I am at present immersed in Toy Land.
I volunteer with Christmas in the City, a charity that focuses on making the holidays a little merrier and brighter for families in need. This weekend, we'll be hosting Jake's Toy Mania. At this event, named after Christmas in the City's founder (the organization's beloved and brilliant Jake Kennedy, who died in 2020 of ALS), families will be "shopping" for free from the toys that have been donated. Sign up closed on Tuesday, but when last I looked, we had nearly 1,000 families registered for Jake's Toy Mania.
I've volunteered for years - pretty much since I met Jake, who did PT on my broken shoulder in 2008. I do a bunch of things, like helping manage corporate toy drives, and opening and sorting the Amazon boxes full of toys that are just flying in. Thus, I am familiar with every possible Disney Princess, Barbie career gal, superhero, remote control car, and Legos kit. Hot Wheels, art kits, Candy Land, jewelry-making kits, soccer balls (out scoring basketballs this year - maybe because of World Cup), cute stuffed animals, Play-Do, anything to do with Crayola, anything to do with Fisher-Price, Doug & Melissa, Leap Frog, or Baby Einstein. You name it, I've unboxed it and put it in a pile with kindred toys.
Admittedly, I like to see old fashioned toys coming through. One the other day made me laugh: a Fisher-Price Classic Chatter Telephone.
What in the world is a toddler going to make of one of these?
Anyway, Toys 'r Me these days.
No wonder I forgot all about the recent announcement of the toys that had been chosen for inclusion in the National Toy Hall Fame in Rochester, NY.
I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that none of these picks excited me as much as last year's inclusion of the American Girl Doll and sand.
The ancient top was the only one I had much experience with. There was something sort of mindlessly numbing about spinning a top, and I enjoyed that aspect of it. But even when I was a kid, the top was not all that much more popular than, say, a hoop to roll. Yes, every home did have a spinning top at one point or the other. But it was on nobody's "must have" toy list.
Masters of the Universe? Hard pass. Not my jam now, and wouldn't have been if they'd been around when I was a kid.
Lite Brite I might have liked, but it wasn't invented until I was well into my high school years. Did my kid sister have one? Well, yes she did. In fact, she has one now (which is actually a relic of her daughter's childhood).
These three toys were chosen from a list of 12 finalists which included bingo, Breyer Horses, Catan, Nerf, piñata, Phase 10, Pound Puppies, Rack-O, and Spirograph.
How can bingo not already be in the Toy Hall of Fame? Is its reputation as being kid-friendly tarnished by its association with little old ladies playing a dozen cards in the church hall?
I loved playing bingo as a kid. I demand a recount.
I know what Breyer Horses are, but I was not one of those girls who mooned over horses. Certainly, when I was 8 or 9, reading cheesy books about rich WASP-y boarding school girls, I did a tiny bit of mooning. But mostly it was about the boarding school, not the horse.
Catan? Don't even know what it is.
Nerf, on the other hand, is so versatile that it merits inclusion. If I were on the selection committee, I'd definitely vote Nerf.
Piñata is something I always wanted see in action, but in my 'hood, no one was going to put a weapon in the hands of the blindfolded kid while a bunch of other kids circled around screaming.
Phase 10? C.f., Catan.
Pound Puppies are cute, but no cuter than the average stuffed animal. More of a marketing gimmick than anything special.
Rack-O? I just looked it up and found it came out in 1956.
Q. How many hours of my childhood were spent playing card games and board games?
A. Countless.
How is it that my card-playing, board-game loving, number-nerdy family didn't have Rack-O? If only my parents were alive to ask.
Spirograph is another one that came out too late for me. I would have liked it and, in fact, I'm pretty sure that on occasion I played with my sister Trish's. (She had one then, and also has one now. She told me that a few years ago Target was selling throwback toys. So...) Anyway, mindless and vaguely arty. Yeah!
Now I got to get back to the toys at hand. Oh, swell, another Lego Kit, another Barbie doll.
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Source of info on 2022 Toy Hall of Fame.
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