A Troll Timeline.

1959: the first troll doll was formed into creation by by Danish fisherman and woodcutter Thomas Dam in Denmark.  He soon forms the DAM company to make high quality, mass-marketed trolls that find their way across the Atlantic in the 60s.

1960s-1970s: DAM Troll Dolls warm the hearts of men, women, and children across America with their creepy glass eyes, soft sheep-wool hair, and “cute cuddle” bodies.

1980s: The E.F.S. Marketing Associates, Inc. is granted permission to import and market the Thomas DAM trolls for re-sale in the United States under the trade name of ‘Norfin (R) Trolls’, with the Adopt A Norfin Troll logo on the tags.

Late 1980s through 1990s: A slew of hideous troll imitators flood the market including Uneeda‘s Wishnik Trolls, and Treasure Trolls, all of which feature the signature Troll tall hair, lovable face, and pot belly.  There is total Troll chaos, going as far as Troll Warriors, Battle Trolls, Stone Protectors, and even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Trolls, and The Trollies Radio Show.  This fad capitalization even saw a 1994 re-release of Dudes with Attitude simply modified into Trolls on Treasure Island.

Geez …

2003: A Congressional law allows the Dam family of Denmark to restore their original U.S. copyright and become the only official manufacturer once again.  Peace and order are once again established in the realm of the Troll.

 

Colorforms

Founded in 1951, Colorforms is one of the oldest and most familiar brands in the toy industry (and one of the first to advertise on TV). It was the first plastic-based creative toy, and remains one of the most imaginative to date.

The original Colorforms were created by Harry and Pat Kislevitz in their New York City apartment. Boxed sets began appearing in the 1950s and featured basic geometric shapes and bright primary colors thus creating a modernist toy for kids in many ways. The company’s slogan – “It’s More Fun To Play The Colorforms Way!”

What makes the Colorforms sets unique is their signature plastic ‘Stick-Ons™’that can be placed and repositioned on top of graphic backgrounds to create endless scenes at a child’s whim.  The result is a toy that can be used by children of all ages and all abilities; a tool to easily create a masterpiece with ready-made colorful shapes (and an excellent tool for learning about colors and geometry as well!)

And if you are into a bit more variation, something beyond basic shapes, check out these rad Colorform offerings!

Toys to Toy with your Mind

"LSD: A Pschadelic Happening Construction Kit" - can you imagine?!

Just one of the creations you imagine with your LSD building kit! Don't you think it's just a bit reminiscent of the Eames House of Cards?!

"The Hesitant Car" - That is seriously the name of this toy

Building blocks by Bruno Taut - "Dandanah. The Fairy Place"

"Those Blocks: A Mental Puzzle"

Apparently these blocks will create such an obsessive need to find a solution that their owner would be determined enough to pay for a solution. Seems a but presumptuous, don't you think?!

"Naef Versi" - A cube, two geometrical patterns, six sides, endless possibilities.

Mattel "Brain Drain Puzzle" from 1969 - "Bend! Twist! Turn on Your Mind!"

Things That Make You Go Hmmm.

At some point, when thinking up a new product, some Japanese toy executive said: “I know! Russian Roulette for kids! That’ll be great!” And so Kaba Kick was created.

The “game” goes like this … you sit down with a bunch of your friends in a circle.  One by one you each put the toy gun (made to look like a cute little hippo) to your head and you pull the trigger.  You have to load eight rounds of candy colored ammo into your weapon, and one of them is live; if you are the lucky winner you get a swift kick to the head!  If you “survive” the round you win and earn points, but if you are kicked (killed) you obviously lose.  Gee, sounds like fun, right?!

“But mom, I want to pick up the dog’s poop just like you and daddy do!”  How many times have you heard a little girl say that?!  Well the execs over at Mattel seemed to think it was a pretty common thing when they came out with Barbie and her Dog Tanner in 1986.  With this toy, Barbie comes with a dog named Tanner, a poop scoop, and… well… dog poop.

The poop (a small, brown magnetic pellet) is fed to the dog by inserting it into his mouth (yes, the dog eats poop, though since it comes from the treat box I guess it is supposed to be a cookie at this point). Then Tanner poops it out when you push down on his tail. Barbie (you) can then use the poop scoop (also magnetic) to pick it up and dispose of it in an included trash can.  This toy is just as much fun as the real thing!

Truly anatomically correct dolls are a rare thing, and thank god because they really look pretty creepy.  Case in point is the Baby Pee Pee Doll made by Spanish company Formosa.  This “fun” doll will drink from a bottle, then waddle around on his own as it shouts, “Mummy, wee wee!”, after that the doll will wave its hand over its crotch as pressure mounts in its plastic bladder, then you can pull down the doll’s pants and let it doll pee into a toy potty, sitting down… or standing up.  So weird …

There wasn’t much to Aqua Dots, just a bunch of plastic bubbles that weakly bonded when you sprayed a little water on them. The idea was to put them into exciting patterns to create figures so crude they make a Lite Brite look like hi-def.  Something so pointless must be harmless, right? Sure, unless you do the one thing most natural thing to a child and ingest one. That’s because Aqua Dots, when exposed to water, form the same chemical as found in date rape drugs.  Good one.

Lots of lucky kids get to grow up on a farm, but what about those poor city kids whose urban existence didn’t expose them to such organic experiences? Luckily, in 1977 Kenner Toys was around to ensure that children from all walks of life could get down and dirty with the barnyard beasts, and pretend they were the proprietors of their very own dairy with the one, the only, the amazing – Milky, the Marvelous Milking Cow!  Milky will drink water through her see through trough, and then when she’s had enough she will moo to let you know it’s time to milk her. And then, well, that’s it, that’s all!  Oh yeah, and there’s a tarp so you don’t make a mess.

The Plush Life of Heidi Kenney

Why can’t toilet paper be cute?  Or a hot dog?  And though doughnuts and pancakes warm our tummies, why shouldn’t they also warm our hearts?  Heidi Kenney has solved that great conundrum, and filled that ginormous void in all of our lives.

She has a website (with a great crafting section), an Etsy shop, a book, and she sells her wares at Kidrobot.  I can just about guarantee that adding even the tiniest bit of her cuteness to your life will keep you smiling even in the most miserable of moments …

The Upsy Downsy Land of the Upsy Downsys

It was 1969, and all across the country a counterculture revolution was in full swing; hippie culture had gone mainstream, the East Coast had Woodstock and the West Coast the Altamont Free Concert, and it seemed that people everywhere were heeding the words of Timothy Leary – “turn on, tune in, drop out” – even the people at the Mattel toy company.

This was the year of Upsy Downsy, one of the more bizarre toy concepts I have ever heard of.  Upsys and Downsys were races of strange beings that lived in harmony together, only the former lived rightstide-up, and the latter upside-down.  A few weird references there, but just wait …

… let’s look a little deeper into this one.  According to Welcome to Upsy Downsy Land, the book that explains the “Happidiculous World” of these two races, the Upsys and Downsys were once just flowers living in a fuzzy dandelions world.  But one day a sentient wind called The Great Huff passed by.  When his nose was tickled by all of the pesky flowers he blew them away in a fit of annoyance.  However, as the dandelions fell back to earth, some of them fell through a rainbow which magically transformed them into rightside-up beings known as Upsys; others passed through a storm cloud, and became upside-down creatures called Downsys. Luckily, though, despite each race being the others’ polar opposite, they all got along famously and developed their own little civilization, “Upsy Downsy Land.” While there were many inhabitants of the great land, some of my favorite are Pudgy Fudgy, the Upsy eat-too-mucher with her Piggybus, and Tickle Pinkle, the Upsy beauty who drove a Bugabout Car was her Upsy neighbor; and also Mother What Now, the Downsy frazzled mom with her Go-Getter Car, and Miss Information, the Downsy opposite directions teller and her Miss Information Booth. Hmmmmmm … doesn’t seem quite right, does it?!

The Upsy Downsys revolution included toys, playsets, storybooks, and even coloring books, but Upsy Downsy Land only lasted for a year.  Can you ever imagine why?!

The Whimsical Creations of Libuše Niklová

When you think of Czechoslovakia, I’ll bet toys don’t come to mind; you most likely think of communism, or maybe one of the ex-country’s Olympic athletes, perhaps your mouth waters at the thought of delicious Czech schnitzel, but I can almost guarantee that you don’t think of toys … unlessyou are familiar with the name Libuše Niklová (1934-1981).

Niklová revolutionized industrial toy design beginning in the 1950s with simple, sometimes surreal animal forms in rubber and plastic.

One of Niklova’s most famous creations is the cat with the accordion body, which dates back to 1963.  Libuše Niklová saw the employees in the Fatra Napajedla factory developing a new toilet flush system that used a special accordion tube.  In this way the accordion cat was born!  Not only could you squeeze the tube body, but you could also make it move in all sorts of ways, which was pretty revolutionary at the time.  The cat was the first one of the tube collection, which consists of 11 toys in all – ten animals and one baby.

There is a show up in Paris on the works of Niklova titled “Plastique Ludique.”  It will be at the Musee de Arts Decoratifs, until November 6th, 2011, but just in case you can’t make it to France for the show, check out the book Gift Set – Toys and Monographs from Libuse Niklova!

The Hidden Potential of Paper

As I have posted paper-related items before, it should come as no shocker that I am into paper stuff.  Perhaps it was my childhood spent crafting, or the fact that paper is one of the cheapest, most readily available products ever and you can do so many amazing things with it.  Either way, all of these amazing paper creations are proof that I’m not the only paper nerd out there…

We Are Paper Toys is an excellent collection of paper toy designs and design techniques from some of the best contemporary artists and designers around the world.  The book includes sketches of the toys, and step-by-step instructions on how to construct each one and make them your own. We Are Paper Toys also includes a DVD featuring the templates for all the toys in the book!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Papertoy Monsters features incredible creations from 25 of the most talented papertoy designers from Indonesia and Japan to Croatia, Australia to Chile.  The book includes 50 fiendishly original die-cut designs that are ready to pop out, fold, and glue, and each character comes with their very own back-story (kind of like American Girls, but WAY more cool!).   From Zumbie the Zombie, who loves nothing more than a nice plate of brains and yams, to Nom Nom, eater of cities, and Grumpy Gramps, the hairy grandpa monster with his very own moustache collection, I think just about everyone can have fun with this one.

Papercraft is a collection of the best, the brightest, and the most creative of paper artists.  From those who make small objects and figures to the others who work on larger scale projects, this book covers them all.  And as an excellent bonus, the illustrated book also includes a DVD with printable templates for creating your own paper characters and toys as well as a curated selection of the best stop-motion animations.

Urban Paper presents another collection of 26 of the coolest designer paper toys in existence, ready to be cut out and built. Each papertoy has step-by-step instructions, complete with easy-to-use diagrams, so even a novice will be able to figure each one out with the help of a pair of scissors and a few dabs of glue.  The book includes interviews with contributors such as Shin Tanaka, Ben the Illustrator, NiceBunny, Cubotoy and Kenn Munk. Plus, Urban Paper comes with a DVD that includes all sorts of bonus features like all 26 toy templates in PDF format (so you can build cities full of papertoys), plus a ton of extras; basic shapes (so you can learn the building blocks of papertoys); blank templates (so you can create your own).

 

And coming soon … Paper Punk.

 

 

 

Obviously, these aren’t the only ones out there.  Check out this pretty rad forum of paper nerds I stumbled upon when finding all of these amazing books - Nice Paper Toys - if there is anything you want to learn about papertoys, I’ll bet you can find it there!

 

Darda Versus Hot Wheels: You Decide

As an American, I am well versed in the language of Hot Wheels.  As a kid, they gave you the opportunity to own every single car you ever wanted, and be able to fit them in your dresser drawer at the same time.  There were some that changed colors, others that you could customize, and they ran on some pretty rad, loopy tracks.

However, in researching this post I learned something new today.  While we in America played away with our very American Hot Wheels race cars, children all over the rest of the world played with a faster, more European brand of racers known as Darda.  Not only does the Hot Wheels’ European counterpart offer faster cars (capable of speeds up to 30 mph), their tracks are more colorful and arguably versatile as well.

Either way, toy race cars are pretty rad. Artist Chris Burden certainly would agree.  He was so in to them he created his own fleet of cars to drive through a handmade city known as Metropolis II.  The mammoth creation has 1,100 cars traveling on 18 roadways “including one six-laner,” says Burden. “We wanted to expand it and make it truly overwhelming — the noise and level of activity are both mesmerizing and anxiety provoking.”

Inspired but without a set at home to start building with?  Luckily Hot Wheels has tried to solve that problem with some of their online games.  Go ahead and let that inner 8 year old run free!

Enzo Mari’s Puzzles

Enzo Mari is an Italian designer of all sorts of beautiful things.  From books to art, furniture to toys, Mari has done it all.  In 1957 he completed his first project for design company Danese.  It was called 16 Animali, or 16 Animals, a wooden puzzle of simply carved animal shapes – including a hippo, snake, giraffe and camel – that join together to form a rectangle.  Used as building blocks, the animals can also be stacked  in all sorts of way to form various sculptures.  This puzzle was followed by 16 Pesci, or 16 Fish, which is a similar toy made up of all sorts of sea creatures.

 

16 Animali

 

 

 

16 Pesci

 

Made of precious wood and contained in a beautiful box, again made of wood, these toys are part play thing and part art.  They are beautiful and interesting enough to be appreciated by children and adults alike.   And with a price tag of nearly $500, they should be!

They are both available from Nova68.c0m