MetaFilter posts tagged with toys

Hello, Lanie the organic gardener

roomthreeseventeen — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:00:17 -0800

The Atlantic reports on the 2008 removal/"archiving" of the original three American Girl dolls, dolls whose arrival on the market in 1986 represented a "sensibility about teaching girls to understand thorny historical controversies and build political consciousness." The original dolls, Samantha, Kirsten and Felicity are no longer sold to make room for dolls like Saige, the "2013 Girl of the Year." HuffPo responds: How Radical Can a $105 Doll Be?

Ages 3 and Up

Artw — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:44:10 -0800

"Queen Frostine turned into a Bratz doll" - The evolution of sexed-up Candyland.

Bunny Bounced

Artw — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 08:22:16 -0800

The true secret of Easter - but are toys replacing candy (or, more awfully, live animals) as the traditional Easter gift? And is that a bad thing?

If Cabbage Patch Kids can be born, they can also die

Charlemagne In Sweatpants — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 20:29:20 -0800

A poignant look inside Babyland, the hospital where Cabbage Patch Kids are born.

Go home, Fyodor, you're drunk.

Snarl Furillo — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:29:36 -0800

Are your favorite writers using Google Docs? Probably. They're also bossy and irritable.

Not that Toy Story

Grandysaur — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:03:31 -0800

"Galimberti explores the universality of being a kid amidst the diversity of the countless corners of the world; saying, “at their age, they are pretty all much the same; they just want to play.” Photos of Children From Around the World With Their Most Prized Possessions. (previously)

New from VIDEO Magazine, it's Electronic Games!

JHarris — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 05:43:30 -0800

NEW from VIDEO Magazine, arising out of its popular "Arcade Alley" column, it's ELECTRONIC GAMES Magazine!(page of PDF links) Brought to you by editors Frank Laney Jr. and Bill Kunkel, and filled with all the latest news on programmable home console games, computer games (with special coverage for the new ATARI 800 system), stand-alone electronic devices and arcade gaming. In the premier issue on newsstands now:

Page 8: "Congratulations on the debut of your new magazine. As games designers, we are naturally pleased that there will be a magazine entirely devoted to the field of electronic gaming. Good Luck!
-- The ActiVision Design Staff: Alan Miller, David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Bob Whitehead, Steve Cartright."
Pages 10-11: One of the infamous George Plimpton ads promoting the Intellivision over the Atari 2600. "Atari Casino. No Dealer. Intellivision Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack. You play cards with a shifty-eyed dealer."
Page 12: An article on David Crane's Freeway. "'That's where the San Diego Chicken came in,' says Activision spokesperson Diane Drosnes."
Page 14: "Atari confirms rumor; secret messages exist! Sources at Atari have confirmed one of arcading's most persistant wild stories. If a gamer sends the hero to a certain room in the VCS Adventure and performs a specific action, a secret message revealing the designer's name will appear on the screen."
Page 14: "There's quite a story behind the delay in the release of the VCS Asteroids cartridge. The version the company showed a year ago received such a frosty reception from those who got an advance peak that the designers went back to the drawing board. They developed a special process that puts twice as much program--8K vs. 4K--on the cartridge as was previously possible. It seems that Atari's wizards came up with a special bank-switch that flips back and forth between two 4K programs, fooling the VCS into reading them both..."
Page 16: "Those who were planning to give (Atari's standalone game system) COSMOS to someone this holiday season had better start looking for a substitute present. Although Atari lavished much advance publicity on its holographically enhanced stand-alone programmable, the company has shuttled it back to the design department for more work. Although the accomplishment of actually developing a commercially viable holographic process drew much admiration, the game itself received mixed reviews. The chief complaint: The holograms served as mere decoration and did not directly affect play."
Page 18: "Holiday Gift Guide for Gamers," features a chess computer, a calculator watch with a game mode, a satin jacket reading "SPACE INVADERS," and the new Merlin and Pocket Simon handheld electronic games, among other things.
Page 22: Introducing the new Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer! "Gamers who have felt shackled by the black and white output of the TRS-80 series can now fill the screen with green, blue, yellow, red, buff, cyan, magenta and orange."
Page 24: Q&A with the Game Doctor! "Q: Do video games damage television sets? A: No, no, a thousand times no!"
Page 25-28: A four-page ad for the Odyssey 2's classic game Quest for the Rings, a combination video and board game. "Ten rings of power lie hidden within the Dark Lands of the evil Ringmaster. In gloomy dungeons. Crystal caverns. Molten infernos. And mysterious shifting halls. Each posing its own challenge. And its own threat."
"Each ring is guarded by the treacherous minions of evil that lurk within these halls of doom. Menacing Orcs and Firewraths. The loathsome Spydroth Tyrantulus. Doomwinged Bloodthirsts. And hiddeous (sic) firebreathing dragons."
Page 29: 15-year-old Atari VCS Space Invaders champion Frank Tetro Jr. gives game tips!
Page 31: An article on the rivalry currently heating up arcades, between Space Invaders and Asteroids.
Page 37: "The Player's Guide to Programmable Videogames." "Programmable" systems are consoles that can accept cartridges on which are coded new games you can play without buying a whole new unit, as opposed to all those units that only play Pong or other simple games. The age of those systems drew to a close with the recent release of the new Atari Video Computer System.
Page 39: "1981: Game of the Year: Superman." Although if you ask me, Adventure was robbed.
Page 40: The guide continues. Coverage of the state of the industry, covering the major companies. Atari, Activision, Phillips (who have taken over distributing the Odyssey2 from subsidary Magnavox), Mattel, and Zircon, who is reviving the Fairchild Channel F, the original programmable game console. Although the images in all these articles are obviously artist recreations, probably from the game companies' own promotional materials. If only someone could reliably take a picture of a video monitor, making some kind of "screen shot," it would advance the art of game magazines tremendously....
Page 49: Reviews of Quest for the Rings, and also Missile Command, Air-Sea Battle, Breakout (Atari), Kaboom, Tennis and Boxing (Activision) for the VCS, Auto Racing and Space Battle, for the Invellivision, UFO and Alien Invaders--Plus! for the Odyssey2, and... Video Whizball for the poor Channel F. Of the latter: "If you like explosions, you'll love UFO. There are at least three different ones, plus an occasional strange hybrid the machine concocts to take care of extraordinary occurrences[...]"
Page 58: Computer Playland is the magazine's computer software review column, covering among other games Star Raiders for the Atari 400 & 800, Empire of the Over-Mind from Avalon Hill, and Scott Adams' version of Lunar Lander.
Page 63: An arcade column covers Phoenix sequel Pleiades, Space Odyssey, the awesome Venture, and the even-more-awesome arcade version of Warlords. "Fantasy adventures, role-playing games, dragon-slaying and heroic quests have been hot media topics for over a year now. Just as 'Star Wars' launched the science fiction boom a few years back, films like 'Dragonslayer,' 'Knightriders', 'Excalibur' and even 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' are piquing nationwide interest in 'adventure' simulations."
Page 66: Joyce Worley contributes an article on the burdgening standalone game device scene, with reviews of several devices, including Dark Tower.
Page 70: An article on (dare we dream) buying your own arcade machine!
Page 73: "Within the next year, a sizable number of arcaders may be playing games on their very own IBM computers. The company, virtually synonymous with electronic brains to most folks, is finally going to produce machines for the home and small business markets. IBM plans three systems, ranging in price from $1,560 to $4,500. Gamers will most likely be interested in the low-end unit. Sold without monitor or cassette, it comes with 16K of memory. An additional 64K is available for slightly over $500. All the IBM personal computers are based on a 16-bit microprocessor, the 8088. This chip is faster than the ones used in most other home computers and will be able to handle significantly more complex programs. This could lead to the creation of some mighty complex games, particularly in the realm of fantasy adventures. How soon will games be produced for the IBM system? IBM will initially concentrate on business software. Once there's a sizable corps of owners, however, suppliers will undoubtedly begin pumping out entertainment software."
The issue wraps up with rundowns of football games and chess-playing devices, and "Arcade Spotlight," a general arcade news column.

Coming up in the NEXT ISSUE of ELECTRONIC GAMES:

The History of Videogames
The 1982 Arcade Awards
The Videogame Hall of Fame
How Videogames Are Made
The Players Guide to Electronic Science Fiction Games
All these columns, plus one devoted to electronic role-playing games, Passport to Adventure.

So watch for the second issue of Electronic Games ON SALE JANUARY 14 1982! - - - - - - - - Electronic Games is also preserved at the Internet Archive.

Beyond the mechanical turk

flibbertigibbet — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:59:21 -0800

Richard Garriott, perhaps better known as Lord British, has a wonderful collection of wooden automata in his house, in his Austin, Texas home Britannia Manor II (complete with observatory, and put up for sale in 2011). Here is an automata museum exhibit courtesy the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre in Glasgow. Or perhaps you would like to see more from individual automata artists? Perhaps you find this new-fangled stuff insufficiently respectful of the past: would you like a history lesson (links to the left)? Or might you like to learn how to make your own, out of paper? If all else fails, how about these anti-war automata?

Ghost of Christmas Past? Pac Man just ate her.

radwolf76 — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 09:26:42 -0800

Electronic Toys From Holidays Long Past (274 picture SL imgur gallery)

An unexpected gathering of bricks

Artw — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 23:31:17 -0800

What It Takes to Build a Lego Hobbit [cached version] - How Lego's An Unexpected Gathering was designed from the 2,700 pieces of the modern Lego "system of play", which remains compatible with a brick design that goes back to 1958. Despite worries that the stacking brick system has become less creative, a persistant series of complaints that have spawned their own bingo card, it remains hugely popular, in part through quality control and clever licensing. The Lego Bag-End house also comes in a life size version.

Jul!

The Ardship of Cambry — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 10:15:49 -0800

Jul!, a creative and delightfully disturbing animated advent calendar (some images possibly NSFW). Via.

Gender-neutral toy catalogue

frimble — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 02:18:58 -0800

"Top-Toy Group, a licensee of the Toys "R" Us brand, has published a gender-blind catalog for the Christmas season."

Top-Toy also is working on adjusting store displays and packaging to reflect the gender-neutral approach, said Jan Nyberg, Top-Toy's sales director in Sweden. Boys and girls can now be seen playing together on boxes of "Happy House," Top-Toy's own kitchen set. "We can't decide what the big toy makers' boxes should look like as their products are made for the global market, but we can make changes on our own boxes and in our stores," Mr. Nyberg said.

Press release from Top-Toy More pictures from the catalogue

Goldie Blox

gruchall — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 18:27:10 -0800

Move over Barbie, Goldie Blox is coming to town. A kickstarter-funded construction toy + book series targeting at 5 to 9 year-old girls.

Child's play

zippy — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 17:19:37 -0800

Hey Metafilter, you like John Carpenter's The Thing? Now, see the toys from the merchandising tie-in! (SLYT, NSFW, possible spoilers)

Furby Got Back

Potomac Avenue — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 07:01:05 -0800

What's he been doing since his release in 1998? Find out on this helpful website , The Adventures of Pink Furby

You can’t hurt babies or old people!

Horace Rumpole — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 09:00:10 -0800

A history of Nerf violence.

Play With Your Food

zamboni — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:53:10 -0800

A Collector's Weekly article on 19th Century butcher shop playsets. Also available in the 21st Century. If you prefer LEGO, your options are more limited.

The Vibrator gets an Overhaul

zarq — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:08:17 -0800

Jimmyjane (NSFW) makes luxury, design-oriented vibrators and other sex toys and accessories. ("Design inspired by Apple, not Hustler.") They'd like to change the way Americans think about them: instead of as 'dirty little secrets,' they're hoping for mainstream acceptance and to usher in an "Age of Great American Sex." (Via) Additional interviews and reviews: * Fast Company: A New Vibrator from Yves Behar Arouses Our Interest * SF Gate: The Pleasure Principle * Violet Blue: Jimmyjane: the eco-sexy lifestyle * Good Design: What's Inside Counts: Sex Toys and Design

"We put the animate in the inanimate."

Faint of Butt — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:48:49 -0800

Cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt visits Toy Fair.

“Digitize Her!”

zarq — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 08:37:05 -0800

Earth, 2147. The legacy of the Metal Wars, where man fought machines—and machines won. Bio-Dreads — monstrous creations that hunt down human survivors... and digitize them!
In 1987, before he created Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski was a writer for Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, a live-action sci-fi show for kids. 24 episodes were produced. Straczynski wrote or co-wrote 14 of them, including multi-episode plot arcs. A line of interactive toys brought the battle into kids’ living rooms, and Captain Power was also one of the very first shows on television to feature computer animation in every episode. But in an attempt to appeal to both children and the adults who watched with them, the campy show included some concepts and scenes critics deemed too violent for children and lasted only a single season in syndication. The full run of the show has now been uploaded to Youtube. Alternate Playlist. These videos are of a lower quality, but are not broken into parts. * Fan Site. * 20th Anniversary Site * More on the toy line at Parry Game Preserve

Gurgling Gungans

griphus — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:52:59 -0800

A whole new batch of rejected Star Wars toys (Previously)

It is a Puzzlement

Horace Rumpole — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:54:11 -0800

The Jerry Slocum Mechanical Puzzle Collection, given to Indiana University in 2006, is now online, with images and descriptions of some 24,000 puzzles, from an 18th century Japanese puzzle to nearly 300 kinds of Rubik's Cubes. More on the collection. More on Jerry Slocum.

Atomic Toys

Foci for Analysis — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:51:19 -0800

The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab (Geiger counter sold separately) was one of many rad atomic toys available for inquisitive young minds living in the US.

Brick Bending

JHarris — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:44:33 -0800

Here is Jeff Sanders, who builds things with Legos. Round things. Here's his blog, featuring videos of his work. Here's a Discovery News post on Sanders, with more pictures of his work. This Oregon Live article shows more round Lego creations on his wall.

Lego Builds for the Other Half of the World

MonkeyToes — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:18:08 -0800

"Over the years, Lego has had five strategic initiatives aimed at girls. Some failed because they misapprehended gender differences in how kids play. Others, while modestly profitable, didn’t integrate properly with Lego’s core products. Now, after four years of research, design, and exhaustive testing, Lego believes it has a breakthrough. On Dec. 26 in the U.K. and Jan. 1 in the U.S., Lego will roll out Lego Friends, aimed at girls 5 and up.... "The Lego Friends team is aware of the paradox at the heart of its work: To break down old stereotypes about how girls play, it risks reinforcing others. “If it takes color-coding or ponies and hairdressers to get girls playing with Lego, I’ll put up with it, at least for now, because it’s just so good for little girls’ brains,” says Lise Eliot." From Businessweek (print link, above; via BoingBoing), an interesting look at Lego's new girl-oriented initiative.