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Crayola Crayons
In 1903, the first box of 8 crayons was introduced to the public by Binney & Smith, an industrial pigment supply company. The company's most famous innovation was named by the company founder's wife - a former school teacher - using "craie", the French word for chalk, and "ola" for oily. Originally available in only black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green, Crayola now makes over one hundred different types of crayons. -
Candy Land
Created by Eleanor Abbot during her recovery from polio, this "sweet" little board game was purchased and published by the Milton Bradley Company in 1949. Complete with characters like Princess Lolly, Queen Frostine and Lord Licorice, Candy Land has continued to be just as popular among today's pre-school set. -
Mr Potato Head
Mr. Potato Head was the first Toy created, and advertised on TV. Originally George Lerner’s idea for this famous toy spud seemed like it might be a dud. At first, no one seemed interested in his idea, but eventually a small family-run toy company called Hasbro began production. Mr. Potato Head became so popular that a Mrs. Potato Head was introduced the next year. -
Pet Rock
5 Million sold in 6 months of sale.The fad peaked during the 1975 Christmas season and it is estimated that Dahl earned over 15 million dollars during the six months that Pet Rocks were popular. -
Pong
Pong was an adaptation of the company’s popular arcade game of the same name, and it became the most popular game of the 1975 holiday season, with sales of $40,000,000 for the year (ideafinder.com).When it comes to home video games, Pong really started the ball rolling. When you see it in action now, it’s hard to believe that a few lines on a TV screen could cause such a ruckus, but Pong was 1975’s version of a Wii. -
Atari
1 Million sold, the Atari Video Computer System (VCS) originally came out in 1977, it came with one game (Combat) and about half a dozen other games were available. That year “was not a good time for video game systems as the market experienced a crash after it had been previously oversaturated with Pong clones -
Cabbage Patch Dolls
Almost 3 million were sold, According to cabbagepatchkids.com, the dolls “go on record as the most successful new doll introduction in the history of the toy industry”. In 2000, they were featured in a U.S. stamp series highlighting the 1980’s -
Game Boy
Over 1 million were sold respectively by Nintendo.
A year after its release in Japan, the Game Boy came to the U.S.A. and conquered the Christmas shopping season. Contributing to its popularity: the Game Boy gave you 35 hours of play on one set of batteries, in contrast to its competitors at the time. Also, it came with Tetris- a game that appealed to all ages. -
Tickle Me Elmo
10 milliion of these were sold, and were crazed by every little kid.It’s a case of Christmas in July, or at least that’s when this Christmas story begins. Rosie O’Donnell introduces Tickle Me Elmo to her viewers (mostly moms) and 200 Elmos are given out to her studio audience. -
Furby
1.8 million were sold. Like most of the other toys appearing later on this list, the Furby was introduced at the Toy Industry Association’s annual Toy Fair. This introduction of the Furby took place in February, months before it’s planned release in October. Premature media coverage caught the attention of toy stores and Tiger had sold all of them before the factory had even started production. -
Playstation 3
The PS3 had several features that set it apart. It’s ‘unified online gaming service’ encouraged online play, it had functionality for multimedia storage and play (photos, music and movies) and it primarily used Blu-Ray disks for storage.
The Play Station 3 was unveiled at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo (May) and shown again at the Tokyo Game Show (September) but there wasn’t an operating version of the game system to demonstrate at either of these shows. -
Zhu Zhu Pets
10 million of these were sold.Russell Hornsby, the man who came up with the idea for these robotic hamsters, was inspired by the popularity of hamster footage on YouTube. The toy was tested out at a few stores in Arizona and sold out in a few weeks. -
Rubiks Cube
This 3-D mechanical puzzle was invented in 1974 by the Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture, Ernő Rubik. The toy took on nearly a cult status when it was introduced to the public in 1980. Since the toys' inception, over 350 million of the brightly colored cubes have been sold worldwide - making it the world's top selling puzzle game. -
Red Wagon
Toy wagons have been around since the late 1800s, but it was the Radio Flyer company that made them a classic. Loved by kids and their parents, the Radio Flyer wagon is still just as popular as the original from 1923. -
Hotwheels
A small, die-cast toy car. In hundreds of styles. Inexpensive. Fun, fun and more fun! Hotwheels were first introduced by the Mattel corporation in 1968. Certainly every boy and even most girls played with these popular little toys and their accompanying racing tracks. -
Period: to
1952
