up. “My father said he paid S$3,000 for his first kiddy ride he bought, not S$2,000!” the jovial 47-year-old explained. “Yes, that was a lot of money back in 1980.”

Mr Lee smiled and nodded, pleased she had gotten it right.

Dressed in a pair of bermudas and a loose singlet — with a towel wrapped nonchalantly around his neck to cover the scar from removing his voice box in a surgery in 1996 following a stage-four cancer discovery — Mr Lee remains sprightly and productive at his age. He potters purposefully around his workshop, Woo Hock Trading, tucked in a small lane off Serangoon Gardens.

According to Catherine, he spends his days fiddling with old mechanisms, inventing little knick knacks such as windmills, tending to his plants and just spending time with his 11 grandchildren and other babies — the duck, the train, the flying man, and the giraffe among others. These are all kiddy rides he has restored, repaired and produced in the course of 36 years, stored lovingly on the shelves of the workshop.

And Mr Lee is every bit as passionate about them, sharing their stories enthusiastically, through the help of Catherine and 19-year-old granddaughter Olenka Lim, despite his limited ability to speak.

Starting with the first kiddy ride he purchased in 1980, Mr Lee went around the island buying these rides to repair, upgrade and sell them again as a side business. He was then working in a factory for English firm Avery Weigh-Tronix, which produces weighing machines (remember those hefty-looking weighing machines by the corner of shopping malls?).

Coin-operated kiddy rides were all the rage in the 1980s and 1990s, placed outside mum and pop stores in the heartlands, at the supermarkets and in malls to entice kids — and their weary parents — to spend some time there.

The kiddy rides Mr Lee worked on could be found across the island and even in the region. He made improvements to them along the way: Changing and insulating the motors to prevent electrocution, installing musical boxes as not every ride came with music back then, and creating a bigger box base to hold the kiddy ride. Mr Lee even designed and produced his own creations, including a duckling, a scooter, a plane and a boat using moulds and models.

But one particularly memorable one was roundly rejected by vendors. “My vendors were asking me if it was a pig. And said it was unsuitable for Muslim children,” recalled Catherine. “Others said it resembled a cow and asked why did I bring them a bear? Anyway, it was very unsuccessful.” Turns out, that confusing creature was that of a Merlion. “Really hard to make a fibreglass mould that looks like the Merlion lah,” sighed Catherine with a guffaw.

Mr Lee and his kiddy rides came into the limelight recently thanks to social media and commercial photographer Nicky Loh, who is in the process of documenting old shops for a personal project. The 34-year-old tracked Mr Lee down, and his still-life, studio-like shots of Mr Lee’s creations — taken at the workshop itself — were a hit after Loh uploaded them onto his Facebook page last month.

“I’d been persuading Catherine and Mr Lee for about three weeks to do a shoot. Finally one Sunday, Catherine said they were free,” shared Loh. “I hired an assistant and brought proper lighting to set up a studio right here at Mr Lee’s workshop.”

While Loh expected people to enjoy the photos, given the popularity of nostalgia, he was surprised by how some even went down to buy these kiddy rides upon seeing the photos. “One guy went down to buy one the very day he saw the pictures and uploaded a photo of himself with his ride as he was so proud of it,” said Loh. Catherine revealed two rides have been sold since and she is in talks with someone who wants to buy several and ship them overseas. Mr Lee’s kiddy rides are priced at around S$800.

Loh’s efforts were not the first time Mr Lee’s kiddy rides have been immortalised. Design writer and researcher Justin Zhuang covered Mr Lee in the now defunct online journal FiveFootWay in 2012; National Heritage Board featured him as part of its Episodes film project that same year and homegrown retailer Little Drom Store has created badges and postcards with the images of Mr Lee’s kiddy rides.

It begs the question if we were all anxiously clinging on to the romantic nostalgia of a trade we know deep down will be lost soon.

“Yah, my father is aware,” said Catherine. “How (does) he feel? Sad and kind of heartbroken, but what to do? Kids these days aren’t as interested in these rides and the new ones, are much fancier with computer screens. Those are made in China. But he’s also very happy that there are many people who’re interested to know more, and some who would even buy these rides to keep a piece of history.”

Some of Mr Lee's rides can still be found in the heartlands, such as at the cake shop located at Blk 304 Serangoon Avenue 2 and at Teck Chua Medical Hall at Hougang. These shop owners have also become friends over the last 30 years. “They don’t want to raise the prices of the rides and said 50 cents is good enough,” said Catherine. “It’s not about the money. The rides are just there for kids to have a bit of fun with.”

While chatting with the Lees, I showed Mr Lee and Catherine a picture of my two-year-old daughter on a Donald Duck kiddy ride at the Singapore Arts Museum and remarked how young children still get excited about such rides.

“Yes, this one was done by us! Our rides have a big box base. I remember the lady who bought this and decided to spray paint it neon green,” enthused Catherine. Mr Lee peered closely at my phone and he broke into a grin.