12 Toys of Christmas: And a Partridge with a New Wii
Seeing the cool, new toys hit the shelf this Christmas really made me want to be a kid again. I thought back to the toys of my day (being a child of the 80’s) and realized that there is not a lot of difference if you take away the heavy influence of technology. Check out my comparison study where I compare toys from 1988 and 2008 (20 year span) and feel free to add your own:
12 Toys of Christmas: 2 Hulas Hooping
Oh the sweet memories of being entertained by a plastic hoop! I’m not embarrassed to say that this was one of my prized possessions growing up…and still is. For those of you who are not familiar with this amazing phenomenon let this paint a picture for you.
After doing some quick research, I discovered that the hoola (“hula”) hoop has actually been around for thousands of years. Historians say that even Egyptians were known to partake in the hooping. Plastic hoops were first manufactured and sold in Australia, and eventually the founders of the toy company Wham-O saw the potential of producing hoops in the US. Because the company could not patent a product that had been in existence for so long, they decided to modify the name.
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12 Toys of Christmas: 3 Cabbage Patches Sprouting
Cabbage Patch Kids, still marketed today, became a growing fad in the early 1980s. The product itself was actually invented in the 1970s by Xavier Roberts, and was originally named Little People. It wasn’t until 1982 when the name “Cabbage Patch Kids” came into existence.
The name “Cabbage Patch Kids,” according to Roberts, is said to have come from a mother’s answer to where babies come from — the cabbage patch. (If you’re a parent and you’re reading this, I bet you are thinking about how you’ve answered this same question).
The company website describes the “legend” of how Cabbage Patch Kids came into being. Check out the link.
By: Kelly Wilson
12 Toys of Christmas: 4 Hot Wheels Hauling
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Literally every day, growing up, I had Hot Wheels vs. Matchbox championships. I would tear out a piece of my sketchpad, draw a bracket, make some fake crowd noise and fire up the little plastic engines. Turns out, in 1996, Mattel acquired the Matchbox brand from Tyco. I always wondered why the Hot Wheels always won; must have been a little foreshadowing. The Hot Wheels logo has always been one of my favorites due to its perfect fit for the target audience. Drawn by California artist Rick Irons, the logo is symbolized through its unique retro-esque typography and a distinguishable outer flame shape. Although established in 1968, the brand Hot Wheels really started to pick up speed in the 70’s, and revolutionized the die-cast toy car market, beginning to leave its competitors in the dust.
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12 Toys of Christmas: 5 Busty Barbies
Imitated but never duplicated, Barbie is one of the most successful toys ever. Many of my Barbie® memories include my friends and I cutting her hair, searching for her high-heeled shoes and creating our own swimming pool in the bathroom sink. Barbie was certainly my favorite toy and I am sure many of you would agree (yes, even you guys. . . we know you loved to wage war on her with your G.I. Joes).
Barbie was first introduced at The New York Toy Show in 1959, and she was unlike anything else in the market. Barbie had the fashion sense of paper dolls, the realism of baby dolls, and the beauty of a young woman who would go on to inspire the imaginations of millions of little girls. Within ten years, Mattel had sold $500 million in products.
Many people do not realize that Barbie, and her boyfriend Ken, were actually inspired by real people. They were named after the children of Ruth and Elliot Handler, the doll’s creator. That’s right -- the original Barbie (Barbara) and Ken (Kenneth) were brother and sister!
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12 Toys of Christmas: 6 Silly Putties
What is Silly Putty? It squishes, stretches, bounces- you can even use it to lift images from the newspaper. This toy has been amusing kids and adults alike for the past 50 years. It seems like every time you pick it up, you can find something new to do with it. But did you ever wonder how it came to be? As it turns out, Silly Putty is an accidental creation from World War II. Silly Putty has its own website with all the Silly Putty information you could ever want to know, including the following history:
During World War II, the Japanese invaded rubber producing countries in the Far East which cut off supply to the United States. This restricted war production efforts- especially for tires and boots. As a result, the War Production Board asked American industry to create a synthetic rubber compound.
James Wright, an engineer with General Electric mixed boric acid and silicone oil in a test tube which resulted in a polymerized substance- that wasn’t exactly what he was hoping for. He removed the gooey putty from the test tube and threw it on the floor… and it bounced! General Electric sent the gooey putty to several engineers, hoping to find a use for it, but no practical uses were discovered.
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12 Toys of Christmas: 7 LEGOs Locking
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Growing up, we all probably built giant towers, trucks, buildings and castles out of LEGOs. It seems that everyone knows the LEGO brand, but maybe not the story behind the name.
Coined in 1934, the name was created by its founder by truncating the Danish phrase “leg godt,” meaning “play well.” In addition, the word “lego” in Latin translates to “to gather or put together.” The idea of playing and building is exactly what creators intended the LEGO brand encapsulate. LEGOs enable children to individually and collectivity express creativity and imagination, while also enhancing development skills. According to the company website, the overall LEGO philosophy is that “good play” enriches a child’s life even into adulthood. The founders definitely knew what they were doing 75 years ago because today, LEGO is the sixth largest global toy manufacturer.
By: Kelly Wilson
12 toys of Christmas: 8 Etches Sketching
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If you are like most people, the best thing you can draw on an Etch A Sketch is a staircase- not a personal portrait or a rendition of a popular painting. The popular Etch A Sketch is a beloved toy that both intrigues and frustrates its users. The challenge to create a picture by turning two knobs can keep you busy for hours. If you really mess up your design, you’ll have to shake it clean so you can start all over again. What exactly gets shaken up, you ask?
Inside each Etch A Sketch is a bunch of aluminum powder which sticks to the screen. The knobs move a little stylus which displaces the aluminum powder on the screen to reveal dark lines. When the Etch A Sketch is shaken, the beads of aluminum powder redistribute themselves evenly over the screen leaving a clean drawing board.
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12 Toys of Christmas: 9 Nerfs Launching
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Every Christmas, my nicely wrapped gifts were filled with the latest and greatest Nerf guns; after all their slogan was “It’s NERF or nothing!” My childhood was filled with NERF balls zooming by my head as I rolled behind an object avoiding my archenemy’s (usually my best friend) vicious strike from his blaster. Okay so it was only a spongy ball that couldn’t hurt a fly, but still you get six of those things flying your direction, tell me you wouldn’t jump for your life. I digress.
Something that never crossed my mind as I was jolting to the ground while launching my NERF reactor gun into space was where did the name “NERF” come from? It turns out the solid, spongy cellular material (produced by the chemical reaction of polyester resin reacting with a compound while CO2 is simultaneously released by another reaction creating gas in open pockets) doesn’t have a clear meaning. Some say it’s an acronym for “non=expanding recreational foam” but nothing has been confirmed.
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12 Toys of Christmas: 10 Pogos Pouncing
Want to know how to entertain a kid for hours? Welcome to the world of the Pogo Stick!!! This amazing contraption as been incredibly popular since its introduction in the 1920’s, and it has quite the history, or should I say fairytale?
Here’s a short version of the “history”:
Legend has it that an American traveler named George Hansburg was traveling through Burma when he met a poor farmer with a daughter named Pogo. Pogo wanted to go to the temple every day to pray, but couldn’t because she had no shoes to wear for the long walk through mud and rocks. As a solution, the poor farmer built a jumping stick for her. George Hansburg loved this invention and when he returned home, he made and sold a similar jumping contraption of his own that is now….the Pogo Stick.
So, I have one question for this nice farmer/ genius inventor. If you had the capabilities to make a jumping stick for your daughter to hop through mud and rocks, wouldn’t you have been able to easily make her a pair of shoes? It just seems more logical to walk from point A to point B rather than balance on a jumping stick. Just a thought.
Although, I must say that I sure am glad he decided hopping was better means of transportation, and I’m confident that a lot of happy hoppers would agree! Not sure what to get a kid (or myself) for Christmas this year? Go ahead and add this to the list of gifts that keeps on giving! Learn more here.
Contributed by: Ashley Hollingsworth