Timeless Toys & Marvin Glass
Just found a great reference book this weekend at my favorite used bookstore– Timeless Toys by Tim Walsh. This was published in 2005 but like the title the information is timeless. The time line starts with 1900 but the section I really enjoyed focused on toys that I grew up with so of course I love it.
Not only the toys but the inventors which is wonderful to see who created the ideas to become major fad toys. Marvin Glass was the designer I was the most blown away with for the amount of winners he came up with such as
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Mr Machine
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Mouse Trap
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Hands Down
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Operation
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Rock em Sock em
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Mystery Date
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Lite Brite
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Simon
Ok… he did not actually design all of these but is credited with being the driving force behind taking ideas and getting them produced and sold to companies like Ideal and Milton Bradley. Plastic was his big innovation… anything could be made in 3d with plastic. Basic old toys like a tin robot were recreated in plastic, simple card game like Slap Jack was turned into Hands Down and in the days before Nintendo, Rock em Sock em Robots was the game that gave us sore thumbs!
Marvin Glass, who left his name on what became the preeminent design firm in the country, never invented a single toy, but he was the only toy “inventor” ever to achieve recognition outside the industry. He managed to take credit for everything…: He was the spark the imagination the driving force of the company.
Great book for toy enthusiasts, inventors and toy lovers with great photos!
