Ralphie: “No, no! I want an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!” Santa Claus: “You'll shoot your eye out, kid.” This iconic scene from A
Continue Reading about Elevators and Electricity: The Toys I Always Wanted
But Mom, I Wanted PONG!
Have you ever yearned for a particular gift only to receive an inferior substitute? That I imagine is what happened under a number of Christmas trees in the mid-1970s, when Marx
A Dedicated Space for Video Games
The summer of 2023 brought a massive 90,000-sq.-foot expansion to The Strong National Museum of Play. This transformative space included three major exhibit spaces, an outdoor game
A Video Game I Quit Playing
Modern Americans are constantly bombarded with choices—local markets sell up to 25 different brands of water, media sources overload us with reports from the campaign trail, and
Age-Appropriate Play
Part of a recent conversation with a friend focused on his concerns about which video games his daughter is currently interested in. Are these the right games at her age? Do they
Pinball Playfields: A Flippin’ Good Time
Pinball is a game that dates back nearly a century, with many companies in the industry rising and falling and designers creating icons of the ever-evolving superstar of
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Stories from the Stacks: What You Don’t Know about Stormfront Studios
While processing the Don Daglow papers for The Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, I had the privilege of sitting down with Daglow himself when he was in Rochester for
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Domestic Hobbies: The Search for Calm in Life’s Storms
“I knit so I don’t kill people.” You can buy a mug, a tote bag, or a shirt with this phrase emblazoned on it. You can meet a handful of fellow knitters out on the town for World
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It’s All About Me
Is there a person in your life that can make you smile? Are you afraid of roller coasters? What are you doing right now? The above are excerpts from the deep annals of
Pinball History in the Archives
Being on the Collections team at The Strong museum means that there’s never a dull moment. We are continually receiving boxes and boxes (and sometimes pallets) of toy, game, doll,
