As the festive season rapidly approaches, many of us will be thinking about toys of various kinds as we make our gift lists, check them twice, and gather together a bundle of presents to pop under the tree or gift to the small ones in our lives.
But have you ever thought about the history of toys? Toys don’t just appear – somebody has to dream the little gadgets up, and as is often the case when we dig a little deeper, the stories behind many of the classic toys of our collective childhood can be just as fun and interesting as the toys themselves.
Which brings us to The Toys That Built The World, a new four-part documentary series that delves into and dramatises the real stories behind some of the most iconic childhood playthings of all time, offering up some surprising revelations.
If you’re a history buff, particularly a military history buff, you know that wartime leads to accelerated technological development as a result of the arms race, often resulting in great leaps forward in medicine and industrial manufacturing. But did you know that some of the world’s most iconic toys grew out of “failed” military experiments?
In 1943, at the height of World War II, mechanical engineer Richard James was messing about with torsion springs as a way to protect sensitive naval instruments during rough seas. Dropping one, he was entranced by the way the loose coil bounced and walked its way from the shelf to the workshop floor – and thus the slinky was born.
Similarly, Silly Putty was born out of the United States’ need for synthetic rubber after Imperial Japan conquered a vast swathe of rubber-producing countries in the Pacific theatre. Silly Putty is a non-Newtonian liquid, which means its viscosity will change under different circumstances – it’ll bounce or break, stretch or snap, and so on, depending on what you do with it. Which makes it pretty much useless for its intended role, but the stuff of magic in the hands of a curious eight-year-old.
There’s an irony in military science birthing children’s playthings – elsewhere we learn that board game pioneer Milton Bradley hit it big during the American Civil War by manufacturing board games compact enough for bored soldiers to carry with them on campaign, while the venerable G.I. Joe “action figure” is only an action figure because Hasbro’s marketing boffins determined that boys wouldn’t play with a doll even if it sported a facial scar and an assault rifle. But even more intriguing is some of the behind-the-scenes corporate manoeuvring, which The Toys That Built the World showcases in dramatic reenactments.
Ruth Handler, wife of one of Mattel’s owners, was behind some of the company’s most lucrative innovations. Barbie and Ken were also named after their children. Source: Distributor
The career of Ruth Handler is worth its own period prestige series: while the titanic toy company Mattel is named for her husband, Elliott Handler and his business partner, Harold Matson (Matson and Elliott) it was Ruth who was the driving force behind many of the company’s most successful innovations. Their flagship product, Barbie, is named for the Handlers’ daughter, Barbara, and her boyfriend, Ken, owes his name to their son.
Other favourites explored in the series, with more fun historical facts, include toy cars (the first Matchbox car was made by a young English machinist for his daughter, so she could take it to school) and classic board game Monopoly (which was initially round!).
The Toys That Built The World isn’t exhaustive – indeed, SBS has a whole other documentary series, The Fast History of Toys, hitting SBS VICELAND on 24 December, that looks at even more areas of the toy business. But for anyone with fond memories of childhood, or anyone who never quite got around to growing up enough to throw out their old playthings, this is fascinating viewing.
Four-part series The Toys That Built The World premieres at 7.30pm, Wednesday 30 November. Episodes continue weekly. You can catch up at SBS On Demand after they go to air.
