Most teenagers would find themselves surprised by this list in which they will learn that they have played with the same toys their great-grandparents grew up with.
Top Ten Toys of Yesterday: 1940s:
1. Scrabble
Originally named Criss Cross Words, Scrabble might not be in homes across America is fans of the game had not taken personal action.
Alfred Butts, creator of the game, turned his love for crossword puzzles into a board game that used a mixture of chance and skill. Only a handful of handmade samples were made and given to family and friends. When he attempted to sell his idea to established game manufacturers, they all declined. He was too busy in his architect business to bother with pushing forward on the game.
Friends of Butts and fans of the game he created, the Brunot family decided to pursue marketing the game in 1948. They made a few minor changes to the rules and decided to change the name to Scrabble. Butts gave permission for the Brunots to manufacture the game, which they did with little initial success. Success was slow, but sudden. Upon returning from a trip, the family found their little factory swamped with orders for this new game.
Today, Scrabble is the second best-selling game in US History, with only Monopoly surpassing its sales.
2. COOTIE
This worldwide childhood favorite began as a hand whittled toy in 1948. Letter carrier and creator, Herb Schaper, carved the first forty thousand wooden COOTIES by hand! A few years later, over a million were produced mechanically.
3. Model Airplanes
Model airplanes were first developed to help sell airplanes to the military. Prior the the invention of plastic, consumers would have to cut their own wood pieces. Those initial model airplanes were sold as kits with balsa wood and patterns. With the use of plastic, inexpensive, yet detailed, model airplanes were able to be mass-produced.
4. Silly Putty
Silly Putty is a story of marketing success.
James Wright created a synthetic, pliable rubber that was inexpensive and of use in a variety of applications. Wright created this rubber during World War II to be used for caulking and molding. After the war, Wright was left with an excessive supply of which no one had a use. A Connecticut store owner, Peter Hodgson, bought a large amount to repackage and sell as a toy to children. He put the rubber into plastic eggs and labeled it Silly Putty. Children still use Silly Putty to create and play with, but most children love its ability to lift comics right off the pages.
5. Slinky
Navy engineer, Richard James, was attempting to find a suspension device to make sailing on battleships less rough when he noticed that a torsion spring will walk end over end when its knocked over. Upon returning home, he and his wife began production of the toy she named Slinky.
When Slinky made its debut in Gimble Department Store in Philadelphia in 1945, James was surprised when the toy sold out (400 Slinky toys) in ninety minutes. Over three hundred million Slinky toys have been sold since then.
Despite the huge success, Slinky toys are still made in the same factory, using the same machines in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.
6. Candy Land
Known internationally as a child’s first game, Candy Land was developed for children with polio. The games’ creator, Eleanor Abbott, designed the game while recovering from the illness herself. Milton Bradley quickly agreed to buy the game due to the popularity among the children who received the game.
7. Clue
Known as Cluedo in England, Parker Brothers bought the US rights in 1949 and renamed it Clue. Cluedo had only been five years old at the time and already made a significant impact in both Countries.
8. Bubbles
Children have been blowing bubbles for centuries, but it was not until the 1940s that someone thought to market bubble blowing solution.
Chemtoy, a cleaning supply company, began bottling bubble solution in the early 40s. Tootsietoy Company bought out Chemtoy and began marketing the bubble solution heavily.
Bubbles is now the best selling toy in the entire world.
9. Paper Dolls
Because of World War II, factories stopped producing consumer products in efforts to make weapons for the military. Materials were being funneled into the weapons industry as well. For that reason, inexpensive toys made from paper products, such as paper dolls, became the rage.
10. Magic 8 Ball
Abe Bookman from Alabe Toy Company, invented the Magic 8 Ball in 1946. The toy is a hollow plastic ball made to look like a large pool 8 ball. The ball is filled with a dark blue liquid where a twenty faceted die floats with messages. On each face of the die, a positive, negative or neutral statement is printed. A small clear window in the ball allows the user to read the messages from the die.
The Magic 8 Ball is used for telling fortunes and answering yes or no questions. The child will hold the ball with the window faced down, ask a question, then turn the ball window faced up to read the answer.
The Magic 8 Ball has been a slumber party favorite ever since and now comes in a variety of colors and designs.
