The unexpected origins of six classic toys and games

Some toys and games seems to stand the test of time, and even thrive! 

I started thinking about such brands when I went into a local LEGO store and was amazed at the evolving body of work and loyalty that the Lego brand creates. How did this start? It’s come a long way from the small bucket of random LEGO bricks I had as a kid. Each product has an interesting origin story and showcases the creativity of the last century, some with resurging popularity. These toys and games include, LEGO, Scrabble, Play-Doh, The Slinky, Barbie, and GI Joe. 

The story of LEGO, one of the most beloved toys globally, begins in 1932 in Billund, Denmark, with a carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen. The Great Depression had taken a toll. To sustain his business, Christiansen shifted from making furniture to crafting wooden toys. After the war, he bought an injection molding machine to make toys and obtained samples of plastic, interlocking bricks, which inspired the later Lego bricks created in 1949. The iconic LEGO brick we know today, with its unique interlocking design, was patented in 1958. The design was revolutionary as it offered infinite stable possibilities for construction and creativity. The name ‘LEGO’ itself, derived from the Danish phrase “leg godt,” meaning “play well,” perfectly encapsulates its educational and inspirational ethos.

During the Great Depression in 1938, Alfred Butts, an out-of-work architect, invented a game combining chance and skill using lettered tiles. Originally called “Lexiko” and later “Criss-Cross Words,” it was designed to challenge both vocabulary and crossword puzzle skills. For game mechanics, he chose the frequency and distribution of the tiles by counting letters on the pages of the New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, and The Saturday Evening Post, and then devised the game’s 15 x 15 board. However, no game makers were interested in his concept. It wasn’t until 1948, when James Brunot, a game-loving entrepreneur, bought the rights and slightly tweaked the rules and the name to “Scrabble,” a real word which means “to scratch frantically.” The Scrabble Brand Crossword Game was trademarked and quickly became distributed worldwide. 

Play-Doh was originally created in the 1930s as a wallpaper cleaner by Noah McVicker for the company Kutol. In the 1950s, Joe McVicker, Noah’s nephew, repurposed it as a children’s modeling compound. Play-Doh was first marketed to schools as a modeling clay and became a hit with children. It was first sold in 1956 in a single color: off-white. By 1957, primary colors red, blue, and yellow were added. Captain Kangaroo, a popular children’s TV show host, helped boost Play-Doh’s popularity by featuring it on his show. Play-Doh is sold in over 80 countries worldwide, and more than 3 billion cans of Play-Doh have been sold since its introduction as a toy. Play-Doh even has it’s own unique smell!

“What walks down stairs alone or in pairs and makes a slinkety sound? A spring a spring, a marvelous thing. Everyone knows it’s Slinky!” The Slinky was accidentally invented by naval engineer Richard James in the 1940s. While working to develop springs that could stabilize sensitive instruments aboard ships during rough seas, he knocked one from a shelf and watched it ‘walk’ across the floor. Realizing the potential for a new toy, James and his wife Betty developed a plan to produce it. The Slinky was demonstrated at Gimbels Department Store in Philadelphia in 1945 and sold out in less than two hours, becoming a fixture of American pop culture.

Barbie was introduced by Ruth Handler, co-founder of Mattel, in 1959. Inspired by a German doll named Bild Lilli, she created Barbie as a way for girls to imagine their future selves in different roles. The first Barbie doll wore a black-and-white striped swimsuit and was available as a blonde or brunette. Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, and this toy was recently gain new global impact with the 2023 Barbie movie. 

Around the same time, GI Joe was created by Hasbro in 1964 as the first “action figure” targeted at boys. GI Joe was initially a 12-inch figure, but due to rising production costs in the 1970s, Hasbro shrank the figure to 3.75 inches, which became the standard size for action figures. GI Joe also had a cartoon in the 1980s. GI Joe paved the way for many action figures that followed in the 1970s and 80s!

Each creation carries a legacy of innovation and sometimes the perfect product of iteration, accident, or the conditions of the time. What toys and games of this century will stand a similar test of time? What will these look like 100 years from now look like?