Got Game?

It's hard to catch lightning in a bottle. It's really hard to do it twice. Witness these sophomore efforts that failed.

Alfred Butts was the genius behind Scrabble when it hit big in 1948. In 1985, the people at Selchow & Righter thought it was time for him to create another game, and so they released Alfreds Other Game.

No game sold faster than Trivial Pursuit did in 1984, with a reported 20 million pumped out the doors of Selchow & Righter. Once again, the legendary game company thought it prudent to take the three inventors, John Haney, Chris Haney and Scott Abbott, and put them to work on another game. The result was the gorgeous (but ghastly), The World According to UBI.

Even though he didn't "invent" Monopoly, Charles Darrow certainly developed it, and in so doing, became one of the first millionaire board game inventors. Parker Brothers broke the bank with Monopoly in 1935, so in 1936 they tried to make a killing in stocks with Darrow's Bull and Bears. They didn't.

The lesson learned? This biz is hard, even for hugely successful inventors. Which makes the following creative geniuses even more amazing.

In 1959 Harold Von Braunhut conceived of an idea he called Instant Life. By 1962 it was released under a new name, Sea-Monkeys. Two years later, he put another toy novelty in the back of a gazillion comic books. Perhaps you'll remember X-Ray Spex.

In 1949 Eddy Goldfarb gave the world Yakity-Yak Talking Teeth. 18 years later he and Rene Soriano invented Battling Tops and the classic Kerplunk.

In 1966 Ralph Baer conceived of playing games on a standard TV set. Over the next six years, he worked towards producing the first video game system, succeeding with the release of Magnavox's Odyssey, the predecessor to Pong. Then in 1978, Baer and Howard Morrison of Marvin Glass & Associates invented Simon. Two all-time electronic classics!

Marvin Glass & Associates was responsible for many hits, and Burt Meyer was one of the most prolific of MGA's designers. He invented or co-invented Mouse Trap, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Lite Brite and Toss Across.

Check out the above games and novelties, originally used for the production of The Playmakers, now up for auction in my Ebay store.

Cabbage Patch and Other Comeback Kids

I recently spoke with Jennifer Ginsberg of the Charleston Gazette about Transformers, Care Bears, Teddy Ruxpin and the rest of the '80s toys that are back on toy store shelves.

Classic Toys

I met a collector who's interested in "first edition" games. I found this page for him from the Toy Industry Association. If, like him, you want to know the year a classic plaything was introduced, this chart will tell you.

Read these lips!

Check out the new 10 second TV spot for Blurt!

The Pez Palace

Someone e-mailed about PEZ. I tried in vain to get a tour of the Pez Factory in Orange, Connecticut when I was up there visiting the Wiffle Ball, Inc., but alas, they turned me away. The Pez people are private. The next best place to go is The Burlingame Pez Museum.

If you're in Minnesota next week, check out the MN PEZCon August 11-13th in Bloomington. November 3-5th is when the PEZ in the Sun Gathering is taking place in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Since I know there are a lot of you out there, allow me to dispense some fun facts from The Playmakers:

Pez Debut: 1927
American Debut: 1952
Inventor: Edward Haas III
Company: Pez Candy, Inc.

• Because company records have never been released to the public, no one knows for sure how many Pez dispenser models have been made. Estimates range from 250 to nearly 300.
• Approximately 35 dispensers are released each year.
• There never was an Elvis Pez dispenser made for consumers, but when a handmade prop appeared in the movie The Client, it sent the collector community into a frenzy. There have been Elvis sightings ever since.
• A quick search on eBay, the premier online auction website, turned up 3,695 auctions for Pez paraphernalia. Founded in 1995 by programmer Pierre Omidyar, eBay has nearly 45 million registered users and growing. How did it all start? As a home page Omidyar set up so that his girlfriend could sell some of her Pez collection. Add “The candy that launched a billion bids” to the Pez resume.
• The Pez Space Gun was released in 1956 and remained on the market until the mid-60s when it was replaced by the Pez Candy Shooter (modeled after a .32 caliber pistol). Finally in the early ’80s, when Star Wars and its sequels fueled the space craze, Pez introduced its second version of a Space Gun.

Toy Exhibit in Paradise

As suggested by an old friend, we stopped by "Playing for Keeps: Treasured Toys from the Past," an exhibit on display in the Walter Greer Gallery at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina on Hilton Head Island. We were on our way back home and were happy to find it fancy and free. It runs through the end of August. Highlights include the incredible 1930s Bing Fire Truck pictured above, and more, including:

A collection of Lincoln Logs, including an old set with Abe on the cover, Cracker Jack boxes with a collection of prizes, and a nice display of Tinkertoys.

This German-made toy horse from the 1940s did double duty. It was a rocking horse or a roll-along riding toy when the rockers were removed.

There was quite a few war-related toys as well. World War II spawned oddities in play, like this picture book. B is for Bombs! If you're on Hilton Head, check it out.

The Playmakers Wins Grand Prize at the 2004 Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Awards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Tim Walsh
(941) 926-8004
info@theplaymakers.com
www.theplaymakers.com

Sarasota, Florida (August 1, 2005) – The Playmakers: Amazing Origins of Timeless Toys took home the grand prize at the 2004 Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Awards. Tim Walsh earned $3,000 as the author/publisher of the book, which features the 20th century’s best toys, games and dolls and the inventors who brought them to life.

"I am humbled and honored to have this book win such a prestigious award," Walsh said. "This was a huge undertaking -- a nearly three-year project, but moments like this validate all the time it took to complete." Walsh conducted over 150 interviews for The Playmakers , tracking down the inventors of the Ant Farm, Sea-Monkeys, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Twister, and Spirograph among others. The book contains over 420 color photographs and 150 black and white images, across 312 pages. "I’ve met many readers and toylovers at signings and author events since the book was released [in March of 2004] and their enthusiastic response has been wonderful," Walsh confesses. "And it’s great to know that The Playmakers is now being recognized by my peers in the writing community as well. This is fantastic!"

There were 2,300 books entered in the 13th annual competition. Writer’s Digest announced the award and publsihed an excerpt from The Playmakers in their August issue. Since 75 toys are profiled in the book, Walsh admits that choosing just one chapter to give to Writer’s Digest was tough. "How do I choose between Wiffle Ball and Super Ball?" Walsh asked. "They were two of my favorites growing up." Beyond the story of the first ball that curved on its own and the first ball you could bounce over your house, The Playmakers offers the compelling behind-the-scene origins of Play-Doh, Clue, Lego, Barbie, G.I. Joe, and many more. Ultimately, the editors of Writer's Digest choose The Teddy Bear chapter as their favorite, proving that everyone has their own timeless toy favorite.

Writer’s Digest was founded in 1920 and is the world's leading magazine for writers. It is owned by F&W Publications, a leading publisher of books and magazines for creative people.

The Holey Grail

The other definition of the word grail is "the object of a prolonged endeavor." For me, that’s the Wiffle ball. I’ve been playing with this humble hunk of white plastic for 35 years, so imagine my delight in planning a visit to the mother factory.

The planning started soon after my July 11th issue of Sports Illustrated arrived. You know you’re into toys when the first thing you notice on this cover is not Jennie Finch but what she’s holding. “We got a ton of calls,” Wiffle Ball's current leader David J. Mullany said of the SI cover. “It was great.” I had interviewed David and his brother Stephen a number of times for The Playmakers so I felt comfortable calling him up and asking if we could come over and play.

The first thing you see when you exit highway 34 in Shelton, Connecticut is the Wiffle Ball sign on the side of a small, brick building. We were greeted by David A. Mullany (who was 13 years old in 1952 when he inspired his dad, David N. Mullany, to invent the Wiffle Ball), and his sons David J. and Stephen.

The Wiffle Ball office is covered wall-to-wall with Wiffle Ball history, cartoons featuring the Wiffle ball and articles on the family business. We chatted for a while and then headed out to the factory where every Wiffle ball is still made.

They start with plastic pellets that are melted down and “shot” into an injection molding machine. Each hemisphere (one with holes and one without) is molded separately. The two hemispheres are then joined by a heat sealing machine and Viola! -- the finished Wiffle Ball is boxed and then shipped all over the world.

We stopped just long enough for a picture at the end the tour and then hit the road again. Afterall the Mullanys had balls to make. How cool is it to get to Wiffle while you work?