Will your childhood toys be inducted into Hall of Fame?
As I get older, I find myself reflecting more on my childhood.
And I had a lot of great memories rekindled when I saw the list of the latest toys nominated for the National Toy Hall of Fame.
I wasn’t familiar with the Hall before I saw the list. It’s fun. And when I looked up the toys that already have been inducted, I felt as if I was in elementary school again.
Looking at the Hall of Famers was like digging through my bedroom closet in the late 1970s and early 1980s: Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars; Tonka trucks; G.I. Joe and Star Wars action figures; Legos; Lincoln Logs; Dungeons & Dragons; Atari; Big Wheel; and Rubik’s Cube.
The Star Wars figures and the Millennium Falcon that my brother and I had disappeared long ago. I believe they were given to another family with young children after we got too old for them. They are worth quite a bit today, though if I still had them I think the memories would be too valuable to sell them.
I never even got close to solving Rubik’s Cube. I gave up, peeled off the colored stickers and rearranged them to make it appear as if I had won. No one was fooled.
There’s still a case of Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars and a big box of Legos at my parents’ house. I presume they were stashed away when my brother and I aged out of them, in anticipation of grandchildren.
My sons got their use out of them, though I think I had more fun than they did. My boys are long past that age now too, so my toys were stashed away again, maybe in anticipation of the next generation.
But the Hall of Fame toy I enjoyed reminiscing about the most was the cardboard box.
I was shocked to see it. Some people might not consider a box to be a toy. Give the Hall of Fame credit for recognizing toys as anything that can be played with, not just things that have to be purchased.
The stick, sand and paper airplane also have been inducted.
The crew in my childhood neighborhood had a blast with cardboard boxes, in an unconventional way.
The house I grew up in had a large, steep hill in the backyard. Anytime someone on our street bought a new appliance, my friends and I scavenged the box from the trash. We dragged it to the top of the hill, piled inside and rolled down.
The box lasted for only a few rides before it was shredded. We occasionally emerged with a few dings ourselves from tumbling over each other, but it was great fun. I hadn’t thought about that in a long time.
Now, getting back to the list of nominees for this year’s Toy Hall of Fame class. What’s cool is that the public can vote.
The nominees are: bingo, Breyer Horses, Catan, LiteBrite, Nerf Toys, Masters of the Universe, piñata, Phase 10, Pound Puppies, Rack-O, Spirograph and the top.
I was addicted to Rack-O, a card game where you draw cards and arrange them in numerical order in your rack before your opponents do. I didn’t have the game at home. It was in the toy chest at my grandmother’s house, and my usual opponent was
Great Aunt Marion. We spent hours together with that game.
Rack-O didn’t get my Hall of Fame vote, though. Nerf did.
I often had a ball in my hand as a youngster, and a lot of times it was Nerf. The spongy material made throwing and catching easier. And we were more likely to get away with breaking the rule of no ball-playing inside the house if we were using a Nerf, as it tended to cause less damage if — more likely when — it got away from us.
I had a Nerf basketball hoop on the back of the door in my bedroom. My friends and I would play one-on-one, trying to dunk over each other. I can still hear the sound the plastic rim made as it sprang back into place after we slammed it down against the wooden door.
Nerf footballs abounded in my neighborhood too. They were lighter and could be thrown farther than rubber or leather pigskins, and were less likely to jam your fingers.
Playing with them in the rain was a challenge, though, because they got waterlogged. We had to wring them out.
The footballs didn’t always last long. They were used so much they got tattered pretty quickly. And if one of the neighborhood dogs got a hold of one, it was history, torn to bits in seconds.
The three toys from the 12 nominees that get the most votes will be inducted in the National Toy Hall of Fame, located at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, on Nov. 10. Votes are done by a 23-member committee, with the public being one member.
Now here’s where I fumbled. Unfortunately, the public voting already is closed. I had intended to write this column sooner to encourage voting but didn’t realize the voting window was so short, only a week. It ended Wednesday. My apologies for that.
There is another way you can play a role in getting your favorite toy considered for future election, though. Anyone can nominate a toy for consideration for the National Toy Hall of Fame at museumofplay.org/exhibits/toy-hall-of-fame/nominate-atoy/.
I’ll make sure to announce this year’s winners in November.