Yesterday, twelve toys were identified as finalists to join this year’s National Toy Hall of Fame at the Strong National Museum of Play. The finalists are the smartphone, Care Bears, the coloring book, Fisher-Price Corn Popper, Jenga, Magic the Gathering, Masters of the Universe, Matchbox cars, My Little Pony, Nerf Blaster, Risk, and the top.
Wow. I never realized the smartphone could be classified as a toy! If you think that’s an odd choice for the Hall of Fame, keep in mind the stick was inducted in 2008 and the cardboard box even has a place in the hall!
I’m still dumbfounded by the fact that the cardboard box is in the National Toy Hall of Fame. I can’t ever remember playing with a cardboard box, although I’ve come close to living in one a couple of times. I still can’t believe the stick made it in 11 years ago. The stick is considered a toy? I’d probably use one to beat a badger to death if one was chasing me, but I’ve never used a stick as a toy.
The Easy Bake Oven was inducted in 2006. I can understand that toy making the cut. I can vividly recall my sister and I making some pretty darn good chocolate cakes in one of those contraptions. By the way, before you get the wrong idea, the oven was hers, not mine.
My favorite toy of all time was my Electro Shot Shooting Gallery. Now that was a toy! Ten times the fun of a stick or a cardboard box! A gun, bb’s, and some targets to shoot at. It doesn’t get much better than that for a kid. Sadly, that isn’t in the Hall of Fame.
I remember when I was a kid and the Christmas catalogue came to the door. My sister and I would grab that thing and head straight to the toy section. We would look through that thing for what seemed like hours. It was magical.
If I’d only known at the time that I could have gone over to Jake’s Moving and Storage and grabbed myself a cardboard box to play with or headed outside to find a stick to throw, I could have saved my parents a lot of money.
It’s too late for that now, but it does give me a great idea for my granddaughters for Christmas this year.
What kid wouldn’t want a couple of toys from the National Toy Hall of Fame?