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Today, for some reason we can’t quite figure out, is National Play-Doh Day. Our only hunch is that today may be the 54th anniversary of the invention of the product by Joseph McVicker, although we’ve had a hard time pinning down an exact date. Regardless, in its time on the market it’s become a staple [...]

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Nerf, invented by intrepid toy creator Reyn Guyer. In lieu of an actual Nerf battle (although it’s tempting), we’ve rounded up some of our favorite ads by the foam gun manufacturers. They weren’t always in the arms business, though, as you’ll see with the first couple entries in our [...]

Michael Bay’s latest Ford commercial army recruitment propaganda blockbuster movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen comes out this week, and we’re told it will feature all manner of nifty, techy shape-shifters, from building-sized behemoths to bug-sized crawlers. Of course, the latest installment in the franchise begun decades ago by toy-maker Hasbro has plenty of material [...]

We remember that, as kids, we were over-excited for every stupid new action movie that came out and eager to buy the accompanying toy line. Accordingly, we were very disappointed whenever a new movie didn’t come replete with its attendant merchandising blitzkrieg. “Why couldn’t every movie be an elaborate toy ad like Transformers?”, we wondered.
Well, [...]

Spring is here, and with all the strollers and toddlers on the sidewalks it’s starting to feel a lot like baby season. In fact, a couple of good friends recently had a baby, and in our typically unimaginative way we headed to the local toy store to get the kid a teddy bear as a [...]

One doesn’t think about it much as a child, but kids’ toys tend to be really strange, and it’s sometimes surprising that they were ever created to begin with (like Dino-Riders). Remember Lincoln Logs? Turns out they were created by an architect’s son – John Lloyd Wright – and included instructions for a model of [...]

31 years later, with their global ranks swelling to a current population of roughly 4 billion, Lego minifigs (the Danish toy company’s human-shaped figures) are among the most populous and easily recognizable groups on the planet. Their common origin, however, conceals a diverse plurality, which Gizmodo is kind enough to catalog with their chronology of [...]

In our ongoing effort to deconstruct and reassemble the conventions of what we do and don’t consider listicles, we offer you this image of 9 Teddy Bears Riding in Wagons. Does it matter that it’s not a traditional list, or – as Marcel Duchamp would have said – does the simple fact of placing this [...]

Ten toys and other goodies for Star Wars fans. My favorites are the rubber duckies.
Go To List: http://inventorspot.com/articles/10_star_wars_toys_all_fan_boys_22183

We’ve been wearing a big smile since yesterday afternoon, when someone tipped us to the news that GM will either look to sell or discontinue their Hummer brand. Funnily enough, when we brainstormed some months ago possible positive outcomes of the New Depression, this was one of the events we predicted: the demise of pointlessly [...]