Page 35 - All About History - Issue 18-14

istory

Today toy soldiers are usually
made out of plastic rather than
the traditional tin or other metals

1
CUP-AND-BALL 550
Reportedly a favourite toy of King Henry III of
France and then later of King Louis XV, the cup-
d ball has become synonymous with children’s
over the past 450 years. The toy consists
up with a bottom-mounted handle
wooden ball, attached to the
ia rope or cord. The purpose
toy is to try and swing
all up from its starting
on into the cup with one
rked arm motion. Every
time the ball lands in
the cup, the user
arded a point, TOY SOLDIERS 1730
While miniature military figures have been
the aim of the
discovered in Ancient Egyptian tombs – and
to set high
infrequently each century since then – it was
s.
not until the 18th century that they were properly
Ernő Rubik
assigned a toy status on an industrial scale. The
HUNGARIAN 1944 - PRESENT
The creator of the famous Rubik’s first modern-style toy soldiers were produced in
Cube, Rubik was born in Budapest, Germany, with the military figures produced
Hungary. After completing his PhD,
Rubik became professor of architecture from tin by moulding the metal between two
at the Budapest College of Applied Arts, slate pieces. These figures were heavy and
a period in which he built designs for crudely modelled, but took off throughout the
the now-popular 3D puzzle in 1974. country and then Europe, with children playing Americans were so taken by the
Today Rubik travels the globe slinky that in 2002 President
with his exhibition, ‘Beyond out historical battles with them. The hollow-cast George W Bush called it the
Rubik’s Cube.’ metal and plastic figures that are popular today national toy of the United States
were introduced in the late-19th century.
SLINKY 1945
One of history’s oddest toys, the slinky consists of
a pre-compressed helical spring made from metal
or plastic that can be used to perform a number of
PORTABLE GAMES
tricks, including the classic drop down a flight of
steps. The toy was invented in the USA by naval
CONSOLE 1989
A machine that ushered in the era of engineer Richard James and, after a demonstration
electronic toys for children, Nintendo’s Game at a department store in 1945, it rapidly became a
Boy was revolutionary, allowing users to play best-seller throughout the country and then the
video games while out and about. Games world, with the toyrackingupaphenomenal300
consoles had existed prior to it, but due to million sales in over 60 years.
their price and size, they never took off as
mainstream toys. The Game Boy changed all
that, offering a simple, lightweight system to TheNintendoGameBoykicked
off the concept of portable
play titles such as Tetris and Super Mario Land gaming consoles as toys
and, by the end of its life span, the system
had sold 118 million units. Since its release
many other portable games consoles
The Rubik’s Cube was
originally named the have been introduced, with the
‘Hungarian Magic Cube’ present-day Nintendo 3DS one
of the most popular toys
on the market today.
RUBIK’S CUBE 1980
Created by Hungarian sculptor and architect Ernő
Rubik, the toy is a 3D combination puzzle
consisting of a cube with six faces, with
each face covered by nine stickers Gunpei
made up from one of six colours. Yokoi
For the Cube to be solved, each of JAPANESE 1941-1997
Gunpei Yokoi invented a number of
its faces needs to be returned to a
systems while at Nintendo, the most
position where it is one of the solid notable being 1989’s Game Boy. After 31
colours, done by manipulating the years at the company Yokoi left Nintendo
in 1996, setting up a new company
toy’s internal pivot mechanism. The
to work on other gaming systems.
current world record for solving the Unfortunately, the following year
Cube is an incredible 5.55 seconds. Yokoi was killed in a traffic © Thinkstock; Alamy
accident.