The History of Toys Over a Century

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The History of ToysOver a Century
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A Toys Debut..

• The American International Toy Fair is the toy
  trade's major annual event and the most important
  show of its kind.
• Every year established toy companies and hopeful
  inventors come to New York to showcase their
  products and, hopefully, attract buyers.
• Although there are other regional toy fairs held
  in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle, the American
  International Toy Fair is the largest, hosting
  1600 exhibitors and 20,000 buyers from around the
  United States and ninety other countries every
  year.

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A Toys Debut..

• In its ninety-six-year history, nearly every
  major toy and game sensation has debuted at the
  Toy Fair. From Monopoly and Slinky to Trivial
  Pursuit, Barbie, and the Mighty Morphin Power
  Rangers, most toys get their start during this
  four-day February event.

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A Toys Debut..

• The Toy Fair has been held every year since 1903,
  except 1945, when the show was cancelled due to
  wartime restrictions on hotel and transportation
  usage.

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1901

• At just twenty-two years old, Joshua Lionel Cowen
  creates a battery-powered train engine as an
  "animated advertisement" for products in a
  store's display window. To his surprise,
  customers are more interested in purchasing his
  toy train, than the merchandise in the display.
  Lionel Trains is born.

6
1903
Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith produce the
first box of Crayola Crayons

• .

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1929

• The yo-yo is popularized in the United States
  after entrepreneur Donald Duncan sees the toy
  being demonstrated in Los Angeles. Duncan buys a
  small yo-yo company for 25,000 and, thirty years
  later, sales of Duncan yo-yos reach 25 million
  dollars.

8
1936

• Parker Brothers introduces the game of Monopoly

9
1949
Ole Christiansen, a Danish toy maker, begins to
manufacture toy blocks with a new twist.
Christiansen creates a plastic brick that can be
locked together in different configurations. The
Lego, which comes from the Danish leg godt,
meaning "play well," was born.

• The continuing popularity of the Lego brick
  probably stems from its ability to stimulate a
  child's imagination-just six bricks fit together
  in 102,981,500 different ways.

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1952

• Edward Haas brings the Pez mint dispenser to the
  United States. It was initially unsuccessful, but
  gained popularity after Haas changed the original
  lighter-like design by adding a cartoon head and
  replacing the mints with fruit-flavored candy.

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1956

• Play-doh enters the market as a wallpaper
  cleaner. Non-toxic and less messy than regular
  modeling clay, it is soon recognized that the
  cleaner makes an excellent toy. The innovative
  product made Joe McVicker a millionaire before
  his twenty-seventh birthday. To date, 700 million
  pounds of Play-doh have been sold.

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1959

• The Barbie doll is introduced at the American Toy
  Fair in New York City by Elliot Handler, founder
  of Mattel Toys, and his wife, Ruth.

13
1960

• Ohio Art markets the first Etch-a-Sketch. They
  have since sold more than one hundred million of
  these popular drawing toys. The Etch-a-Sketch was
  invented by Arthur Granjean in the late 1950s and
  was originally called L'Ecran Magique.

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1965

• Stanley Weston creates a doll for boys based on a
  new television show called The Lieutenant. The
  doll, G.I. Joe, proves more popular than the TV
  series, to the surprise of many toy manufacturers
  who had assumed for years that boys wouldn't play
  with dolls. Interestingly, a female G.I. Joe doll
  introduced years later was a flop.

15
1973

• Dungeons Dragons is invented by Dave Arneson
  and Gary Gygax. The game creates a whole new
  fantasy/adventure category of toys, which has
  become a 250 million market.

16
1976

• Nolan Bushnell sells his video game company,
  Atari, to Warner Brothers. By 1982, Atari was
  making 2 billion a year, but lost its business
  just as quickly through over-licensing. In 1983,
  Atari sent thousands of cartridges to Texas to be
  used as landfill.

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1985

• A Japanese company, Nintendo, brings the Nintendo
  Entertainment System (NES), a home video game
  system, to the United States. With fifty-two
  colors, realistic sound, and high-speed action,
  it catches the attention of retailers who were
  initially skittish due to Atari's collapse. The
  NES, were the top-selling toys for the 1987, and
  1988 holiday seasons.

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1986

• Artist Xavier Roberts introduces his Cabbage
  Patch Kids into the mass market. Each of the
  dolls comes with an adoption certificate and
  unique name. Although more than three million of
  the dolls are produced, supply cannot keep up
  with demand. Cabbage Patch Kids become the most
  successful new dolls in the history of the toy
  industry. Roberts first designed the dolls in
  1977 to help pay his way through school. They had
  soft faces and were made by hand, as opposed to
  the hard-faced mass-market dolls, and were called
  Little People.

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1993

• Toy inventor H. Ty Warner begins to market
  understuffed plush bean bag toys called Beanie
  Babies. The toys are designed to be inexpensive
  so that a child could purchase them. Warner began
  with nine Beanie Babies (a dog, a platypus, a
  moose, a bear, a dolphin, a frog, a lobster, a
  whale, and a pig). The toys were not an instant
  success. It was only after the first eleven
  Beanie Babies were retired in 1996 that they
  became a collector's item.

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1996

• Hottest toy of the 1996 Holiday Season. The
  demand was so great people were paying thousands
  of dollars over the store price for me.

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2001

• Based on the Disney hit movie this was one of the
  many types of Monsters Inc. toys that were
  produced.

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2004
Bratz super stylin runway disco
Hulk Hands
Leapster multimedia learning system

• Debuting this year at the Toy Fair are what some
  say are this years greatest inventions by toy
  manufacturers and the anticipated hit of this
  holiday season.

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Images References List

• Slide 5
• Lionel train track. Retrieved October 7, 2004
  from
• http//www.mrtoys.com/lionel/Lionel-Riding-the-Rai
  ls-Hobo-Train-Set-6-31953.htm
• Lionel train ornament. Retrieved October 7, 2004
  from
• http//www.hookedonhallmark.com/ornaments/ornimage
  /1999/99bg1950lionelsantafe.gif
• Slide 6
• Crayola Crayons. Retrieved October 8, 2004 from
• www.crayola.com
• Slide 7
• Yo-yo. Retrieved October 8, 2004 from
• http//www.badfads.com/pages/collectibles/yoyo.htm
  l
• Slide 8
• Monopoly Games. Retrieved October 10, 2004 from
• http//cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcate
  gory19094item5925788412rd1tcphotoebayphoto
  hosting

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Images References List

• Slide 9
• Lego Set. Retrieved October 11, 2004 from
• http//www.chemicalgraphics.com/paul/images/DNA/Le
  go-big.gif
• Lego kitchen. Retrieved October 11, 2004 from
• http//www.theory.org.uk/lego-g8b.jpg
• Slide 10
• Pez. Retrieved October 10, 2004 from
• http//www.amoju.com/image/pez/f_glowPez.jpg
• Slide 11
• Playdoh bucket.Retrieved October 11, 2004 from
• http//www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000
  05YXW9/103-2349877-8883846?vglancestoysmeA3UN
  6WX5RRO2AGvipicturesimg14more-pictures
• Playdoh vintage set. Retrieved October 11, 2004
  from
• http//cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcate
  gory11740item5926610580rd1tcphotoebayphoto
  hosting
• Slide 12
• Barbies. Retrieved October 10, 2004 from
• http//www.123.cl/canales/noticias/img/barbie.gif

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Images References List

• Slide 13
• Etch a sketch. Retrieved October 10, 2004 from
• http//www.er.uqam.ca/pasteur/e320170/etch-a-sketc
  h.jpg
• Slide 14
• Gi Joe. Retrieved October 10, 2004 from
• http//cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcate
  gory14335item5925604498rd1tcphoto
• Slide 15
• Dungeons and dragons game. Retrieved October 10,
  2004 from
• http//www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail
  /- /toys/B00004YSY4/qid1097534057/sr2-1/refpd_k
  a_2_1/103-2349877-8883846
• Slide 16
• Atari game. Retrieved October 10, 2004 from
• http//images.google.com
• Slide 17
• Nintendo. Retrieved October 11, 2004 from
• http//www.nintendo.com/systemsclassic?typenes

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Images References List

• Slide 18
• Cabbage patch. Retrieved October 11, 2004 from
• http//www.cabbagepatchkids.com/
• Slide 19
• Beanies. Retrieved October 11, 2004 from
• http//www.ty.com/BeanieBabies_home
• Slide 20
• Elmo. Retrieved October 12, 2004 from
• http//cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcate
  gory19229item5925742897rd1tcphotoebayphoto
  hosting
• Slide 21
• Monsters Inc. Retrieved October 12, 2004 from
• http//cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcate
  gory348item5925786019rd1ssPageNameWDVWebay
  photohosting
• Slide 22
• All Images. Retrieved October 12, 2004 from
• http//www.spritzels.com/gifts/toys.html

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Text References

• http//www.historychannel.com/exhibits/toys/timeli
  ne.html
• Cheryl Matala