Room Escape Artist

Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop is one of the best escape rooms around Sydney, Australia. Here are our recommendations for great escape rooms near Sydney.

Beware the Shadow Man

Location: Sydney, Australia

Date Played: March 13, 2024

Team Size: 2-8; we recommend 2-4

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $60 AUD per player for 2-3 players, $57 AUD per player for 4-8 players

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: Fully accessible

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

At once playful and ominous, Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop drew us into the alluring shadows of an old, abandoned toy store.

In all their games, The Cipher Room has especially excelled in scenic design and ambience. Building on these strengths, Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop further elevated the experience with some truly impressive theatrical reveals, both small and large. This evolution, complemented by creative, polished gameplay, propels The Cipher Room onto the global escape room map.

The puzzles in Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop were organically integrated into the props and set, which was comprised of a mix of authentically sourced vintage toys and meticulously handcrafted installations. All the coolest bits beckoned us to touch or interact with them in the coolest ways, while ensuring any fragile parts were safely out of reach.

Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop was mostly just spooky and occasionally passively scary. Even for the horror averse, I recommend keeping your eyes wide open throughout, else you miss some of the most memorable moments.

The Cipher Room is a company worth traveling to visit. Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop, La Rébellion, and The Marlowe Hotel each showcased sumptuously detailed depictions of uncommon escape room settings, while The Cabin and Espionage put artful spins on more classic themes, with gameplay that was nostalgic yet still innovative. If you have the time, none of these experiences are to be missed.

Who is this for?

• Scenery snobs
• Puzzle lovers
• Story seekers
• Any experience level

Why play?

• A plethora of spookily surreal moments
• Creative repurposing of vintage toys
• An unforgettable finale

Story

We were sent to a creepy old toy shop to investigate some strange lights and sounds that had been seen coming from inside recently, despite the fact that the store had been abandoned for over 70 years.

Setting

Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop was, appropriately, set in a creepy old toy store owned by the titular Mr Pepper. Faded red wallpaper and creaky wood-paneled floors provided the backdrop for a host of old children’s toys — a rocking horse, a vintage foosball game, and no shortage of disturbing dolls and figurines.

Gameplay

The Cipher Room’s Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around solving puzzles and making connections.

Analysis

➕ Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop played with anticipation and tension without ever getting too scary. Throughout increasingly dynamic transitions and reveals, both small and large, the scariest moments remained in our imaginations.

➕ The Cipher Room demonstrated an impeccable eye for texture, color, lighting, and shadows in every scene of Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop.

➕ For each of their experiences, The Cipher Room sourced a menagerie of perfectly thematic props, and this was especially the case in Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop. Some phenomenally creepy vintage toys served as the basis for interactions that creatively utilized these toys’ interesting features. There were a number of more fragile items in the mix, which were safely kept either up high or otherwise out of reach.

➕ A more thematic alternative to “Do Not Touch” stickers blended perfectly into the environment rather than breaking the immersion.

➕/➖ The puzzles were smooth, satisfyingly layered, and cleverly integrated into the props and environment. In certain moments, the gameplay felt overly designed just around thematic objects and could have benefited from more story-driven reasoning for the flow.

➕ A low-tech contraption evoked a strong reaction, embodying the essence of toys and play in such a joyful moment.

➕ The finesse and skill that went into crafting a very tiny scene paid off in a very big way.

➕ A magic trick of sorts was equally terrifying and delightful, at once messing with our minds and driving forward the gameplay and story.

➕ A climactic moment reached new heights without overstaying its welcome, showing tremendous restraint to great effect.

➕/➖ Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop had a simple yet clear story for players who cared about it. Small doses of narrative were presented on framed, spotlit journal pages in each space, ensuring that all players had an opportunity to read them without these papers getting tossed in a pile of discarded items or hogged by a single player, as too often happens in escape rooms with loose pages of story. While this is one of the more thoughtful approaches we’ve seen to optional story, there were opportunities to weave even more of these narrative elements and worldbuilding into the gameplay itself.

➕ Following each of their games, The Cipher Room presents players with keepsake pins specific to that room, all neatly laid out in a velvet-lined display box. The extra attention to detail helped to make a moment out of marketing in such a tasteful way.

Tips For Visiting

• Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop is located at the St. Peters location of The Cipher Room.

Book your hour with The Cipher Room’s Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: The Cipher Room comped our tickets for this game.