What Happened To Toys?

The National Toy Hall of Fame – did you know that such a thing exists?? - announced the 12 finalists for its Class of 2025, with winners being revealed in November. Even though I don’t play with toys, I thought it would be interesting to see what rises to the top of this list, since they could reach back into my Gen X childhood.

Indeed, they do.

Contenders include:

Battleship

Catan

Connect Four

Spirograph

Trivial Pursuit

Scooters

Slime

Cornhole

Star Wars light sabers

Furby

Tickle Me Elmo

A resounding theme here? Low tech!!

Last year, the winners were My Little Pony, Transformer action figures and the Phase 10 card game, which brought to 87 the number of toys inducted since the Hall of Fame was established in 1998. It’s located within The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. Can you say field trip?? It looks awesome (musemofplay.org)!

Winners must be considered icons, they also must have engaged multiple generations or fostered creativity or have profoundly changed play or toy design.

Well. If you are familiar with any of the nominees, then you are acquainted with things that mostly do not require batteries. They are all relatively simple but there are still things you could enjoy playing with on repeat.

How does this contrast with my GrandGirls’ toys? What do I see spread around their living room? Since they are still young, any comparisons to the toy nominees are flawed due to the age discrepancy. However, I do see differences between their toys and those that belonged to my sons when they were little.

It’s all about electronics, interactivity and audio effects. Many of the toys have buttons that produce an instructive word, song or noise. For example, they have a puzzle with animal shapes that fit into the animal’s cutout and when the piece is put into its place, the duck will quack or the pig will oink. Cute.

The deployment of sound effects is pervasive and found in toys where I wouldn’t necessarily expect it, like in a Barbie house where one opens an oven and a Barbie voice offers a greeting.

I’m happy to report that some things might never change and the latest example of that meets GrandGirl #1 where she’s at right now. She’s eager to climb and can delight in doing it on nearly everything in sight. Following her cue, I bought her a climbing toy with rungs that offer ample opportunities.

No batteries required. And all sounds effects are the domain of her happy squeals.