Story is a bit dated but thought you might like it anyway. I’m condensing the article cause it’s so long. The criteria seems subjective, but nevertheless it is a bit interesting to find the toy of your birth year. Mine was the frisbee.
TOY INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES ITS
“CENTURY OF TOYS LIST”
NEW YORK, January 20, 2003 - From Lionel® trains to Lite-Brite®, there’s a toy on this list for everyone. Toy Industry Association (TIA™) has released a list of one hundred of the industry’s most memorable and creative toys from the past century.
Selecting toys for the Century of Toys List involved a very stringent review process, which began with a list of criteria to establi***he benchmark. With an initial list in hand, a variety of veterans throughout the industry, including members of the Toy Industry Hall of Fame, toy design professionals, and the TIA Executive Committee were involved to narrow down the list of 100, and helping to ensure the integrity of the list.
TIA, formerly known as Toy Manufacturers of America (TMA®), was established in 1916 as the trade association for North American producers and importers of toys, games and entertainment products for children and families. TIA also owns and operates American International TOY FAIR™, a trade-only event, held each February at the Javits Convention Center and at showrooms in Manhattan’s Toy District.
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CENTURY OF TOYS LIST
Year Introduced Product Name Manufacturer at time of Introduction Current Manufacturer
1900 Lionel Trains Lionel LLC Lionel LLC
1903 Crayola Crayons Binney & Smith, Inc. Binney & Smith, Inc.
1903 Flinch Card Game Flinch Game Company Winning Moves, Inc. (license of Hasbro, Inc.)
1903 Teddy Bears Ideal Commonwealth, Gund, Russ Berrie and others
1906 Model T Ford diecast car Tootsietoy/Strombecker Corp. Tootsietoy/Strombecker Corp.
1913 Erector Set
of those, I have had many at various stages in my life, including:
1900 Lionel Trains Lionel LLC Lionel LLC
1903 Crayola Crayons Binney & Smith, Inc. Binney & Smith, Inc.
1913 Erector Sets A.C. Gilbert BRIO Corporation
1913 Tinkertoys Toy Tinkers Playskool, div. of Hasbro, Inc.
1916 Lincoln Logs John Lloyd Wright, Inc. K’NEX Industries, Inc.
1917 Radio Flyer Wagon Radio Flyer, Inc. Radio Flyer, Inc.
1929 Yo-Yo Duncan Toy Company Duncan Toy Company
1935 Monopoly Parker Brothers Hasbro, Inc.
1938 View-Master 3-D Viewer View-Master Fisher-Price, div. of Mattel, Inc.
1947 Tonka Trucks Tonka Hasbro, Inc.
1948 Cootie Schaper Milton Bradley, div. of Hasbro, Inc.
1948 Scrabble Game Selchow & Righter Milton Bradley, div. of Hasbro, Inc.
1948 Slinky James Industries James Industries
1949 Candy Land Milton Bradley Milton Bradley, div. of Hasbro, Inc.
1949 Clue Parker Brothers Hasbro, Inc.
1950 Silly Putty Peter Hodgson Binney & Smith, Inc.
1952 Mr. Potato Head Playskool Playskool, div. of Hasbro, Inc.
1953 Colorforms Colorforms University Games
1954 Matchbox Cars Lesney Mattel, Inc.
1956 Play-Doh Kenner Hasbro, Inc.
1956 Yahtzee Game E.S. Lowe Company Milton Bradley, div. of Hasbro, Inc.
1957 Frisbee Wham-O Wham-O
1958 Hula Hoop Wham-O Wham-O
1967 Battleship Milton Bradley Milton Bradley, div. of Hasbro, Inc.
1972 Uno Card Game International Games Mattel, Inc.
1978 Simon Electronic Game Milton Bradley Milton Bradley, div. of Hasbro, Inc.
1980 Rubik’s Cube Ideal Hasbro, Inc.
1989 Super Soaker Larami Hasbro, Inc. Jr has a couple
1992 K’NEX Building Sets K’NEX Industries, Inc. K’NEX Industries, Inc. My son and I built a number of these when he was 4,5,6 - he has since lost interest
2000 Razor scooter Razor Razor - Jr managed to managle a few of these
Frank,
It esp. is interesting to note that the earliest items on the list, i.e., Lionel, Crayola, Erector, Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, Flyer Wagon, Yo-Yo, monopoly, etc etc, are the most durable timewise, whereas Mr. Potato Head and some of the more recent “in” toys have the least staying power & IMO, are the least fulfilling and educational. It’s sort of evolution in reverse (devolution?)
I have played with just about every toy on the list.
One of my other hobbies is collecting View Master reels. Have thousands of the older ones, 1939-1970’s. Joe
My favorite of them all:
1950 Silly Putty Peter Hodgson Binney & Smith, Inc.
Yeah, Silly Putty is great stuff!
Yo-yo’s are great too, but I had forgotten about Silly Putty. I had also forgotten about slinkies (for some reason, it didn’t like my stairs though [:)])!
Do bear in mind that the yo-yo was a favorite of the children of the French Nobility back in the 1700’s–it’s nothing new.
I was surprised that Candy Land made the list, and I was also surprised that the the toy of my year is the super soaker (who woulda thunk it???)!
I had a razor scooter, gave my left arm some nasty fractures on it (broken bones HURT!!!).
Sincerely,
Daniel Parks
Good old Brio, one of my favorite childhood toys.