The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, is home to the Toy Hall of Fame. Every year they induct two or three new toys into the pantheon.
They have a few requirements for a toy or childhood play item to get in. They toy needs to be widely recognized, respected, and remembered. It also needs to show longevity by being more than a passing fad and enjoying popularity over multiple generations. The toy should also promote discovery, foster learning, creativity or discovery through play. And a toy can also be chosen if it was innovative and profoundly changed play or toy design.
There are over forty toys already in the Hall. You can see them here. They include favorites like LEGO, Barbie, a cardboard box, jump rope, jacks, marbles, Easy-Bake Oven, and Etch A Sketch. It's a fun list to go over and reminisce.
The purpose of a hall of fame is to honor the best in a field but it also leads to discussions about who or what should be included.
But do we need to argue about toys and the Toy Hall of Fame? Yes. Yes we do. I mean how does the Game of Life get into the Toy Hall of Fame in 2010? Just because Hasbro keeps on making it doesn't mean it's good. I know it's historical and is in the Smithsonian. But that's where it can stay. I can't remember playing an entire game when I was a kid and now my kids don't like it. It's not fun and we lost the tiny blue and pink people pegs within an hour. All I liked was the game board and the spinner. But the game- no.
I know everyone has their opinion. And someone played Life with their grandparents and parents at their cabin around a fire while it was snowing outside and the entire night is like the perfect family memory but that's only because the game cupboard was missing Yahtzee or Sorry and the deck of cards was missing the kings. The Game of Life is never a kid's first choice.
I'm done ranting.
How about my picks for the next toy that should be included, okay? I have a few.
The way it works is the museum puts together some nominations at the end of summer then a month before Christmas they whittle it down to two or three inductees. Last year for instance, some of the nominees included Star Wars action figures, Jenga, the pogo stick, puppets, Transformers, Rubik's Cube, and Twister. These didn't make the cut but the Game of Life did? What?! Now I'm done ranting, for real.
My online write-in nominations this year include Colorforms, Lite Brite, bubbles, and sand toys. Pretty vanilla, right? Those are the safe ones. My favorite choice is the Super Soaker.
Let me break it down. Super soakers have been around now for more than 20 years. It was launched in 1989 as the Power Drencher after being bounced around in development in a few different companies. The idea for the Super Soaker was hatched in 1982 at home in a bathroom sink by nuclear engineer, Lonnie Johnson, while researching heat pumps for NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Before Lonnie's invention squirt guns had a traditional trigger pump, were plastic, and not very powerful. In 1985 battery powered squirt guns were on the market and were faster and more powerful than traditional squirt guns because they had an electric motor pulling water and pushing it through a nozzle.
The Super Soaker has a chamber that uses air pressure to shoot a stream of water with more power than any other squirt gun. Super Soakers changed the way all kids use water guns. My kids have grown up not knowing how much of a bummer it was to drop a cheap plastic squirt gun and have it crack or standing five feet from someone and not being able to shoot them because your gun squirts only four feet.
The Super Soaker should definitely make the cut at the Toy Hall of Fame just based on its innovation not to mention the fact that it's been a toy that's been enjoyed for over twenty years by everyone from kids to Michael Jackson to our current Vice President.
But the only way to get it there is to nominate it by July 31. I've nominated it the last three years with no luck. Maybe Hasbro can get behind this instead of Transformers.
You can nominate a toy for the Hall of Fame at their website. The deadline is the the end of July- so hurry!
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