Inducted Year: 2004
During the Great Depression, architect Alfred M. Butts had time on his hands and play on his mind. He devised a game of 100 lettered tiles used to form words on a square grid that looked like a crossword puzzle. Each letter carried a numerical value, and players scored points by tallying up the values of the letters in the words they laid down.
Butts was a better game creator than marketer. He called his game Lexiko, then Criss […]
G.I. Joe
Inducted Year: 2004
In 1964, amid the Cold War, Hasbro introduced a new type of toy into the world of play. Named G.I. Joe after ordinary soldiers of World War II, the 11 1/2-inch male figure wore uniforms representing the U.S. military and had 21 moving parts. Hasbro branded it an “action figure” to distinguish it from dolls and created a variety of vehicles, equipment, and play sets to accompany it.
Joe established his success in the first year as millions of […]
Rocking Horse
Inducted Year: 2004
For 4,000 years, the domesticated horse has been a faithful servant to warriors, farmers, travelers, and freighters. Down through the centuries, the horse has inspired likenesses and toys of many forms for children’s play. As wealthy Europeans began using horses for leisure activities in the 16th century, wooden rocking horses began appearing in the nurseries of their children.
Rocking horses aren’t hard to make. They are only slightly more difficult to build than the stick horses—“hobby horses”—that older children […]
