Toys Through Time Trivia Quiz

Answer: Crayola crayons

The Crayola brand was the very first to produce children's crayons. Invented by Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith, two cousins who went on to establish the Binney & Smith Company, which would eventually become Crayola LLC. The men's very first box of Crayola crayons debuted in 1903, and sold for just a nickel.

Interestingly, it wasn't the men themselves who came up with their brand name, but rather it was Edwin's schoolteacher wife, Alice, who coined it, after merging the French words for 'chalk' (craie) and 'oily' (oleaginous). Over a century after their first appearance, over one hundred different types of Crayola crayons were being produced, including ones that glowed in the dark, smelled of flowers, and were infused with glitter.

In 1949, an extra forty colours were added to the Crayola line, which included 'mahogany' and 'Prussian blue'.

However in 1958, 'Prussian blue' was changed to 'midnight blue', in response to teachers' claims that children were no longer familiar with the once famous blue uniforms of Prussian soldiers. By 1999, the colour 'Indian red', which first appeared in 1958, was changed to 'chestnut', once again, due to the requests of teachers.

However when 'Indian red' was first introduced to the Crayola line, it had nothing to do with skin colour, and originally only referred to the colour of an Indian pigment commonly used in oil painting.

Answer: Lincoln Logs

Construction toys were all the rage in the 1910s, and in 1916, an architect's son, John Lloyd Wright, capitalised on the construction industry by introducing a sturdy, playroom-friendly toy. As its name suggests, the moniker Lincoln Logs, was inspired by Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, who himself was born in a log cabin. However the idea behind Wright's interlocking logs was centred in his observation of the construction of Tokyo's Imperial Hotel, which was designed by his father, and was labelled 'earthquake-proof'. Having viewed it being built, it eventually inspired the shape of his toy logs. These were an instant success, and Wright's Lincoln Logs also weathered the precarious post-World War I years, as time and time again, his product was picked over the plainer building blocks that emerged after the First World War. Long considered an educational toy, as it challenged children's hand-eye coordination. Wright's Lincoln Logs was also one of the first toys to be promoted on television, when, in 1953, it appeared on the television show, "Pioneer Playhouse". All in all, Lincoln Logs had it all - creativity, durability and safety. Moreover even up until the 1970s, Lincoln Logs were continuing to sell well, with up to a million sets being sold a year.

His architect father was Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank Lincoln Wright but he changed his middle name when he was 14 years old, after his parents were divorced). Although his father's (original) middle name was Lincoln, the first sets of Lincoln Logs came with instructions for building Uncle Tom's Cabin and Abraham Lincoln's Cabin (after whom this toy was named).

Answer: Hornby

When Hornby was founded in 1901, by Frank Hornby, his electric train set was still some twenty years away from being made. However in the same year that he founded the company, he also applied for a patent to safeguard what he referred to as "Improvements in Toy or Educational Devices for Children and Young People".

He could not have envisaged at the time, how much this would influence the development of what would eventually become a Hornby model train empire. Upon securing the patent, Hornby began to produce what would eventually, in 1907, become the legendary construction toy, Meccano. By 1920, Hornby was producing toy trains, which ran off a clockwork motor, and proved to be, like Meccano, immensely popular.

However it was in 1925 that Hornby produced the company's first electric train, which needed a mains supply of 100-250 volts in order to work. By 1929, this had been reduced to a far safer, six volt DC current, and was proving to be a very popular purchase, not just with children, but also with adults.

Answer: The View-Master

After a chance meeting at the Oregon Caves National Monument, where Gruber was taking pictures, he and Graves came up with a new product, the View-Master, which they thought would offer people a novel way of viewing America's most popular tourist attractions.

Their target demographic was initially adults, but soon the View-Master's appeal to children was recognised, and thus the field of children's entertainment was quickly tapped into. The View-Master built upon, and improved the stereographer viewer that had been popular in the nineteenth century, by offering seven different stereo views on each reel, as opposed to the measly one per card that was offered by the traditional stereograph. First introduced in 1939, at the New York World's Fair, the View-Master went on to become a firm favourite with both adults and children, and continued to sell well, well into the twenty-first century.

Answer: Bubble solution

Incredibly, illustrations of individuals chasing bubbles have been found on art dating all the way back to the Renaissance. Moreover, even the legendary physicist, Sir Isaac Newton, was intrigued by bubbles, and once used them in his work, in order to explore the interference of light.

Therefore it is quite surprising that it wasn't until the 1940s that anyone thought to bottle and sell a bubble-blowing solution. Nevertheless, that was certainly the case, and it was a chemical company called Chemtoy that first jumped on the bubbles bandwagon, (in 1940), setting the toy world alight by systematically bottling bubble solution for the very first time.

Originally a cleaning supplies company from Chicago in the United States, later on in the decade, it was bought by the Tootsietoy Company, which succeeded in mass producing their product, sparking a worldwide craze, which promptly led to millions of bottles being sold. Later on in the twentieth century, while steadfastly remaining a beloved childhood pursuit, the blowing of bubbles also began to seep into other areas.

It played a pivotal role in the hippy movement of the 1960s, as a universally accepted symbol of peace, and during the early years of the twenty-first century, it began to replace the throwing of rice and confetti at weddings.

Answer: Barbie

The Barbie doll debuted at the 1959 American Toy Fair, and was an instant hit with the American public, so much so that Mattel, the company manufacturing her, altered the focus of their business, in order to delve into the toy market. Originally specialising in wooden picture frames, the success of Barbie, who was created by Mattel co-founder, Ruth Handler, led directly to the company changing their direction, and focusing on toys. Barbie was named after Handler's own daughter, Barbara, who had a hand in inspiring the creation of the doll, due to her tendency to allocate adult roles to her own paper dolls.

This, in addition to the German Lilli doll that Handler purchased during a trip to Switzerland in the mid-1950s, eventually led to the creation of Barbie. Once she obtained the patent for her Barbie in 1958, Handler then enlisted the help of fashion designer, Charlotte Johnson, in order to create Barbie's very first wardrobe.

Incredibly, when Barbie first went on sale, she was viewed as a risky buy for the buyers of toy stores, as she was nothing like the baby dolls, such as Betsy Wetsy and Chatty Cathy, which were the big sellers of the time.

However it took no time at all for them to realise that little girls everywhere loved her, as 351,000 Barbies were sold in the very first year. Moreover within ten years of her first appearance, $500 million worth of Barbie products had been sold.

Answer: Slip 'n Slide

The iconic Slip 'n Slide was invented by Robert Carrier, an upholsterer, who got the idea for his creation after observing his son hosing down the driveway of their family home, and promptly sliding down it. Marketed by American toy company, Wham-O, who were also responsible for marketing other iconic toys, such as the Frisbee, (in 1957), and the Hula Hoop, (in 1958), the Slip 'n Slide went on to spawn decades of fun.

A relatively simple idea, it was made up of a long piece of plastic, which was to be laid out on the grass, before then being hosed down with water, in order to make it slippery. Children would then run towards, and slide down it, usually on their bellies or backsides.

The toy made its debut in 1961, and was still selling well, well into the twenty-first century. Hugely popular with children, it proved to be a much cheaper alternative to owning a pool, and was easily cleaned, dried and packed away.

It has been estimated that 10 million of the iconic, yellow water slides were sold between 1961 and 1992.

However it did experience a turbulent time in the 1990s, when it was briefly removed from the shelves, due to safety concerns, which were the result of several high-profile lawsuits from adults who had sustained injuries while using it. In light of this, it is worth pointing out that the product was only designed to be used by children.

Answer: Simon

Along with Howard J. Morrison, Ralph Baer, who is known as the father of the video game, designed the microcomputer-controlled game, Simon. In 1977, the pair filed a patent for the product, which required players to mimic the game's pattern exactly, or it was game over! Well executed and incredibly addictive, the game was a money spinner from the start, and was first unveiled by its manufacturer, Milton Bradley, on May 15th, 1978, at New York's legendary Studio 54.

The inspiration for Simon was another coin-operated electronic game, which had the unfortunate name of Touch Me. Touch Me had already been released by Atari, (along with a little help from Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs), but had failed to rouse the public's interest. Baer's response to it was "Nice gameplay, terrible execution, visually boring", and so he and his associate, (Morrison), set about improving it.

The end result was Simon, which went on to take the remaining years of the 1970s, as well as the 1980s by storm.

Answer: My Little Pony

The enormously popular My Little Pony ponies were the product of three inventors: Bonnie D. Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger and Steven D. D'Aguanno. In 1982, Hasbro released the very first batch of six My Little Ponies, who were known collectively as Earth Ponies.

They were: Cotton Candy, Butterscotch, Blossom, Blue Belle, Minty and Snuzzle. All six were adult ponies, and each one had different coloured bodies, manes and tails, as well as decorative symbols on either side of their rumps. These first six ponies were easily distinguished from later models, as they had unique, flat hooves, in comparison to the concave hooves of later My Little Ponies. Following the success of these delightful toys, more ponies were released, and by 1989, there was a great variety of them available.

Some of these were unicorn ponies, some had wings, and some were designed to smell like desserts. Hasbro also brought out a variety of play sets, such as the Dream Castle and the Lullaby Nursery, so that little girls could store their ponies safely.

In addition, baby and new-born ponies were produced, both of which appealed to Hasbro's target demographic (little girls), and had them laughing all the way to the bank. Moreover by the start of the twenty-first century, the first wave of My Little Ponies were increasingly sought after by both toy collectors and adults who had enjoyed playing with them as children, which led to early My Little Ponies commanding quite a price on auction sites such as ebay.

Answer: Beanie Babies

Beanie Babies made their debut in 1993, and were purposefully made affordable so that children could buy them for themselves. Invented by American, Ty Warner, Beanie Babies were small-scale stuffed animals, which, as their name suggests, were partly filled with small, plastic beans. Unlike most other toys, Warner's Beanie Babies were not sold in large toy stores, such as Toys R Us. Rather, they were distributed to smaller retailers, which made them all the more desirable, as they were harder for customers to track down.

Indeed this was just one of the clever strategies employed by Ty Warner and his company, who were determined to be different. One of the company's most effective tactics was to periodically retire certain models. In fact, when this first happened, in 1997, Beanie Babies became a collector's item overnight, despite having been around for only four years. By 2010, the original nine Beanie Babies - Spot the dog, Squealer the pig, Patti the platypus, Cubbie the bear, Chocolate the moose, Pinchers the lobster, Splash the killer whale, Legs the frog and Flash the dolphin, were all highly sought after as collectors' items, and often sold for a considerable sum at auction.