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Most popular toys throughout the decades. Which one did you play with?
Most popular toys throughout the decades. Which one did you play with?
Source: http://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/0...-toys-decades/
The 1910s — Teddy Bear
Left photo – A German teddy bear from around 1954. Right photo – Teddy bear from the early 1900s in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
It all began when Theodore Roosevelt was on a bear hunting trip in 1902. He had been invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino, and unlike other hunters in the group, had not located a single bear. When his assistants cornered and tied a black bear to a tree for Roosevelt to shoot it, he refused, deeming this unsportsmanlike.
A 1902 political cartoon in The Washington Post spawned the teddy bear name.
After Brooklyn shopkeeper Morris Mictom saw a political cartoon about the incident, he and his wife made a stuffed fabric “Teddy’s bear” and put it in their shop window, sparking immediate customer interest. Around the same time, a family-owned toy company in Germany began making stuffed bears of its own.
Bought in bulk by a U.S. manufacturer, the German bears officially became known as teddy bears in 1906. Other companies jumped on the bandwagon, launching an international teddy craze that hasn’t really stopped since.
Honorable mention: Erector sets, Lionel trains
Left photo – Postwar Lionel trains. Right photo – Erector set in the Museum of the City of New York.
The 1920s — Yo-Yo
Left photo – Boy playing with a terracotta yo-yo, Attic kylix, c. 440 BC. Middle photo – Lady with a yo-yo, Northern India (Rajasthan, Bundi or Kota), c. 1770 . Right photo – A 1791 illustration of a woman playing with an early version of the yo-yo, then known as a “bandalore”.
First made popular in the 1920s, yo-yo-ing remains a popular pastime of many generations and cultures. It was first invented in ancient Greece.
In 1928 Pedro Flores, a Filipino immigrant to the United States opened the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara, California. The business started with a dozen handmade toys; by November 1929, Flores was operating two additional factories in Los Angeles and Hollywood, which altogether employed 600 workers and produced 300,000 units daily.
Flores soon sold his toy company to a competitor, Don Duncan, a marketing whiz whose promotional Yo-Yo trick contests would launch the toy’s popularity into the stratosphere.
Left photo – After the yo-yo was introduced to the United States, it spread to Mexico—a pile of hand made wood Mexican yo-yos is pictured. Right photo – Modern yo-yos
Left photo – 1A (string tricks) division finalist, Augie Fash. Right photo – John Ando, a 2A (double looping) division finalist. Both – at the 2004 US nationals in Chico, California
Honorable mention: Tinker Toys, Raggedy Ann
Left photo – Tinkertoy set. Right photo – A Raggedy Ann 100 year edition doll.
The 1930s — Shirley Temple doll
Shirley Temple in Glad Rags to Riches, 1933.
Those curls, those dimples…who wouldn’t want a doll version of Shirley Temple? For Christmas in 1934, the Ideal Toy and Novelty Company began manufacturing a doll based on America’s favorite child star, whose hit movie “Bright Eyes” was released just after the holiday.
Only 6 years old at the time, Temple already had some 20 films under her tiny belt. By singing, dancing and being generally adorable, she helped countless people escape their worries during the Great Depression when they desperately needed to.
Priced at around $3 to $5 (a large sum of money at the time) the dolls made some $45 million for Ideal over seven years of production and enjoyed an afterlife as prized collectors’ items: As of 2010, an original Shirley Temple doll went for more than $1,500 on eBay.
Honorable mention: Monopoly, Red Ryder BB gun
The original Monopoly board patent.
Two Red Ryder BB Guns in a box
The 1940s — Slinky
Left photo – Metal Slinky. Right photo – Rainbow Slinky.
The toy was invented and developed by naval engineer Richard T. James in 1943 and demonstrated at Gimbels department store in Philadelphia in November 1945. The toy was a hit, selling its entire inventory of 400 units in ninety minutes.
James and his wife Betty formed James Industries in Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania to manufacture Slinky and several related toys such as the Slinky Dog and Suzie, the Slinky Worm.
Slinky (1946).
In 1960, James’ wife Betty became president of James Industries, and, in 1964, moved the operation to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1998, Betty James sold the company to Poof Products, Inc.
Honorable mention: LEGOs, Silly Putty
Left photo – Silly putty dripping. Right photo – Lego Color Bricks.
The 1950s — Mr. Potato Head
Original 1952 Mr. Potato Head Funny Face Kit.
Mr. Potato Head was “born” on May 1, 1952. The original toy cost $0.98, and contained hands, feet, ears, two mouths, two pairs of eyes, four noses, three hats, eyeglasses, a pipe, and eight felt pieces resembling facial hair.
The original Mr. Potato Head kit did not come with a potato “body”, so parents had to provide their own potato into which children could stick the various pieces. Shortly after the toy’s initial release, an order form for 50 additional pieces was enclosed in every kit.
Mr. Potato Head Celebrates a Birthday in Lima, Peru.
On April 30, 1952, Mr. Potato Head became the first toy advertised on television. It was invented by the toy inventor George Lerner who later sold the idea to a cereal company for $5,000. Later, he showed the idea to showed the idea to Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld, who are the establishers of Hasbro and who created the Mr. Potato Head toy.
Honorable mention: Hula Hoop, Barbie, Play-Doh, Tonka Trunks (The ‘50s was a golden age for toys!)
First photo – Girl twirling a Hula hoop, 1958. Second photo – The first Barbie doll -introduced in both blonde and brunette in March 1959. Third photo – Play-Doh modeling clay. Last photo – Tonka Toys.
The 1960s — G.I. Joe
Original G.I. Joe lineup.
The conventional marketing wisdom of the early 1960s was that boys would not play with dolls, thus introduced as a kind of male counterpart to Mattel’s iconic Barbie, the “Government-Issue Joe” (as ordinary soldiers were known during World War II) was described not as a doll, but as an “action figure”.
It has since become the generic description for any poseable doll intended for boys, while the word “doll” was never used by Hasbro or anyone involved in the development or marketing of G.I. Joe.
“America’s movable fighting man” is a registered trademark of Hasbro, and was prominently displayed on every boxed figure package. The Hasbro prototypes were originally named “Rocky” (marine/soldier) “Skip” (sailor) and “Ace” (pilot), before the universal name G.I. Joe was adopted. One of the prototypes would later sell in a Heritage auction in 2003 for $200,001.
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