Kids Toys and Products
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You’d be hard-pressed to find a post that everyone, and we do mean everyone, has taken part in at some point in time. Unless you grew up in a gulag, you likely had toys as a kid. Some of us had more, some of us had less, but toys in general were available, and continue to be, and it is a massive industry worldwide. Just ask Lego, Mattel, Hasbro or Disney. These are gigantic companies employing an insane amount of people. And the reason being – toys are popular. But more than that, for all the parents out there, when the kid is really pouring it on, trying to get you to pull the trigger on that Lego police car set, it can be hard to say no. It would be fascinating to be able to capture data on toy purchases under duress. Where the kid literally was on the parent’s last nerve and the only thing to do was plunk down the credit card. Give us your over/under on $2 billion dollars per year.
Suffice it to say this is an industry all parents need to be up to date with. As a father of an 8-year-old, the one thing that is likely constant in most parent’s lives of children this age is things that are not electronic are of little interest. The one caveat would be Legos and perhaps board games. But try gifting an 8-year-old a toy plastic soldier. You’d be putting your life in danger as the reaction would be nothing short than explosive.
Kids toys and products have come a long way. The Radio Flyer Big Red Classic ATW was a wagon that a kid could either pull another kid in, fill up said wagon and haul stuff, or simply take the afternoon off and hang out in the wagon under the tree. Outside of those three scenarios, there wasn’t a fourth. But, at its time, this thing was a beast! This next big thing is still a big thing today – the yo-yo. At first yo-yo’s were picnic playtime, fun little gadgets to pass the time. Today, forget about it, there are professional yo-yo leagues and even yo-yo savants who earn real money flinging this thing about. Simply plug in “best yo-yo tricks” into YouTube and be prepared for an hour walk down a yo-yo magic lane.
Crayola was another biggie, teaching kids about art in a super fun manner with finger painting front and center. While this has disappeared somewhat, the concept lives on and more and more kids are getting into art as a result. This could go on for a while but our dive into the past will stop with the Slinkey. Good grief, what a powerhouse toy this was. All you needed were some stairs and this thing slinked on down, smooth as a cucumber and the design on the original Slinkey was otherworldly. A solid toy that still stands the test of time.
Today the biggest toy company in the world providing amazing toys and products to our younger generations is Lego. Lego has surpassed all the older heavyweights and thanks to strategic alliances with large film production companies, they can keep coming out with Lego figurines that are based on successful kid’s movies. An astute move, and if you were like your loyal scribe’s father, you saved the legos from his son’s infancy and passed them along to his grandchild. And believe it or not, they haven’t changed much at all!
This one is such an interesting blog and true in so many ways. Crayola is a very satisfying and indulgent paint game for the kids. I have personal experience of my kids with this one and I think it is way better than other games. It actually brings out the creativity by all that finger paint etc.