One of our neatest amenities here in western New York is the Strong National Museum of Play, in Rochester. Our younger son went three time last spring, and he’s almost 40! We accompanied him on one of those trips, and we’re way MORE than 40!

And one feature of the museum is the National Toy Hall of Fame. From the cardboard box to the yo-yo to Nintendo and Star Wars… and even the humble, simple stick… the Hall of Fame applauds and commemorates the playthings of many lifetimes.

The Baby Boom generation is perhaps the FIRST generation of kids to which our society paid a lot of systematic attention, AS KIDS. So as a certified card-carrying Boomer I thought we’d take a spin down memory lane to see the toys we grew up with… introduced no earlier than 1946. Do you recall…

PLAY-DOH. It was actually invented as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s, and remarketed to kids twenty years later. They sold two billion cans in fifty years.

The FRISBEE and the HULA HOOP. These gargantuan plastic fads were both marketed by Wham-O in southern California. I suppose that the name of the hula hoop was inspired by the approaching statehood of Hawaii. Using the hula hoop seems like a frantic, even frenetic activity, while the slow glide of the Frisbee cultivates serenity.

After some hesitation, Ohio Art paid what for them was a record price for a European creation that they euphoniously named ETCH A SKETCH. They started production on July 12 in 1960, and orders ran so high that they didn’t stop until noon on Christmas Eve. Like Pay-Doh, Etch A Sketch embodied creative, imaginative play. You could create almost anything you liked, and imagination made it twenty times more so.

BARBIE was controversial from the start, and indeed was somewhat based on a highly sexualized German doll. But that was opportunistic – when she found “Bild Lilli” on a European trip, Ruth Handler was already planning an adult plaything with a wide array of fashions – a 3-D paper doll.

Soooo… Barbie presented an unrealistic, and even ridiculous, body form. She also provided opportunity for imaginative play and unbounded aspiration, especially when Mattel presented her in an endless array of occupations and avocations both traditional and ground-breaking, AND in time adding non-white characters (including non-white Barbies) to the line.

MR. POTATO HEAD was originally (1949) a set of accessories and facial features to pin onto a potato. In 1952 Hasbro started providing a styrofoam head, and in 1964 moved to plastic. Coming from Rhode Island (Hasbro’s home) as I do, I note that Mr. Potato Head was once the official state tourism spokesman. I’m not sure that having a spokesman named Potato Head is the best marketing move, but at least he provided immediate recognition.

TONKA reportedly means “big” in Dakota, and it fits the memorable line of toy trucks! I imagine that most Boomers enjoyed Tonka Trucks immensely someplace along their way. I know I did.

Silicone-based SILLY PUTTY was developed as a potential rubber substitute doring World War II, and soon got used for goofing around at parties. It was first marketed on a small scale to adults as a party toy in 1949, almost died out due to rationing in the Korean War, and therafter was sold with ads aimed at kids. THAT turned out to be a big success.

We’ll look at more in a future blog, but for now… how many do you remember? How many did you have? Which ones would you love to have right now?