Popular toys of the last 100 years

MSNBC Forbes ^ | Updated: 9:11 p.m. ET Dec. 12, 2005 | Leah Hoffman

[dickmc]

...The 20th century saw the invention of dozens of much-loved toys as well. Still-popular board games like Tripoley, Sorry and Monopoly have been around since the 1930s, and Crayola Crayons are more than 100 years old! Twister, made by a division of Hasbro, sold more than 3 million games within a year of its release in 1966.

With the help of our friends at the Toy Industry Association, we've put together a slideshow of some of the best-selling and best-loved toys of the past 100 years. Click here for some fun facts about these fabulous toys.

[dickmc]

Any one remember View-Master?

Link to slideshow of historic popular toys is here.

Slash.dot thread is here.

[ARCADIA]

"And there's serious money to be had. Mr. Potato Head, made in 1952 by Hasbro's Playskool unit, was the first toy advertised on television, and it grossed more than $4 million in its first year (that's $30 billion in 2005 dollars)."

Huh!?!

[ARCADIA]

"And there's serious money to be had. Mr. Potato Head, made in 1952 by Hasbro's Playskool unit, was the first toy advertised on television, and it grossed more than $4 million in its first year (that's $30 billion in 2005 dollars)."

Huh!?!

[dickmc]

"And there's .... more than $4 million in its first year (that's $30 billion in 2005 dollars)."

Huh!?!

Sounds like someone had percent and forgot to divide by 100!

[MikefromOhio]

"And there's serious money to be had. Mr. Potato Head, made in 1952 by Hasbro's Playskool unit, was the first toy advertised on television, and it grossed more than $4 million in its first year (that's $30 billion in 2005 dollars)."

We've had 800000+ % inflation since then? Wow.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Vintage View Master reels available here:

http://www.3dstereo.com/viewmaster/pkt.html

[Budge]

Amazing. No BB guns, cap pistols, or even water guns mentioned.

[djf]

What I wanna know is, when I was a kid, my folks got me for Christmas this cool thing that was basically a wax mold setup. You'd plug it in, put the wax in the top, pop the plastic mold together, slide it in the bottom, then push on the plunger. The molds made little soldiers and tanks and airplanes, etc.

Try as I might, got the last 40 years, I can't remember the name! But I gotta lot of fun out of that little toy.

Mom and Dad, Merry Christmas!

[Nateman]

It would require an inflation rate of about 18% every year. Still too much obviously but not unheard of in some countries.

[359Henrie]

I remember that, just not the name.

[dickmc]

"What I wanna know is, when I was a kid, my folks got me for Christmas this cool thing that was basically a wax mold setup. You'd plug it in, put the wax in the top, pop the plastic mold together, slide it in the bottom, then push on the plunger. The molds made little soldiers and tanks and airplanes, etc."

It may have been Formex 7 Casting here.

The site is Sam's Toy Box which is a neat, well done site worth looking at. Has all kinds of games and things I remember from the 50's with lots of photos and links.

[djf]

Close... but not quite!

The one I had was pressure driven. The molds had channels in them so it would make like 10 soldiers at once, whatever. And the figures were smaller.

Whatever, it was cool!
Some of that stuff is worth a chunk a change these days!

[Khurkris]

Dude...http://www.samstoybox.com/toys/SuperInjector.html

[Northern Yankee]

I remember seeing a toy four engine prop airplane, years ago. The neighbor boy of my aunt's could start each engine individually, get the running lights going, turn on the cabin lights and the cockpit lights. He could also make it go forwards, right and left.

The coolest toy plane I have ever seen.

Never seen another one like it.

[samiam1972]

No Big Wheel? Those were the best! My brother and I rode around the concrete basement for hours one winter on those things. They are hard to find now. Everything is motorized or too fancy.

[ccwoman]

"Everything is motorized or too fancy"

How true!! I remember having to make our own "VROMM" and "eeeeek" sounds when dring our cars and bigwheels!!

[Victoria Delsoul]

I loved board games ...Pirate Snakes & Ladders, Ludo, etc.

I never had a raggedy Ann, but I had cabbage patch kids and other creatures, lol. I loved dolls as well and all the cooking set.

[caver]

Red Rider BB Gun??

[LK44-40]

Somebody asked me at work the other day if I had played with Tinker Toys as a child (not sure if I was supposed to be offended...but I wasn't).

I never owned Tinker Toys although I played with them many times.

I was seriously into All American Plastic Bricks for a few years. They were for an older cohort than TTs. I pretended to be nursing a budding interest in architecture although, truly, I was only building forts to be populated with little plastic soldiers and then assaulted with various "missles" that I would launch their way!

[Bernard]

Hey kid, you'd shoot your eye out!!