If there was ever a television series that demanded a toy line for its merchandise, it was The Six Million Dollar Man. This classic series…
Browsing: Toys & Games
Back in the days before protective padding and fibreglass helmets were ever dreamt of, the first skateboarding craze took off. Grazed knees, concussion and splintered bones…
This arcade standard, a distant, distant relative of bowling, Skee-Ball was invented and patented in 1908 by Joseph Fourestier Simpson, a resident of Vineland, New…
First launched in the early 1960s, the Sketch-a-Graph had two expandable arms on a trellis-like arrangement; One arm held a pen and the other a…
Like many of the best and most original toys, Slinky came about by accident. In 1945, naval engineer Richard James was working on a suspension…
The Wham-O Company introduced Slip ‘n Slide in 1961, and though different models have jazzed it up over the years, the basic Slip ‘N Slide…
Kenner launched Smash-Up Derby in 1970 under their “SSP” (Super Sonic Power) line. The set contained two plastic cars with body parts that clipped into…
The game of Snakes and Ladders actually began as a game called Moksha-Patamu in ancient India, where it was used to teach Hindu children about…
For those of us who have hurled board games into the air after a humiliating, teeth-clenching defeat, it’s doubly embarrassing when Sorry! is the reason.…
Sega’s Space Harrier (1985) presented a surreal, pseudo-3D universe filled with giant centipedes, poisonous mushrooms, and other fantastical creatures. As the Space Harrier, you had…
Also known as Hoppity Hops, Hop Ball, and Kangaroo Balls – the Space Hopper bounced into the UK during the Summer of 1969 and served…
Backed by a thudding bass beat, dozens of invaders from another world descended on our planet in 1978. Within months, Space Invaders was one of…
After their success with Pong, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell and engineer Al Alcorn set their sights on space with Space Race in 1973. Bushnell, having…
In 1975, British toy company Palitoy released a range of 8-inch action figures based on the new Gerry Anderson TV series Space: 1999. Unlike previous…
This educational toy from Texas Instruments looked like a computer for kids with a colourful plastic keyboard and a dinky fluorescent display above it. It…
The year was 1965, and British engineer Denys Fisher introduced the little ones to mathematics with a set of ridged plastic shapes known as Spirograph.…
Atari’s Indy 800 brought multi-player racing to the masses, but the company’s Sprint series took the genre to the next level, offering greater speed, multiple…
As the name suggests, a “spud gun” used potatoes as ammunition. To operate the gun, one punctured the surface of a potato with the gun’s…
Kenner introduced the SSP (Super Sonic Power) range of toy cars and motorcycles in 1970. Initially available in 10 designs, each vehicle came with a…
Star Castle – a 1980 classic from vector graphics pioneers Cinematronics – envisioned future castles as rotating rings of energy. Your mission was to pilot…