New toys come and go every year and most are barely noticeable as they fade into history. However, over time, some toys have been so popular that they have literally changed our culture, while others have undoubtedly left their indelible mark on our society. In this article we will take a look at the top 5 toys that changed the world.
Toys the world will never forget:
Number 5…
The teddy bear
A German teddy bear from around 1954. The teddy bear was first introduced in 1903 and has been a childhood staple ever since. The teddy bear is named after President Theodore Roosevelt, whose nickname was “Teddy.” The name originated from an incident on a bear hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902, in which Roosevelt refused to kill a heavily beaten and tethered black bear. The bear had been rigged for Roosevelt to shoot by his fellow hunters because he had been the only one who had not killed anything so far during the trip. When Roosevelt saw the bear, he refused to shoot it himself, considering it unsportsmanlike, and ordered his fellow hunters to kill the bear and put it out of its misery. Later that month, a political cartoonist caught wind of the story and printed a drawing of the incident in the Washington Post. A man named Morris Michtom saw the cartoon and was inspired to create a new toy called “Teddy’s Bear.” Interestingly, around the same time in Germany, a woman named Margarete Steiff also started creating a teddy bear. To this day no one knows who created the first teddy bear. What we do know is that thanks to this adorable teddy bear the world has never been the same again. Tens upon tens of millions of children around the world have grown up with a teddy bear over the last 100 years or more. In 2006 alone, Teddy Bears sales generated more than $1.3 billion.
Number 4…
MONOPOLY
The twelve tokens of the Monopoly US Deluxe Edition. Introduced in 1935, MONOPOLY is the world’s most popular board game. Over the past 76 years, 200 million MONOPOLY games have been sold worldwide and played by more than 500 million people. The MONOPOLY® game is published in 27 languages and is licensed in more than 81 countries. When it comes down to it, there isn’t a bigger board game in history than MONOPOLY. But did you know that it almost never made it to stores? Parker Brothers rejected the game when it was first presented to them in 1933, citing 52 fundamental flaws in the game. Creator Charles B. Darrow decided to create and sell it himself. In 1934, Mr. Darrow sold 5,000 handmade sets of the MONOPOLY game to a Philadelphia department store and they became an instant success. In fact, Mr. Darrow was selling so many that he couldn’t keep up with the demand. In 1935 he went back to Parker Brothers, who of course bought the rights, and the rest is history.
Number 3…
G.I. Joe
The Original GI Joe In 1964, a 12-inch doll went on sale and the world has never been the same since. GI Joe was the first doll to be marketed and sold to children on a large scale. However, to make children want the doll, the marketing executives knew better than to call it a “doll.” After throwing around a few different terms, they settled on “Action Figure.” That decision launched a new genre of toys and allowed children to play with dolls. GI Joe has been the star of comics, cartoons, movies, and video games. If Barbie is the queen of all dolls, GI Joe is the king of action figures.
Number 2…
Barbie
Barbie Before Barbie came along, most dolls were representations of babies. Ruth Handler suggests the idea of a doll with an adult body to her husband Elliot, co-founder of the Mattel toy company. She loved the idea and soon after the blonde bombshell was born. Barbie was an instant success selling over 350,000 in the first year. Today Barbie is a $1.5 billion dollar per year industry. Since its launch in 1959, Barbie has been the world’s best-selling doll. You’d be hard-pressed to find a woman in this country, born after 1959, who didn’t have a Barbie as a child. In fact, in 1992 the average American girl owned 7 Barbies. Despite all her success, Barbie has also been the center of much controversy, mostly because she is called a bad role model for girls. In 1992 a talking Barbie was released that spoke the following phrases: “Will we ever have enough clothes?”, “I love shopping!”, “Do you want to have a pizza party?” and the infamous “The class of Math is hard!” Many people felt this was a sexist statement that inferred that girls couldn’t do math.
Number 1…
nintendo entertainment system
Nintendo Entertainment System With its debut in 1985, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) changed the world like no other toy had before. The NES was the most advanced video game system of its time and completely changed the way we thought about video game systems. In fact, two years before its release, the video game industry had collapsed and was about to disappear forever. Nintendo changed all that and ushered in an era of digital entertainment that continues today. The NES had the longest production run of any video game system to date, lasting for 20 years, from July 1983 to September 2003. Before Nintendo, many retailers and adults considered electronic gaming a fad. By 1988, video games had become a multi-billion dollar industry. Nintendo has been the catalyst for almost every other electronic gaming device created since then. Ask yourself, does your child have a video game system? The answer is probably yes.
Does he or she play board games or card games? The answer is probably not in most cases or very rarely at best. Why should they play those old style games when they can play with a visually pleasing and interactive video game? Plus, they can play all their favorite board games and card games on their video game system! Video games are no longer just for kids. A 2008 survey revealed that more than half of American adults play video games and one in five play games almost every day. 81 percent of those surveyed between the ages of 18 and 29 said they gamble and even 23 percent of people 65 and older said they do too. A Pew survey found that nearly all teens, 97 percent, are gamers. Those numbers are just staggering. But here’s an even more starting number, in June of this year, the global video game market was valued at $65 billion. There is no doubt that video games have changed the world and our culture more than any other toy before it. There is no other toy, or perhaps even an entertainment medium in the world, that unites all generations like video games do today. It really is amazing and that is why the Nintendo Entertainment System, which made all video games go crazy, is number one on our list.