The Secrets Behind Your Favorite Toys

This is from a article by Tim Moodie which you can read in full here:
http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20268.html

1. Slinky - How the Slinky got stuck between a cult and a mid-life crisis.
In 1943, naval engineer Richard James invented the Slinky when a spring fell off of his workbench and began to “walk” across the floor. He figured he could make a toy out of it and his wife Betty agreed, and she came up with the name Slinky. Introduced in 1945, Slinky sales soared.
By 1960, despite his success, Richard James was suffering from a serious mid-life crisis and became involved with a Bolivian religious cult. He gave generously to the religious order, left his wife, six children and the company, to move to Bolivia.
Stuck with the debts left by her husband and a company that desperately needed her leadership, Betty James took over as the head and was responsible for additions to the Slinky line including Slinky Jr., Plastic Slinky, Slinky Dog, Slinky Pets, Crazy Slinky Eyes and Neon Slinky. In 2001, she was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame, and perhaps even more laudably, her Slinky dog was forever immortalized in Disney’s Toy Story movies.

2. Lincoln Logs - Why Lincoln Logs are the most deceptively named toys in the business
Standing beside his father (Frank Lloyd Wright) and watching the construction of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, John Lloyd Wright was inspired by the interlocking beams in and thought, “What if children had a toy version of those beams, shaped like notched tree trunks to build little log homes?”
The architect’s son followed through on his inspiration and the John Lloyd Wright Company manufactured and sold Lincoln Logs from the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. The sets even came with instructions on how to build Uncle Tom’s Cabin as well as Abe Lincoln’s log cabin. The Lincoln Log construction and figure sets came in two sizes available for $2 or $3 dollars.
The naming of the toy wasn’t a tribute to Abe Lincoln but rather a homage to the inventor’s father. Frank Lloyd Wright was born Frank Lincoln Wright, but he legally changed his name when his parents split. (Lloyd Jones was his mother’s maiden name and Frank’s name change was to honor her.)

3. Play-Doh - Captain Kangaroo saved Play-Doh
Before Play-Doh was everyone’s favorite squishy clay it was actually a wallpaper cleaner used to clean soot off of walls. Demand for the product evaporated when people switched from using coal burning furnaces to oil fueled ones in the ‘40s and ‘50s.
The sister-in-law of the company’s founder, Kay Zufall suggested using the wallpaper cleaner as a child’s craft item, and McVicker was willing to try anything. He formed a new division, Rainbow Crafts, and began selling the re-branded product as Play-Doh. Sales were okay, but then he came up with a way to sell a whole lot more. He contacted Captain Kangaroo (A.K.A. Bob Keeshan) and offered him 2% of sales if the good Captain would feature Play-Doh on his show. He did. Ding Dong School and Romper Room soon followed suit, hawking the crafty compound to kiddies . While the company has changed hands a few times that’s hardly impeded sales. More than two billion cans of Play-Doh have been sold since 1955.

4. Etch-a-Sketch - Etch-a-Sketch used to be played like an Atari
The original Etch-A-Sketch, the invention brainchild of Andre Cassagnes, a French electrician, while tinkering in his garage in 1950, made use of a joystick, glass and aluminum powder. First called the Telecran, the toy was renamed L’Ecran Magique, and made its debut at a European Toy Fair in 1959. Fascinated by the invention, American Henry Winzeler, founder and president of the Ohio Art Toy Company, licensed L’Ecran Magique and introduced it to America in 1960.
Amongst Winzeler’s innovations were replacing the joystick with two white knobs in the left and right corners of the screen to make the toy look like the hot new adult toy…television.
As for how the knobs work, the two Etch-A-Sketch handles control a stylus that’s attached to strings. The stylus is designed to move up and down and left and right “etching” an image in the Aluminum powder that clings to the glass with static electricity.

5. Trivial Pursuit - Why Trivial Pursuit almost never happened
In 1979, Canadians Chris Haney and Scott Abbott (along with business partners Ed Werner and John Haney) decided to create a game that combined their love of all things trivia and their basic competitive nature. At the time, $15.00 was the most expensive wholesale price for a board game but to the retailer’s surprise the game was a hit even at the heady price of $30.00 at retail.
Realizing that they lacked the funding to bring the game to its full potential, Horn-Abbott licensed Trivial Pursuit to Canadian game manufacturer Chieftain Products. Chieftain had a major hit in Canada in 1981 and contacted their American partner, Selchow and Righter. Amazingly, Selchow and Righter analyzed the game and found that it was: a) too expensive to manufacture, b) it took over an hour to play, c) the best players had to have impressive knowledge of trivial subjects and d) they assumed adults didn’t play board games. Selchow and Righter passed, but Chieftain was persistent and in 1982 the game was introduced to America at the New York Toy Fair.
Initial sales were worrisome but through a solid PR campaign and great word of mouth, sales skyrocketed. Sales peaked in 1984 at 20,000,000 games in North America alone. Then in 1986, facing huge debt brought on by an abundance of inventory, Selchow and Righter was sold to Coleco. In 1989, Coleco filed for bankruptcy and the rights to Trivial Pursuit were acquired by Parker Brothers. Today the game has been made into over 30 “Editions” is available in 26 countries, been translated into 17 different languages and has sold approximately 100,000,000 copies since its inception. Pretty good for a game that almost wasn’t.