Toy Hall of Fame selections are often ‘second-guessed’

Every year, some toy aficionados like to stir the pot and bicker about toys and games that have been “snubbed” by the National Toy Hall of Fame.

A favorite subject of conversation recently has been Mattel’s doll Ken Carson, which was introduced in 1961 as a companion to the legendary Barbie Roberts doll. She burst onto the scene in 1959 and was swooped up by the toy hall of fame as one of its charter members in 1988. But poor Ken. He is still on the outside looking in.

 

Ken was among the hall of fame “finalists” in 2023, and Charlie and Debbie Nance (shown below), who are radio co-hosts at Country 107.3 FM (WSOC) in Charlotte, N.C., thought Ken “was a shoo-in for induction.”

 

The Nances offered: “In a year when you couldn’t get away from Barbie, her constant comrade, Ken, just HAD to get in, right?”

“Barbie,” the 2023 fantasy comedy film released by Warner Bros. and directed by Greta Gerwig, was the first live-action Barbie film after numerous animated films and specials. Starring Margot Robbie as the title character and Ryan Gosling as Ken, the film turned out to be a blockbuster, grossing $1.45 billion and becoming the most popular film of 2023. It received widespread critical acclaim as well.

 

“You think Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are America’s couple? Think again,” the Nances suggested. “For decades it’s been Barbie and Ken.”

The radio couple acknowledged that Ken did indeed face stiff competition in 2023, going up against the likes of Connect Four, Bingo and Battleship games as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures. “Look at that list, huh? All of them home runs, but NONE of them got into the hall of fame, either.”

So, who did get into the toy hall of fame in 2023? “Baseball cards, Cabbage Patch Kids, the Fisher-Price Corn Popper and Nerf foam toys,” the Nances said. “There have been years when we’ve had issue, but not with any of these.”

Generic toys that need to be considered in the future are inner tubes and sleds. 

Let’s start with auto and truck tire inner tubes that were used as water flotation devices, which led to the development of today’s float rings.

Katherine Sedgwick, a journalist living in Queensborough, Ontario, Canada, wrote: “You know what I miss in summer? Inner tubes.”

“It’s what we kids used when we went swimming at the Sand Bar on the Black River in Queensborough: rubber inner tubes from car tires. Nothing could beat those inner tubes as flotation devices, and what pleasanter way to spend a hot summer day than lollygagging in the river, floating around on one of them?”

 

In 1888, Scottish inventor John Boyd Dunlop (shown below) developed an inner tube “as an inflatable torus that formed the interior of pneumatic tires,” albeit for bicycles. 

The tube is inflated through a valve stem and fits inside the tire casing. The inflated inner tube provides structural support and suspension, while the outer tire offers grip and protects the more fragile tube.

The process carried over to apply to tires for early model cars and trucks, but beginning in the 1950s, tubeless tires for vehicles began to dominate.

No one is sure who was the first person to toss an inner tube into a lake or river, but these simple toys brought hours of pleasure to kids around the world. Patches on the inner tubes were viewed much like battle scars.

 hicago improved on regular inner tubes by advertising “float tubes” for fishermen and hunters.

In 1895, A. G. Spalding & Bros. of Chicago improved on regular inner tubes by advertising “float tubes” for fishermen and hunters.