The Magic 8 Ball is a plastic sphere, made to look like an oversized eight ball, that is used for fortune-telling or seeking advice. It was invented in 1946 by Albert C. Carter and Abe Bookman and is currently manufactured by Mattel. The user asks a yes–no question to the ball, then turns it over to reveal an answer that floats up into a window.
The Slinky is a helical spring toy invented by Richard T. James in the early 1940s. It can perform a number of tricks, including travelling down a flight of steps end-over-end as it stretches and re-forms itself with the aid of gravity and its own momentum; and appearing to levitate for a period of time after it has been dropped. These interesting characteristics have contributed to its success in its home country of the United States, and it has inspired many popular toys with Slinky-like components, in a wide range of countries.
Play-Doh is a modeling compound for young children to make arts and crafts projects. The product was first manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s. Play-Doh was then reworked and marketed to Cincinnati schools in the mid-1950s. Play-Doh was demonstrated at an educational convention in 1956 and prominent department stores opened retail accounts.
A Snakeboard, also known as streetboard, or pivotboard is a board that was invented in South Africa in 1989 by James Fisher, Simon King and Oliver Macleod Smith. The concept was to fuse the original skateboard with elements of snowboarding and surfing to create a fun riding experience. The first prototype was constructed using two square wooden boards, an old roller skate chopped in half, and a piece of plumbing pipe to join them together. Many variants were tried before manufacturing began. The first boards to be mass-produced were made from a strong plastic nylon known as Zytel ST801.
Radio Flyer is an American toy company best known for its popular red toy wagon. Radio Flyer also produces scooters, tricycles, bicycles, horses, and ride-ons. The company was founded in 1917 and is based in Chicago, Illinois.
A swing is a seat, often found at playgrounds for children, at a circus for acrobats, or on a porch for relaxing, although they may also be items of indoor furniture, such as the Latin American hammock or the Indian oonjal. The seat of a swing may be suspended from chains or ropes. Once a swing is in motion, it continues to oscillate like a pendulum until external interference or drag brings it to a halt. Swing sets are very popular with children.
A space hopper is a rubber ball with handles that allow one to sit on it without falling off. The user can attempt to hop around on the toy, using its elastic properties to move forward.
A winged unicorn is a fictional ungulate, typically portrayed as a horse, with wings like Pegasus and the horn of a unicorn. In some literature and media, it has been referred to as an alicorn, a word derived from the Italian word alicorno,(wing āla and horn cornū) or as a pegacorn, a portmanteau of pegasus and unicorn.
A toy wagon has the same structure as the traditional, larger wagon, but is much smaller and has an open top. An average wagon is able to seat one child, and is generally propelled by human power through a handle at the front. Some famous brands are Radio Flyer, Little Tikes, Red Rider, Northern Tool and Equipment, Lowe's, Cardinal, and Speedway Express.
Skip-It is a children's toy introduced in 1960s, the most popular variants of which were manufactured by Tiger Electronics in the 1980s and 1990s. The Skip-It apparatus was designed to be affixed to the child's ankle via a small plastic hoop and spun around in a 360 degree rotation while continuously skipped by the user.
A rocking horse is a child's toy, usually shaped like a horse and mounted on rockers similar to a rocking chair. There are two sorts, the one where the horse part sits rigidly attached to a pair of curved rockers that are in contact with the ground, and a second sort, where the horse hangs on a rigid frame by iron straps the horse moves only relative to the frame, which does not move.
Jumbo Machinder is the name of a series of large-scale plastic robots sold by Bandai's character toy subsidiary, Popy in the 1970s. Although a trademarked brand name, in common usage Jumbo Machinder is often applied to any large-size robot toy roto molded out of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a sturdy plastic also used for shampoo bottles. Jumbo Machinders are generally 24" in height. After Popy's success with the Jumbo Machinder series, several other Japanese companies, including Takatoku, Nakajima, and Clover began producing large-size plastic robot toys as well. Several of the Jumbo Machinders were retooled for sale in the USA and Europe in the late 1970s as Shogun Warriors.
A mechanical hackamore is a piece of horse tack that is a type of bitless headgear for horses where the reins connect to shanks placed between a noseband and a curb chain. Other names include "hackamore bit", "brockamore", "English hackamore", "nose bridle" and "German hackamore". Certain designs have been called "Blair's Pattern" and the "W. S. Bitless Pelham".
Blaze was a rocking horse toy produced by Mattel toymakers and introduced in 1961. Blaze was featured prominently during children's television advertising. Unlike other rocking-horses of the time, Blaze was mounted on a stand that was said to be "untippable" and had no springs. The apparatus prevented pinched fingers, and was fitted out with a mechanism that moved the horses legs in "real life action." Another Mattel feature allowed Blaze to talk when you pulled his "Magic Ring." His talking voice unit was the very same one produced by Mattel and unveiled in 1960 in its talking Chatty Cathy doll, and later toys like the Talking Mister Ed puppet. Blaze could say 11 different things like, "How about some hay?"; he could also whinny and neigh. A toy like this, that could gallop and move realistically when the horse was rocked forward and backward, was something special.
Betsy Wetsy was a "drink-and-wet" doll originally issued by the Ideal Toy Company of New York in 1937. It was one of the most popular dolls of its kind in the Post–World War II baby boom era.
Jesse Armour Crandall was an American inventor and toy-maker. He had taken out over 150 patents on toys in his 75 years of inventing. Crandall's father, Benjamin Potter Crandall, was also a toy-maker as well as three of Jesse's brothers. Unlike his brothers who remained primarily associated with their father's toy business in New York City, Jesse started his own company in Brooklyn. It was a friend, perhaps Henry Ward Beecher, who named him "The Child's Benefactor". This became his trademark and slogan.
A hobby horse is a child's toy horse. Children played at riding a wooden hobby horse made of a straight stick with a small horse's head, and perhaps reins, attached to one end. The bottom end of the stick sometimes had a small wheel or wheels attached. This toy was also sometimes known as a cock horse or stick horse.
Lock On is a genre of street art, where artists create installations by attaching sculptures to public furniture using lengths of chain and old bike locks. The installations themselves are referred to as "a Lock On" (singular) or "Lock Ons" (plural).
Rainbow Loom is a plastic tool used to weave colorful rubber and plastic bands into decorative items such as bracelets and charms. It was invented in 2010 by Cheong Choon Ng in Novi, Michigan.
Nosco Plastics, Inc. was the plastics molding division of National Organ Supply Company created in 1934 to make plastic parts for electric organs and was located at 1701 Gaskell Avenue, Erie, Pennsylvania, 16503. Beginning in 1948 with the implementation of the newly developed screw injection molding process, NOSCO quickly became a major early producer of tiny plastic toys called "slum" sold to wholesalers as carnival merchandise, used by the millions as prizes in packages of Cracker Jack popcorn confection, and mail-order flats that were heavily advertised in American comic books as "100 Toy Soldiers for $1" by E. Joseph Cossman & Company. NOSCO also held a number of patents on plastic molded products including mechanical toys, storage containers, pallets, and medical syringes.
