Toy Expert Answers Toy Questions From Twitter | Tech Support

I'm Chris Byrne.

I'm an independent toy analyst and historian.

I'm here today to answer your questions from the internet.

This is Toy Support.

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@adii915 says, why are they called teddy bears

like is it short for Theodore or what?

Actually, the teddy bear is named for Theodore Roosevelt

and in 1905, Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a baby bear

on a hunting trip.

It was turned into a cartoon.

Morris Michtom of the Ideal Toy Company saw that.

He wrote to Teddy Roosevelt and said,

can I make that teddy bear

and that's how the teddy bear came along.

Now, that's not the only story

because Steiff which is a German plush company

also said that they made teddy bears at the same time

so that's one of those historic conflicts

but at the end of the day, the teddy bear

is still named for Theodore Roosevelt.

@mactagni says, just seen a commercial of a toy that poop.

How did toy makers come up with these dumb ideas?

There is millions of dollars that's been made

with poop toys over the years

whether it's a magic toilet where the poop disappears

or it's a pooping dog.

This is comedy if you're three years old

consistent with the Freudian anal stage

as children are discovering their bodies.

So for example, when Baby Alive first came out,

Baby Alive was designed to replicate a real child.

We'd seen tiny tears that cried.

We'd seen Betsy Wetsy that wet

but suddenly, there was a mechanism

that allowed the doll to have solid food put in

and it came out into the diaper.

So for a child, that was really important

because they were understanding their bodies at the time

but they also got to nurture

in the way that they were being nurtured

in changing the babies.

It's a very short road from that to dogs that poop

to monkeys that poop to kangaroos that poop

and poop is funny.

@Keith_el wants to know,

how different do prototypes usually end up being

from final product?

Usually when people are developing toys,

they start with two different models,

a looks-like model

which is often done today with 3D printing

and a works-like model which is a mechanism.

So when those two things move together,

very often, that's used as the basis for the manufacturing.

So the prototype may go through many different iterations

and revisions as you're getting to the final product

but when you get a final prototype,

that's almost the complete toy.

@keegantindall asks, for ages eight and up.

How do they decide that for toys?

Are they giving it to younger and younger kids

until something really bad happens?

No, there are elaborate testing mechanisms that happen

for kids of all different ages

and because of the way children's bodies develop,

you can have a mechanism

that measures the size of a child's air pipe

and then when it gets to eight and up,

there's also the cognitive development.

There is the is my child intellectually ready for this

and so it's a real good guideline

but definitely for younger kids, you wanna pay attention

to those age gradings for what kids can do

and what's most safe.

@tobytbeck wants to know,

how can you use math to design a toy?

Toy design is almost all engineering

so it's almost all maths

and you need to figure out the tolerances of plastic

and that's chemistry and physics put together.

So you really need to understand

the different levels of math

so that you can engineer a toy effectively

so it'll stand up under pressure,

it'll pass safety regulations and of course it'll be fun.

@The7Legacy says, do kids still play with action figures?

Yes, they do.

Action figures are huge.

This is one of the most iconic action figures of all time.

This is Optimus Prime from Hasbro.

The term action figure was actually coined

when Hasbro introduced G.I. Joe

and one of the things they brought G.I. Joe to market for

was to be a boy's toy that competed with Barbie

which by 1964 was doing pretty well.

So any toy really targeting largely a boy audience

based on a TV show or that is a figure or that's a doll

is called an action figure

but then there's also the concept of the kidult.

These are adults who are still collecting action figures.

They're the ones who are driving toy lines like McFarlane.

They're the ones who are insisting

on much more detail in the Marvel or DC action figures.

So yes, action figures are still a big part

of the toy industry and a big part of people's lives.

@lizzie_bobizzie says,

who is Rubik and why do we have his cube?

In the 1970s, Erno Rubik designed Rubik's Cube

as a way of helping to teach math.

What was unique about it is the mechanism inside

that allows the cube to turn in different directions

on different planes very easily and fluidly.

Rubik's Cube also became

kind of synonymous with intelligence.

A kid who could solve Rubik's Cube and could solve it fast

or could solve it with their feet

was really considered a genius.

It's become a phenomenon within the context of brain puzzles

throughout the years

and there've been many other Rubik's puzzles

that have come through the years.

@Barstool says, how is the pet rock ever a fad?

The thing about a fad is nobody sees it coming.

Nobody can predict a fad.

The thing about a pet rock

was that it came at a specific time,

at a specific point in our culture.

It was the whimsical nature of the manual that came with it

which is you could teach your rock to do tricks.

So it just touched a nerve.

I think Johnny Carson had it on The Tonight Show

and it just became this running gag in the country

and that's how a fad is born.

@hhall31 says, why were Beanie Babies popular?

I don't get it.

I don't get it either but they were.

Beanie Babies were introduced in the 90s

but it was really when they came into the later 90s

and the 2000s that it became collectible

and people really thought

as Ty Warner decided to discontinue

some of the Beanie Babies that they would grow in value

so that Peanut the Blue Elephant would be worth $2,000,

a 5.99 toy worth $2,000.

That doesn't really happen very often

but that didn't stop people from believing it

and Beanie Babies created an entire industry

around collecting them.

We've seen this kind of phenomenon in history.

Probably the biggest one was the tulip craze

in the 17th century when one tulip bulb would be worth

what a family could make in a year.

So we really do see this

as happening within human civilization from time to time.

You get a craze, we don't know why it happens, it takes off

and then it dies.

@witheredBBfilms says, I will never understand

how Transformer toys are designed

especially in such high numbers.

The really amazing thing about Transformers,

I'm gonna bring my friend Optimus back in here for this,

these were originally made by Takara

and it was all about robots transforming.

It was a very Japanese concept.

It's really an engineering tour de force

when they do all of these,

the different plastic pieces that fit together and fold up.

This one particularly is done with a process

called injection molding.

So you have two halves of a mold

and literally what happens is when it's in the machine,

liquid plastic is shot into the mold

and it takes on the shapes you see here.

That's why precise molding is really important

and molds are very expensive.

Molds also have a lifecycle

so they have to keep redoing them.

So it really is a way of getting the plastic into a shape

but with Transformers, it's doubly hard

because not only do you get it into the shape

but it has to move in a specific way

and there's not a lot of room for mistakes in this.

@chloesullivanPR says, imagine what kids' toys will be like

in 50 years time.

I don't think it's too difficult to imagine that

because children don't change that much.

As a species, we don't evolve quite that fast.

The toys will reflect things

that are going on in the culture

but will still need the basics

for developing eye hand coordination,

developing gross motor skills, interacting socially.

What's changed toys really in the last 40 years

has been the evolution of chips.

So for example, the original Furby had the same chip in it

that powered the Apple II computer.

As chips get more and more sophisticated,

you're going to see the toys able to do more

and the big question in 2023 is

how is AI going to impact toy design?

@suebanks64 says, whenever I watch Disney

and see commercials for toys,

I think all of these toys are plastic.

How are toy companies creating more sustainable toys

or at least recyclable toys?

The most sustainable toy

is the one that never gets thrown out.

Something like LEGO is completely sustainable

because it gets passed down from kid to kid.

However, there are a lot of experiments going on

with toys made from sustainable materials.

There's a lot of wood coming in toys

and then because plastic is endemic to toys,

you're also seeing things like less packaging,

companies reducing the lights in their factories.

So it's highly, highly considered in toy companies right now

and they're looking to see what the next best practice is.

@lennartnout says, also, how does LEGO do quality control?

How is every single piece perfect

and how do you never miss a piece from the set?

It's amazing.

The thing about LEGO is that they have an entire company

dedicated to just that, to quality control,

to the kind of ABS plastic that they use,

to the way in which the pieces fit together

and stay together

to the way in which things are designed.

They have an entire model shop that tries these things out

and it really is their brand identity.

@pawzcore says, I'm so interested in recalled toys.

It's so interesting like I honestly kind of want

that one rollerblade Barbie from 1993

where her skates literally have lighters in them

so they spark when she moves.

You might want that and you might be able to find it

but it probably wasn't safe.

Toy recalls are actually rare

because toys go through such comprehensive testing

before they ever go to market

but every once in a while, something comes through.

There's a part that's not right

or there's different things that happen to it.

When I was working with CBS Toys,

we had a Creative Playthings wooden gym.

The steps on the ladder were too close together

so if a child stuck their head in it,

we never thought they would, it could actually get stuck.

So you recall that so you can fix that part

and then reissue the toy.

@ChillCandace says, the real question

is how did Hasbro make so much money off a Potato Head?

That's crazy.

Who would've thought a potato would be a classic toy?

LOL.

It was one of the first toys to be advertised on television.

Probably nobody in 1952 when it first came out.

The original Mr. Potato Head just had the body

and on top of the body was a spike

and that spike you used to impale a real potato on

and then you decorated it with eyes, nose, mouth, pipe.

It was something that if Captain Kangaroo had it on,

it was gonna be a phenomenon because at the time,

almost every kid in America was watching Captain Kangaroo

but it was really something

that caught the imagination of kids.

@bludragonz11 says, I remember

but how many remember the Cabbage Patch Doll chaos of 1983?

Cabbage Patch Dolls in 1983 became so popular

because they really made that amazing transition

that happens every once in a while

when you go from a toy designed for kids

to a cultural phenomenon.

By Xavier Roberts, they were original Appalachian artworks

and they were kind of inspired by Apple dolls

and then when Coleco got them,

they made them with plastic faces.

One of the things that made Cabbage Patch Dolls unique

was that you didn't own it.

You adopted it and each doll came with adoption papers

that you had to fill out and send back into the toy company.

It was the scarcity and the fact that trying to find them

that really drove the phenomenon.

So having it became as important as playing with it.

@jhamlett wants to know,

has any business ever taken advantage

of rights licensing across every genre

more effectively than Funko Pop?

It's startling just how deep they go.

That's absolutely true.

For somebody who might not be familiar with Funko Pop,

they really came out of the whole urban vinyl movement

which started in Japan and it was all about collectibles

based on either anime figures or entertainment figures.

Funko Pop has a very unique look.

It's got the larger head, the smaller body

and when you look at it, you know that's a Funko Pop.

That made it perfect for licensing.

So you can interpret Mickey Mouse,

you can interpret Harry Potter,

you can interpret pretty much anything, Cher if you want to

and the one thing it has in common

is everybody knows it's Funko.

@LilyBaileyUK says, tell me how old you are

by telling me your favorite toy fad.

Well, it's right here, it's Mr. Machine.

In 1960, this transformed the toy industry.

You could ostensibly take apart and put back together.

You wound him up.

He was so popular, every kid had to have him.

The whole appeal of taking apart Mr. Machine

was that robots were very popular during the 50s

and in popular entertainment.

The problem was kids would get it apart,

they couldn't get it back together and guess what?

It didn't come with instructions to put it back together.

@dnjmsprry says, I wonder how toy collectors decide

what to keep in box and what to unbox.

If you are hoping that your toy

is gonna appreciate in value,

you're gonna leave it in the box

and you're gonna have to take care of that box too

because the state of the box

does contribute to the value of the toy.

Every once in a while, you'll come across

a mint in box 1959 Barbie

and that's worth about $6,000 depending on where you get it

but then I always ask, what happened to the child?

@TerryBradshaw says, is there anyone here

that collects McDonald's toys from the Happy Meal?

I'm sure it's worth something.

Collecting Happy Meal toys or any fast food toys

is a huge subset of the toy industry.

You will find conventions, you will find collectors,

you will find websites.

They really do have a value within that community.

I have two versions here of Woody

that came with the Burger King meals

in 1995 when it came out and it was a phenomenon.

These are still very rare and highly collectible

and I'm not gonna open 'em

because that would diminish their value.

@jaaronmerchant wants to know,

how does one get into the toy industry,

specifically toy design, asking for a friend.

I love this question

because one of the things the toy industry needs desperately

is more designers.

So there are two great programs,

one at Fashion Institute of Technology in New York

and then one at Otis College of Design in Los Angeles.

Now, you don't necessarily need to go to college

to be able to do this.

A lot of people have industrial design backgrounds,

a lot of people have animation backgrounds

and really, it's about team

and bringing your unique skills to the table.

That's all the questions.

Hope you learned something fun about toys.

Until next time.