2025 Finalists2025 Finalists
Battleship
Inducted 2025 Battleship’s roots go back to the earliest manufactured war games. In 1890, the E. I. Horsman Company copyrighted its board game Basilinda, in which opponents arrange wooden pegs representing their army on […]
View Details
Catan
First published by Kosmos in Germany, Catan (known earlier as Settlers of Catan) is one of the first German-style board games to achieve popularity outside of Europe. It is a strategic, competitive game in […]
View Details
Connect 4
Connect Four, also known under non-proprietary names, is commonplace in many U.S. households. Taking turns dropping discs into a vertical grid, players attempt to form a line of four discs in their color. […]
View Details
Cornhole
Cornhole boards and bean bags are common sights in the backyard or the bar patio. While the game is commonly associated with the American Midwest, it is enjoyed nationally and even internationally. Competing […]
View Details
Furby
Furby—a fuzzy creature with piglet ears, a bird beak, and drowsy, blinking eyes—debuted in 1998. It featured innovative technology, including adaptive language learning (pre-programmed) and sensors. More than 40 million Furbies sold within the […]
View Details
Scooter
First appearing as a homemade vehicle of two wheels, a wooden deck, and handlebars, the scooter began cruising American streets and sidewalks around the turn of the 20th century. Scooters continued to provide […]
View Details
Slime
Inducted 2025 Slime was created as an extension of an established chemical process. When sodium tetraborate (borax) combines with guar gum or polymers, it turns into a gelatinous substance that can be stretched, squeezed, […]
View Details
Snow
Is snow just precipitation—or the ultimate vehicle for play? Packed into balls, it becomes a mostly harmless projectile that provides endless fun. It also supports slower, constructive play. It can be used to […]
View Details
Spirograph
A simple toy for creating geometric drawings or a complicated tool for understanding complex mathematical formulas? Either way, Spirograph has entertained and educated kids of all ages for 60 years. Spirograph was first […]
View Details
Star Wars Lightsaber
When 20th Century Fox released the first Star Wars movie in 1977, no one imagined it would change the toy industry and popular entertainment so dramatically. Kenner released an official Star Wars Light Saber toy […]
View Details
Tickle Me Elmo
Tickle Me Elmo combined the appeal of Sesame Street’s stand-out character with a novel design and became the must-have toy of the 1996 holiday season. Putting electronics into a plush-type toy had been done before […]
View Details
Trivial Pursuit
Inducted 2025 Trivial Pursuit’s brain-racking questions have been challenging players for more than 40 years. As individuals or in teams, players race to collect pie wedges in six colors by maneuvering around the board […]
View Details