In 1952, Mr Potato Head became the first toy ever advertised on television. Photo / 123RF
A look back at 70-plus years of gadgetry, innovation and Mr Potato Head.
Once upon a time, holiday gifts for children were a relatively humble thing: perhaps a handful of chestnuts and a small wooden toy; even – oh, Dickensian joy! – a whole exotic orange.
The days when presents grew (literally) on trees are, of course, long past. The most coveted toys of today tend toward the sparkly, the squeezable and the busily electronic – and the annual race to procure them can leave parents anxiously refreshing out-of-stock pages on Amazon, or brawling in the aisles of a big-box store for the last Nintendo Switch or Magic Mixie.
But for every high-priced gaming console or whiz-bang piece of intellectual property, there are timeless hits such as the Hula-Hoop and the Koosh ball. Here is a look back at the items whose novelty and scarcity put them at the top of every wish list – even if just for one brief, shining season.
The post-war consumer boom quickly trickled down to the youngest citizens, thanks in part to the mass-market media of radio and television. Hasbro’s Mr Potato Head – the first toy to be advertised on TV in the US – became a hit in 1952, with its synthetic spud body and detachable parts (the original, less-enduring model involved adding those accessories to an actual vegetable); Mrs Potato Head joined him in 1953.
Alongside stalwarts such as Lincoln Logs and Matchbox cars came several notable newcomers: Play-Doh (originally invented in the 1930s as a wallpaper cleaner), the Hula-Hoop (based on an even older toy, but suddenly ubiquitous when the California-based company Wham-O produced it in lightweight plastic) and a “Teenage Fashion Model” doll called Barbie, who made her wasp-waisted debut in 1959.
Barbie officially got a boyfriend (he’s just Ken), a Dreamhouse and even a doll-world rival with the introduction of Mattel’s Chatty Cathy, whose pull-string let her say phrases such as “Please brush my hair” and “May I have a cookie?”
Aspiring Betty Crockers also flocked to the Easy-Bake Oven, which used incandescent bulbs to produce real baked goods, while budding artists turned to the mechanical drawing toy Etch A Sketch and the Lite-Brite, the “magic” light box and multi-coloured plastic pegs of which offered a world of creative possibilities (and reams of teeny-tiny pieces to choke on).
Autophiles still years away from driver’s ed got a chance to channel their inner Steve McQueens with Hot Wheels’ built-to-scale line of cool Camaros, Mustangs and Firebirds, which debuted in 1968.
After the initial success of its electronic table-tennis game Pong, arcade pioneer Atari went big in 1977 with its first major home gaming console, which proved an immediate hit despite its hefty price tag.
Budget-friendly kicks could be found with the soft-bodied, polyurethane Nerf ball; the oven-ready craft activity kit Shrinky Dinks; and one of the great triumphs of nonsense marketing, the Pet Rock (which was, yes, just a rock in a box).
Texas Instruments’ Speak & Spell, with its predictive coding speech synthesiser, gave language learning a talky-robot twist, while Star Wars action figures, an early pioneer of the blockbuster movie-to-toy pipeline, flooded the market after the film’s 1977 release.
Maybe you were one of millions who were gifted a Rubik’s Cube, a 3D combination puzzle invented by a Hungarian architecture professor in 1974 and released commercially in 1980; maybe you are still trying to solve it.
TV-show synergy helped propel merchandise empires for My Little Pony, Pound Puppies and Care Bears, while stores struggled to keep in stock both the ample-bottomed Cabbage Patch Kid and Teddy Ruxpin – a “talking” bear whose animatronic eyes and mouth promised either tender companionship or enduring night terrors.
Even as the 1989 launch of Nintendo’s hand-held Game Boy revolutionised the industry, demand surged for analogue toys such as the rubber-filament Koosh ball and the Chia Pet, whose enduring popularity produced a terracotta-potted army of llamas, hedgehogs and other sprouted animals.
All hail the miniature BFF: While Polly Pocket cornered the market in Lilliputian dolls, the Tamagotchi fit electronic pets in the palm of a hand (and, with its need to be “fed” and cared for, also helped introduce kids to the concept of death).
American Girl dolls and plush-toy Beanie Babies offered collect-them-all multitudes and a robust secondary market, although few items prompted the in-store mania of Tickle Me Elmo, a giggling Sesame Street plushie whose scarcity circa the 1996 season swiftly became retail legend.
More chatty faux-fur companions arrived in the form of Furbys, which spoke in their own inscrutable language and looked like psychedelic hamsters. For those less enthralled by battery-operated creatures, there were collectible Pokemon Trading Cards, the colourful cardboard disc game Pogs and the blockbuster home console Nintendo 64.
Gaming innovations continued apace with the PlayStation 2, Wii and Xbox 360, while countless grade-schoolers happily risked mild concussions and skinned knees for a zippy aluminium Razor Scooter, and little girls too old for the purring, plump-bodied charms of Zhu Zhu Pets flocked to Bratz, the pouty-lipped fashion dolls seemingly designed to resemble mean girls in miniature.
Parents scarred by carpets strewed with errant Legos rejoiced at the mass appeal of Magna-Tiles, which offered similar construction-toy thrills with fewer sole-piercing edges.
While the merch juggernaut from more than a decade of Harry Potter films continued its long Hogwarts march, another multiplex hit, Disney’s Frozen, proved its own bonanza at stores via Anna and Elsa character dolls, Olaf the Snowman plushies and an indelible, un-”Let It Go”-able soundtrack.
Also inescapable: “reveal” figurines such as L.O.L. Surprise! Dolls, which emerged smartly accessorised from gumball-like spheres, and hybrid-animal Hatchimals, sprung from glossy plastic eggshells. Fidget Spinners required some basic hand-eye co-ordination (as did their long-gestating battle-toy cousin, Beyblades), while the sweet interactive beasties called Fingerlings only needed a knucklebone to cling to.
And for those who just wanted to get primordial: slime kits.
Though first introduced in 2017, Squishmallows – soft, round, supremely squeezable – found their homebound audience on social media during the coronavirus pandemic, while Magic Mixies, little Keane-eyed critters conjured from the “sorcery” of a plastic wand and a cauldron, precipitated a major Black Friday run in 2021.
But for every requisite leap forward in toy technology – 3D printers, 3D pens, the promise of a next-gen Nintendo Switch in 2025 – some things remain the same. Tamagotchis have returned, as have Furbys; in all her iterations, Barbie continues to dominate her market share (Mattel recently introduced its first blind model, as well as one with Down syndrome).
And if the kids on your list have been naughty this year? Hand them an old potato, and impart a history lesson that no credit card reward points can buy.
This article originally appeared in the New York Times.
Written by: Leah Greenblatt.
©2024 THE NEW YORK TIMES
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