Popular Toys From the 1950s

Play-Doh

• During the 1940s, Noah McVicker invented a white putty made with flour, water, lubricants and salt and sold it as a wallpaper cleaner in the family's Cincinnati-based cleaning supply store, Tim walsh writes in "Timeless Toys." But the McVickers soon noticed the cleaner could also be used as modeling clay. They launched the Rainbow Crafts Co. and started selling 24-oz. boxes of Play-Doh. Smaller 11-oz. packages of red, blue and yellow Play-Doh soon followed. Sales reached $3 million by 1958. By the end of the decade, the company developed a fun factory, a set of plastics tools to squish the Play-Doh into different shapes.

Mr. Potato Head

• Toy inventor George Lerner created Mr. Potato Head as a set of plastic facial features that could be stuck into a real potato. Lerner teamed up with Hassenfeld Brothers, which would later become Hasbro Inc. to produce the Mr. Potato Head in 1952. The toy became the first to be advertised on television. Company executives worried from the start about the wasted potatoes and by the end of the decade, the popular spud came with a reusable plastic potato body. He also picked up a wife, a car and a Mr. Potato Head boat.

Colorforms

• Vinyl was a cutting-edge product back in the 1950s when two New York City art students, Harry and Patricia Kislevitz, picked up some samples from a friend in the pocketbook industry. The Kislevitzes cut some shapes and found they stuck naturally to the painted walls in their bathroom. They shared the fun with family, friends and FOA Schwarz and Colorforms were born. The boxed sets were created to allow kids to create designs while learning shapes,colors and numbers. By 1958, Colorforms also came in popular boxed sets featuring TV characters Popeye and Gumby.

Barbie

• Ruth and Elliot Handler, a founder of Mattel Toys, introduced a concept at the 1959 American Toy Fair in New York City and changed imaginative play for young girls. Barbie, a teenage fashion doll named after the Handlers' daughter, was modeled on the German Lilli doll, an adult novelty item based on a comic strip character. Ruth Handler noticed when girls played with paper dolls, they imagined adult situations. She had a hunch that a three-dimensional adult doll might strike a chord with kids and she was right. Barbie became the must-have toy of the year for girls. Mattel sold 351,000 dolls for $3 each during Barbie's first year on the market.