Great Toys From Our Childhood

Wheels, the Slinky and many more.<br><br> These toys are displayed with their original packaging, promotional and advertising materials. The exhibition explores the toys 9 invention, evolution and cultural signiKcance in North America. Beyond the display of vintage toys, Kid Stuff features interactive, hands-on activities for kids of all ages.<br><br> Visitors will have the chance to make new memories with classic toys and games like Twister, Etch-A-Sketches, View Masters and Nerf balls. Generations have been unable to resist the smell of Crayolas, the feel of Play-Doh, the sight of Mr. Potato Head and the taste of Pez.<br><br> Kid Stuff makes it clear why these classic toys and games live on 4both in our memories and on the shelves. Kid Stuff: Great Toys From Our Childhood will be open for a special media event and challenge on Thursday, October 20, 2005. Can I Try?: Colorforms, Duncan Yo-Yos, Etch-A-Sketch, Mr.<br><br> Potato Head, Nerf Ball, Spirograph, View-Master Go To Your Room: Labyrinth, Magic c8 d Ball, Magic Slate, Silly Putty, Slinky, Wooly Willy I 9ll Never Ask for Anything Else: Lionel Trains Don 9t Make A Mess: Ant Farms, Crayolas, Easy-Bake Oven, Magic Rocks, Play Doh I 9ll Trade Ya: Matchbox cars, Pez dispensers Look What I Made: Erector Sets, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys That 9s Not Funny: Adams gags 4Joy Buzzer, Snake-in-the- Can, Whoopee Cushion It 9s My Turn: Candy Land, Cootie, The Game of Life, Monopoly, Twister, Yahtzee Go Outside and Play: Balsa Planes, Flexible Flyer sleds, Frisbees, Hot Wheels, Radio Flyer wagons, Tonka Toys, WifLe Balls Wanna Play Dolls? : G.I. Joe, Barbie Elements Exhibition Kid Stuff features more than 40 classic toys and games 3 some of the most popular toys of the past 50 years 3 complemented by hundreds of illustrations, original advertisements and vintage reels.<br><br> Many of the toys displayed are the result of an engineering or scientiIc endeavor gone awry; others were created by economic necessity; and some were simply produced for fun. All have become the epitome of play for an intergenerational audience. Kid Stuff is deInitely not a 8look-but-don 9t-touch 9 exhibition.<br><br> The gallery features a Rumpus Room with interpreters ready to introduce the whole family to a host of great toys and games. Each month of the exhibition 9s run will feature a unique theme that highlights different activities. October 9s theme is It 9s My Turn: Try out great Canadian games like table hockey and Croquinole.<br><br> November 9s theme is Can I Try? : You will be surprised by the talent your family displays as you try hula hoops, yo-yos and the bag toss. December 9s theme is I 9ll Never Ask For Anything Again: Take a closer look at the timeless toys enjoyed by generations.<br><br> January 9s theme is Look What I Made: Come and invent a new toy, decode a secret message or try folding cool paper airplanes. Toys and games in the exhibition are categorized according to familiar childhood expressions: Barbie and G.I. Joe backdrops Take a photo with these life-sized backdrops!<br><br> Nerf Ball cpriceless crystal d ball toss game This game was designed to show nervous parents that you can throw a ball in the house and not break anything! Magenetic Mr. Potato Head (and friends) game No two faces will ever be quite the same!<br><br> Hot Wheels Racing Race your friends to see who 9s the master of the track! Yo-Yo Walk the Dog, Rock the Baby and Reach for the Moon 3 all in 5 minutes! Twister It 9s the most fun you 9ll ever have getting tied up in knots!<br><br> Lego Construction Site Build your dream house! Etch - A -Sketch Bring out your inner artist. Make a mistake?<br><br> Give it a shake! Interactive Features Kid Stuff Opening Day Saturday, October 22: Kid Stuff opens with a bang when Alberta based comedy variety entertainer Flyin 9Bob entertains (and involves) us in antics from 1:30 3 2:00 pm. Come and try your hand at juggling and other great games.<br><br> Family Fun Sundays: Playing games with your family is a great way to spend time together. Try out the games in the exhibition Rumpus Room with a gallery program leader on Sundays from 1-4 pm. Grown ups can revisit fond memories and create new ones with the kids as they engage in some of the following fun-Klled activities, including: The book reads like a labour of love.<br><br> What prompted you to research and write Kid Stuff? In 1994, I was working as a feature reporter (covering trends and popular culture) for a newly launched morning television show in Los Angeles. Accustomed to having people fall all over me when I approached them about being proKled on TV, I was taken aback when, independently, two toy manufacturers, passed on my request to do a live shot from their factories.<br><br> Amused by their sense of secrecy, I began to think that somewhere in all this guardedness there might be a book. There was. After all, there wasn 9t one of us (no matter how old) who hadn 9t cheated at Monopoly, defended our rooms behind a fortress of Lincoln Logs or eaten Play-Doh.<br><br> Yet who knew that every set of Monopoly contained exactly $15,140, that Lincoln Logs were invented by the son of Frank Lloyd Wright or that Play-Doh was originally formulated as a compound to clean wallpaper? What, if anything, in your research for the book surprised you the most? How many of the classic toys didn 9t start out to be toys at all.<br><br> Slinky and Silly Putty both emerged from failed war efforts (Slinky to Knd proper spring for a meter used aboard naval battleships and Silly Putty as a synthetic substitute for rubber). The Magic Slate was marketed to businesses as a re-usable, erasable time card. View-Masters were a staple of tourist attractions, intended to give travellers the ultimate vacation photos - and were also used as a training tool by the U.S.<br><br> military - before becoming a toy chest staple. And Colorforms originated when two starving art school students had to resort to using a roll of vinyl they were able to get for free. In your opinion, why do some of these toys continue to resonate with the masses today?<br><br> What 9s interesting is that every year some toy comes along that captures our kids 9 imaginations - not to mention OUR checkbooks. But like the Furbys, Tickle-Me Elmos and Power Rangers of playdates past, inevitably these must-have playthings are hot today and gone tomorrow. Meanwhile, Barbie turned 46 in March, Mr.<br><br> Potato Head his 50 in April. And 75 years after it Krst appeared on the schoolyard, the Duncan Yo-Yo still has the world on a string. Granted, the classics have history going for them (Baby Boomers want to buy their kids - and now, grandkids - the toys they themselves had as kids).<br><br> But these toys also continue to be popular because they let the kid be in charge, they provide play that 9s open-ended, they are (for the most part) not gender speciKc, and they are not based on (or tied into) movies and TV shows to date them. So, what 9s in your toy box today? SufKce it to say I rarely make an important decision without consulting a Magic 8-Ball.<br><br> How does it feel to have provided the inspiration for a popular international touring exhibition? First things Krst, I can 9t really take the credit, in the sense that these particular toys sell themselves. Just mention Crayola or Colorforms and people 9s faces light up.<br><br> But the experience has been incredibly rewarding...it 9s been a kick to see the book literally translated into 3-D form. From the start, the exhibition seemed like one of those projects that just made sense (well, at least to me!) You Kgure if people were enjoying seeing the toys, the original packaging and the vintage advertising in pictures in a book, then how much better, how much more fun it would be, if they could experience (and interact with) the identical items in person. On a more personal level, the exhibition has also been vindicating.<br><br> For a number of years, I wrote for series television (mystery shows like Matlock and Diagnosis Murder). You turn in a script, everyone says, cWe love it! d yet what appears on screen passes through so many hands that it ultimately has little resemblance to your original work. In this case, the opposite was true.<br><br> The adaptation was so incredibly faithful to my vision from every angle: content, images, text, even design. David Hoffman was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, and studied pre-med at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, until he cwised up, graduated early, and moved to Hollywood. d He has written for several television series, worked as a feature reporter for ABC and FOX, and served as a contributing correspondent to Good Morning America and a number of daytime talk shows.<br><br> He is the author of six books on popular culture, including Kid Stuff: Great Toys from Our Childhood and the recently published The Breakfast Cereal Gourmet . He lives in Los Angeles. David Hoffman author of Kid Stuff: Great Toys from Our Childhood Q&A with " that the Krst toy to ever be advertised on television was Mr.<br><br> Potato Head? " that the Yo-Yo is based on a weapon used by 16th century Filipino hunters? " that Play-Doh was originally invented as a wallpaper cleaning compound?<br><br> " that in 1993, the New York-based Barbie Liberation Front (BLF) pirated shipments of talking Barbie and G.I. Joe toys and swapped their voice chips? This caused the confusion of Barbie dolls barking such orders as, cTake the Jeep and get some ammo fast! d, while Joe, in a girlish voice, sighed, cMath is hard. d " that Tonka means cgreat d in Dakota Sioux, the language of the Aboriginal tribe native to Minnesota?<br><br> " that Monopoly was initially rejected by Parker Bros. because they claimed that the game had c52 fundamental playing errors d? " that in 1985, Mr.<br><br> Potato Head received four write-in votes in a Boise, Idaho mayoral election? " that Barbie 9s last name is Roberts? " that Mexican Jumping Beans jump because they have actual quarter-inch caterpillars trapped inside?<br><br> " that Silly Putty was the result of a failed effort during World War II to make a substitute for rubber during the Japanese conquest of the PaciKc? that, according to a Yale University study, the smell of Crayola Crayons is said to be among the twenty most recognizable scents to American adults? And that it is so soothing that snifKng Crayolas has been proven to lower blood pressure?<br><br> " that during a trip to the Soviet Union in 1987, Representatives Dan Mica (D- Florida) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) communicated sensitive information via Magic Slate toys in order to avoid the Soviet bugs and listening devices that were hidden in the U.S. Embassy? The messages were passed back and forth, and, most importantly, erased with the Lick of a wrist.<br><br> " that when View-Master went public in the mid-1980s, the stock certiKcates were printed in 3-D? " that special custom View-Master slides have been produced for everything from restaurant menus, medical school surgery techniques and real estate guides? TOY TRIVIA Did you know& The Slinky was invented by shipbuilder Richard T.<br><br> James in 1943. James was in the process of developing a type of spring that could help keep sensitive naval instruments steady at sea. As he struggled with the process, he accidentally knocked one of his prototype springs off a shelf and was amused by the way the coil cslinked d and slithered across the L oor instead of just falling down and landing.<br><br> The incident inspired James to replicate the spring as a child 9s toy. The original Slinky was made from an 87 foot piece of wire, three inches in diameter and two inches high when L attened. After The Slinky K nding his design rejected by store after store, one small shop K nally agreed to accept a small batch of Slinkys on consignment as well as an in- store demonstration.<br><br> James demonstrated to a crowded store the coil gracefully crawling down a sloped board, and within minutes, all 400 Slinkys were sold. James and his wife soon began to work full-time producing and selling Slinkys to meet the overwhelming demand. Over a 60 years and a quarter of a billion sales later, the Slinky remains one of the most popular children 9s toys of all time.<br><br> Milton Levine owned a mail- order company in 1956 that would cram comic books with familiar advertisements for ca hundred cowboys & Indians or a hundred WWII soldiers or a hundred circus animals all for a buck! d On the fourth of July, he was sitting beside his sister 9s pool in Southern California and enjoying a barbecue as he noticed a colony of ants marching towards the food table. He recalled fond memories of his childhood in Pittsburgh 3 dropping ants into Mason jars K lled with sand and watching them dig tunnels 3 and vowed to somehow recreate the idea as a consumer product for children. Under the moniker cUncle Milton d, Levine 9s prototype was made from a modiK ed clear plastic Kleenex dispenser.<br><br> When the response to a display ad in the Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times indicated that his product could K nd success, he spread his product from toy stores to pet shops, schools, libraries and museums. The design was simple: two sheets of clear plastic held upright by a green frame with a colourful barnyard background along with a certiK cate guaranteeing a supply of thirty- K ve ants once mailed back. Levine 9s Ant Farms were wildly successful, accounting for the dissemination of three-quarters of a billion ants in farms across North America.<br><br> Ant Farm For centuries, Aboriginals in the Philippines would fashion hunting tools based on long vines or strips of animal hide tied to grapefruit-sized rocks. It was K rst designed so that when thrown, the rocks could be easily retrieved from a safe distance. Later, the weapon evolved into a more intricate version that would retract with the snap of a wrist.<br><br> It later was scaled down into a children 9s toy called the Yo-Yo (meaning ccome back d in Tagalog, the native language of the Philippines). Fast-forward to 1927, when Pedro Flores, a Filipino busboy at a hotel in Santa Monica, would entertain and amuse guests by performing tricks with his handcrafted yo-yos. He soon began to manufacture and market Yo-Yos to satisfy the requests of his guests when businessman Donald Duncan spotted his display, salivated at the opportunity held by the delightful product, and bought Flores out on the spot.<br><br> From the 830s to the 860s, Duncan sent legions of cardigan sweater-clad demonstrators from town to town, dazzling passerbys and children with Yo-Yo tricks and inciting the masses to learn how to rock the baby, walk the dog, or go around the world. Despite massive marketing costs forcing Duncan 9s company into bankruptcy in 1965, the Yo-Yo persevered and it is still a schoolyard staple today. Duncan Yo-Yo In 1885, Edwin Binney took over his father 9s Peekskill Chemical plant and partnered with his cousin C.<br><br> Harold Smith to create a line of retail products, namely: shoe polish, printing ink and slate pencils. It was through these pencils that Binney & Smith K rst tapped into the educational product market. After teachers complained that the traditional chalk they had been supplied with produced too much of a mess, the company 9s chemists invented a dustless version.<br><br> From there, Binney & Smith sensed opportunity again after hearing that affordable crayons were hard to come by for most schools. Having recently invented a black wax marker for factory labeling use, the company applied the same formula to a non-toxic variety of colours. Binney 9s wife, herself a teacher, saw the value of the product and took it to herself to name the product by combining the French word craie (for cchalk d) with colea d from oleaginous (meaning oily) to form the timeless Crayola brand.<br><br> Crayola Crayons G.I. Joe In 1962, licensing agent Stanley Weston approached Hasbro with an idea that he hoped would catch the company 9s imagination 3 Weston wanted to create the anti-Barbie: a cdoll d for boys (though it would always be referred to as an caction K gure d). Like Mattel 9s Barbie, this toy was designed to be the center of a world of accessories.<br><br> Although instead of handbags and umbrellas, this cdoll d was a soldier and could be embellished with uniforms (for each branch of the American military), weapons (from hand grenades and L ame throwers to M-1 riL es or bazookas), and military gear (helmets, backpacks and canteens). In spite of resistance and pessimism from store owners (after all, a doll is still a doll, no matter what you call it), the public swooped up Hasbro 9s G.I. Joe K gures off the shelves; by 1965, G.I.<br><br> Joe was the number one selling toy among kids K ve to twelve years old. Girls, too, also enjoyed playing with G.I. Joe (particularly when he was dressed in his West Point or Annapolis garb).<br><br> In response, Hasbro created the G.I. Joe Nurse, who wore a Red Cross uniform and came with a medical kit. The public was underwhelmed, but in mint condition, she can worth as much as $5,000 today.<br><br> G.I. Joe 9s popularity plummeted during the peak of the Vietnam War, when anti- war sentiment prompted President Lyndon Johnson 9s decision not to seek re-election. Hasbro quickly repositioned its marketing strategy, and reinvented the K gure as an cadventurer d rather than a soldier and scaled the model down to 8 inches, and later, 3 inches.<br><br> Instead of G.I. Joe, the K gure alternated between titles such as cSuper Joe d and cA Real American Hero d. As the next two decades still felt the lingering shadow of Vietnam, Joe took on the identity of a hunter, an astronaut, a martial artist and an eco-warrior.<br><br> It was not until 1992 that the original G.I. Joe made a full return: not only did he grow back to full size (11 inches), he also came dressed ready for active duty. Single Day Pass: Adult (18-64 years) $10 Senior (65 and over) $8 Student (with ID) $7 Youth (7-17) $5 Family (Two adults and children 7-17) $28 Children (aged 6 and under) FREE Annual Mammoth Pass: (Unlimited Admission plus beneKts) Adult (18-64 years) $35 Senior (65 and over) $30 Student (with ID) $30 Youth (7-17) $20 Family (Two adults and children 7-17) $70 Grandparent (Two grandparents and children 7-17) $60 Enjoy half 3price admission on Saturdays and Sundays between 9 am & 11 am Hours: Daily: 9 am to 5 pm The Museum will be closed December 24 & 25 Admission PMS 1355 PMS 123 PMS 157 The Museum Shop The Museum Shop is the perfect place to Knd unique holiday gifts for the hard-to-buy-for friends and family on your list.<br><br> You 9ll Knd one-of-a-kind pieces of jewellery, heritage books and keepsakes, colourful clothing and toys from days gone by. Many of the classic toys featured in Kid Stuff will also be available in the Shop, including Mr. Potato Head, Nerf products, G.<br><br> I. Joe, Pez Dispensers, Silly Putty and more! Try our exclusive Museum Tea, and lose yourself in the new Syncrude Gallery of Aboriginal Culture book.<br><br>

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