Wiffle Ball, Clue, paper airplanes sail into Toy Hall
To make the hall of fame, toys must have inspired creative play across generations.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The National Toy Hall of Fame Class of 2017 are paper airplanes, the board game Clue and the Wiffle Ball.
The new group of toys were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in New York and now have a permanent place alongside previous honorees including the dollhouse, jump rope and Radio Flyer wagon.
The hall, located inside The Strong museum in Rochester, announced the Class of 2017 Thursday.
The whodunit game Clue, where players must name the crime scene and murder weapon, continues to sell millions of copies since being patented by a British couple during World War II. Clue is produced by Parker Brothers.
“Clue has also had its own movie, been featured in numerous television shows and books and remains an icon of pop culture,” said curator Nicolas Ricketts, who added the game has spun off travel, junior and advanced versions, as well as collectors and themed editions.
The annual inductees are chosen on the advice of historians and educators following a process that begins with nominations from the public. To make the hall of fame, toys must have inspired creative play across generations. Historic and modern versions of the winners are displayed in the hall.
This year’s finalists were: the board games Risk and Clue, the Magic 8 Ball, Matchbox cars, My Little Pony, the paper airplane, PEZ candy dispenser, play food, sand, Transformers, the card game Uno and Wiffle Ball.
Like Clue, the Wiffle Ball remains a big seller more than six decades after it was invented by a retired semipro baseball player in Connecticut whose son had given up on regular backyard baseball for lack of space and too many broken windows.
David Mullany began by cutting holes in round plastic parts from a factory, eventually developing a ball with eight oblong slots that allow the ball to grab air and change and slow its trajectory. A strikeout was called a “wiff,” according to the family-owned Wiffle Ball Inc., which has produced millions of balls each year since.
Some initially pegged the lightweight ball as a fad, said Stephen Mullany, who with his brother represent the third generation to run the company. He credits its ability to level the playing field despite players’ ages and ability with helping to keep it around.
“Here we are 60-plus years later,” Mullany said, “so it’s pretty neat.”
Exactly who made the first paper airplanes is unclear, though artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci gets credit for designing flying machines out of parchment in the 15th century.