Which Toys Came Out on Top?
The National Toy Hall of Fame in the United States has chosen to honor three toys.
Courtesy of The Strong Museum of Play
The Strong Museum of Play, home of the National Toy Hall of Fame, celebrates the history of play. There’s also a skyline climb, a butterfly garden, and a video game hall of fame.
Slime is getting its time in the spotlight! The gooey stuff, which has entertained generations of kids, is now part of America’s National Toy Hall of Fame, along with the board games Trivial Pursuit and Battleship.
Each year, the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York, honors toys that encourage creative play and have lasting popularity. Anyone can nominate a toy for the Hall of Fame by going to its website. Winners are selected by a panel of experts as well as an online voting system that’s open to the public.
Courtesy of The Strong Museum of Play
The games Trivial Pursuit (left) and Battleship (right) and the longtime favorite, slime, are now in the National Toy Hall of Fame.
This year’s winners are classics. Battleship players try to sink each other’s ships, while Trivial Pursuit challenges players to answer questions about categories like history and sports. Slime is just slime. The sticky stuff was first sold as a toy in 1976, but kids were probably having fun with homemade slime before that. Michelle Parnett-Dwyer of the National Toy Hall of Fame says that while slime may seem simple for a toy, it’s actually quite valuable.
“Though slime continues to carry icky [connections] to slugs and swamps—all part of the fun for some—the toy offers meaningful play,” Parnett-Dwyer said on the Hall of Fame’s website.
Toys that were nominated for the Hall of Fame but didn’t make the cut include Connect Four, Spirograph, the Star Wars lightsaber, and Tickle Me Elmo.
