G.I. Joe®
In 1964 amid the Cold War, Hasbro introduced a new type of toy into the world of play. Named G.I. Joe after ordinary soldiers of World War II, the 11 1/2-inch male figure wore uniforms representing the U.S. military and had 21 moving parts. Hasbro branded it an "action figure" to distinguish it from dolls and created a variety of vehicles, equipment, and play sets to accompany it.
Joe established his success in the first year as millions of boys found him a compelling toy for imaginative play. The action figure's popularity rose steadily until American involvement in Vietnam made war-related toys less appealing. Hasbro responded with a new Joe. The soldier of 1964 became a Land Adventurer in 1970 and took on more peaceful action, recovering lost mummies and rescuing the environment. Within a few years, Joe's popularity declined. In the mid-1970s, he became an 8-inch "Super" figure, and in 1978, Hasbro retired him from production for a time.
In the early 1980s, Joe returned but reduced again to 3 ¾ inches. This time, a Saturday morning TV show and a long-running comic-book series fueled G.I. Joe's revival. In the early 1990s, Hasbro restored Joe to his original size and offered collectible Joes for adults. By late 2004, Hasbro had sold more than 400 million G.I. Joe figures in the 40 years since the toy's debut.
Because of his popularity, G.I. Joe has been both a battle-scarred soldier of America's culture wars and an influential toy protoype. For some critics, Joe's message of "might makes right" is the wrong one to share with children. Other adults counter that Joe encourages kids' stories of good triumphing over evil and fosters creativity, imagination, and self-esteem. But while grown-ups argue over Joe's merits and flaws, kids play on, and hundreds of other "action figures" people the toy landscape.
Hula Hoop®
Many of the greatest toys owe their success as much to marketing as to invention. Kids have been playing with hoops for centuries - rolling and spinning them with sticks, tossing them, and even swirling them around their middles. In 1957, Wham-O toy company founders Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin learned that kids in Australia twirled bamboo hoops around their waists in gym class. Within a year, Wham-O had created a hollow hoop out of Phillips Petroleum's newly developed plastic Marlex. They named their creation "Hula Hoop" after the swivel-hipped Hawaiian dance its users seemed to imitate. Wham-O sold 25 million hoops in just two months, and sales reached $45 million in the first year. Adults bought the toys for children, but usually gave the hoops a try before turning them over to the kids. Hula Hoops are not hard to master, but they favor the thin-waisted over the pear-shaped, and women over men. First attempts are always hilarious. Lively person-to-person marketing in parks, on playgrounds, and on college campuses created the biggest fad of the 1950s.
Jack-in-the-Box
The jack-in-the-box offers continual delight. Known since the 16th century, and appearing as a Punch box , an admiral on a stick, and a Johnny jump-up, sometimes the jack figure was more horrible than humorous. Later, cuter examples show a growing kindliness toward children. Children still ask parents to crank the toy over and over without tiring of the joke. "Do it again!" They get help to reload it, deferring the jolt and the gratification. Manufacturers first produced the box in wood, then printed cardboard, and most familiarly in lithographed tin in the 20th century. Jack-in-the-boxes initially featured the familiar clown in papier-mâché, then bisque, then celluloid, then plastic. The toy also now appears with a variety of pleasant revelations: Winnie the Pooh sometimes shoots up, so do the Cat in the Hat®, the Three Little Pigs, The Big Bad Wolf, assorted kitties and doggies, and suitably, Curious George®.
Jacks
Whether called Iguni, Abhadho, Cincos Marias, or Huripapa, jacks is one of the oldest and most widespread games in the world. All jacks games share a strategy: toss a ball in the air and scoop up pieces before the ball bounces. In this game of skill, almost any collection of small objects will work - beans, rocks, stones, and even bones. Throughout history, kids in virtually every culture on the globe have sat cross-legged and played some version of the game. Cro-Magnon parents may have encouraged their children to play jacks on cave floors, to increase the eye-hand coordination vital to later success at hunting. Kids in ancient Egypt played "knucklebones" with sheep toe bones. The game of knucklebones led to dice games for boys, and jacks, usually played with a wooden ball, for girls. In modern times, kids followed a bouncing rubber ball. The game inspired popular children's songs such as "This Old Man" (he played one, he played two, and so on). Classic American versions of jacks include Eggs in the Basket, Pigs in the Pen, Jacks on the Rooftop, Five Finger, and Challenge.
