COLORFORMS: ONE OF MY FAVORITE RETRO TOYS

Back in the late 1950s to early 1960s, the first tv obsession I had was Romper Room out of Detroit and Canada. We were lucky to have 2 different Romper Rooms to watch.

My favorite part of the show was Willie the Weatherman. I loved to watch the host pick out what type of clothing for Willie to wear matching the weather outside. One of the very first Colorform sets I had was Willie the Weatherman and my love for these cool toys grew from there.

Colorforms is a creative toy named for the simple shapes and forms cut from colored vinyl sheeting that cling to a smooth backing surface without adhesives. These pieces are used to create picture graphics and designs, which can then be changed countless times by repositioning the removable color forms.

Shari Lewis and my favorites Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse

The Colorforms concept was developed by Harry and Patricia Kislevitz in 1951, firmly rooted in the Modernist design ethos and reflecting the Color Field abstract style prevalent at the time.

The basic concept behind Colorforms was the ability to adhere and reposition color form shapes on random surfaces to create art. Both recent art students, Harry and Patricia discovered the idea when they acquired several rolls of flexible paper-thin colored vinyl used to manufacture plastic pocketbooks and found that it would stick to the glossy paint in their bathroom. They found that they could reposition the pieces at will without affecting either surface.

Unlike stickers, which a child could use just once, these pieces could be moved over and over without running out of adhesion.

The first Colorforms product to utilize a licensed character property featured Popeye, the King Features Syndicate cartoon character, released as a boxed set in 1957. Since then, licensed products have remained critically important to the Colorforms marketing strategy, with hundreds of brands connected to Colorforms.

Colorforms The Original Classic Set

Later Colorforms licensed various properties, producing sets supporting varied cartoons, TV series, movie releases, and popular musical artists, like The Beatles, Peanuts, Gumby*, Tarzan, The Three Stooges, Doctor Do little, Star Trek, Batman and Superman (along with a whole pantheon of comic book superheroes), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Smurfs, and even Steve Urkel. read more

THE INVENTION OF THE FRISBEE!

On this day in 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs–now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.

The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!” as they let go.

In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer” that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates.

After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter”–an attempt to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

In 1958, a year after the toy’s first release, Wham-O–the company behind such top-sellers as the Hula-Hoop, the Super Ball and the Water Wiggle–changed its name to the Frisbee disc, misspelling the name of the historic pie company.

A company designer, Ed Headrick, patented the design for the modern Frisbee in December 1967, adding a band of raised ridges on the disc’s surface–called the Rings–to stabilize flight.

By aggressively marketing Frisbee-playing as a new sport, Wham-O sold over 100 million units of its famous toy by 1977.

Today, at least 60 manufacturers produce the flying discs–generally made out of plastic and measuring roughly 20-25 centimeters (8-10 inches) in diameter with a curved lip. The official Frisbee is owned by Mattel Toy Manufacturers, who bought the toy from Wham-O in 1994.  Read More

    

RETRO FABULOUS HALLOWEEN TRICK OR TREATING!

This photo above looks like we did back in the early 1960s. My Nana made me the clown suit and I had a hobo suit too at different times. Used burnt cork to be a beard on our faces too.  My sister had a really cool costume of Zorro!

We took to the neighborhood streets and the number of kids and dressed up parents were enormous. A huge mob moving through and running up to each house.

Trick-or-treating is a Halloween ritual custom for children and adults in many countries. Children in costumes travel from house-to-house, asking for treats with the phrase "Trick or treat". 

The "treat" is usually some form of candy, although in some cultures money is used instead. The "trick" refers to a threat, usually idle, to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given.

Of course, we got to wear costumes to school!! Not anymore..no fun at school allowed!

40 COOLEST PINTEREST RETRO HALLOWEEN PHOTOS

Trick-or-treating usually occurs on the evening of October 31. Some homeowners signal that they are willing to hand out treats by putting up Halloween decorations outside their doors; others simply leave treats available on their porches for the children to take freely.

Princess Casper and a Pirate!

Monkees costumes were everywhere back then!

This gang kind of looks like us...

Love Morticia and Lurch dancing!

Batgirl loves Trick or Treating!

*NEW THIS FALL* MONOPOLY BOARD GAME FOR CHEATERS!!

Hasbro is releasing a special "Cheater's Edition" of Monopoly this fall.

The twist on the classic game will encourage fans to cheat during gameplay.

The Cheater's Edition will come with 15 cheat cards which ask players to carry out tasks throughout the game.

These can range from taking money from the bank to moving someone else's token on your turn.

If successful, players will get rewards like extra cash or free properties to help them get further in the game.

If they're caught, players may have to hand over money or wind up handcuffed to the board game in jail.

Here's how the box for the Cheater's Edition will look. Hasbro
"A recent study conducted by Hasbro revealed that nearly half of game players attempt to cheat during Monopoly games, so in 2018, we decided it was time to give fans what they've been craving all along - a Monopoly game that actually encourages cheating," Jonathan Berkowitz, senior vice president of Hasbro gaming tells INSIDER.

(You can see the top ways Hasbro says fans cheat at Monopoly here.)

The object of the game is still to be the player with the most money at the game's end, but it may be a little tougher to accomplish. The Cheater's Edition will ask players to get away with cheating as many times as they can during game play. That means players can skip spaces, try to avoid paying rent, and slip a few extra bills from the bank when no one's looking.

THE BARBIE DOLL PREMIERES MARCH 9 1959

On this day in 1959, the first Barbie doll goes on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City. Eleven inches tall, with a waterfall of blond hair, Barbie was the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features.

The woman behind Barbie was Ruth Handler, who co-founded Mattel, Inc. with her husband in 1945. After seeing her young daughter ignore her baby dolls to play make-believe with paper dolls of adult women, Handler realized there was an important niche in the market for a toy that allowed little girls to imagine the future.

Barbie’s appearance was modeled on a doll named Lilli, based on a German comic strip character. Originally marketed as a racy gag gift to adult men in tobacco shops, the Lilli doll later became extremely popular with children.

Mattel bought the rights to Lilli and made its own version, which Handler named after her daughter, Barbara. READ FULL STORY

WHAMO PATENTS THE HULA HOOP MARCH 5 1963

History Channel On this day in 1963, the Hula-Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958, is patented by the company’s co-founder, Arthur “Spud” Melin. An estimated 25 million Hula-Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone.

In 1948, friends Arthur Melin and Richard Knerr founded a company in California to sell a slingshot they created to shoot meat up to falcons they used for hunting. The company’s name, Wham-O, came from the sound the slingshots supposedly made. Wham-O eventually branched out from slingshots, selling boomerangs and other sporting goods. Its first hit toy, a flying plastic disc known as the Frisbee, debuted in 1957. The Frisbee was originally marketed under a different name, the Pluto Platter, in an effort to capitalize on America’s fascination with UFOs.

Melina and Knerr were inspired to develop the Hula-Hoop after they saw a wooden hoop that Australian children twirled around their waists during gym class. Wham-O began producing a plastic version of the hoop, dubbed “Hula” after the hip-gyrating Hawaiian dance of the same name, and demonstrating it on Southern California playgrounds. Hula-Hoop mania took off from there.

The enormous popularity of the Hula-Hoop was short-lived and within a matter of months, the masses were on to the next big thing. However, the Hula-Hoop never faded away completely and still has its fans today. According to Ripley’s Believe It or Not, in April 2004, a performer at the Big Apple Circus in Boston simultaneously spun 100 hoops around her body. Earlier that same year, in January, according to the Guinness World Records, two people in Tokyo, Japan, managed to spin the world’s largest hoop–at 13 feet, 4 inches–around their waists at least three times each.

Following the Hula-Hoop, Wham-O continued to produce a steady stream of wacky and beloved novelty items, including the Superball, Water Wiggle, Silly String, Slip ‘n’ Slide and the Hacky Sack.

SOCK MONKEY: THE TRUE STORY!

I am still obsessed with Sock Monkeys! Have loved them my entire lifetime! Today we are featuring the history of this very cool doll which has never lost it's "coolness".

The iconic sock monkeys made from red-heeled socks, known today as the Rockford Red Heel, emerged at the earliest in 1932, the year the Nelson Knitting Company added the trademarked red heel to its product.

These socks were originally made by the Nelson Knitting Mills in Rockford, Illinois (hence the name) since 1890, and patented in 1915. When the company decided to include sock monkey instructions with every pair of the Red Heel® socks in the 1950's, the true marketing magic began.

 Vintage Sock Monkeys

John Nelson, a Swedish immigrant to the United States, patented the sock-knitting machine in 1868, and began knitting socks on an automatic machine in Rockford, Illinois as early as 1870. On September 15, 1880, the Nelson Knitting Company formed, producing "Celebrated Rockford Seamless Hosiery," and selling them under the name of the "Nelson Sock."

Nelson Knitting added the red heel "De-Tec-Tip" to assure it's customers that they were buying "original Rockford's" as opposed to the generic "Rockford's". This red heel gave the monkeys their distinctive mouth and during the Great Depression, American crafters first made sock monkeys out of worn-out Rockford Red Heel Socks.

In 1953, a woman named Helen Cooke received the patent for sock monkeys. She sued a man named Stanley Levy because he sold sock monkeys but they were not the same design as hers. Levy contacted the Nelson Knitting Company hoping that they would declare the patent invalid.

The company knew that people had been making dolls for the last two years, so they gathered up all the dolls that had been made the past two years so that they could have evidence proving that Helen Cooke should not have the patent.

Helen Cooke settled the case against Stanley Levy when she was shown all the evidence that had been collected against her. She decided to sell the patent to the Nelson Knitting Company for $750. The company also paid other women for the rights to the doll including a woman in Tennessee who was paid $1000. Rockford, Illinois became the "home of the sock monkey.

Homemade red-heel sock monkey dolls usually have unique faces and body characteristics and are considered one-of-a-kind. Sock monkey dolls are also mass-manufactured in the marketplace. Sock monkey dolls mass-manufactured by a company normally all have the same face and body characteristics.

Sock Monkey Project

Not all sock monkey dolls are created from red-heel socks. A 2015 trend started to create sock monkey dolls from colorful striped or polka dot socks—even mismatched socks.

The Schylling Sock Monkey Company makes them today and they are very nice. But the homemade ones will always be my favorites. The Schylling Co. makes all kinds of merchandise relating to the Sock Monkey.  Here is a very cute Sock Monkey Umbrella

Sock monkeys remain a popular icon and are popular with all ages. They now come in different styles, such as "birthday-themed", different colors, and even electronic ones that sing up-to-date pop songs. Most vintage red-heel sock monkeys found today are no older than the late 1950s, and many date from the 1970s. Read More on Wiki

4 BOARD GAMES YOU WON'T BELIEVE ACTUALLY EXIST!

Board games are one of the best ways to have fun at home. They are intriguing, educational and some of them can make you decent money when you play online. There are a few retro board games that have managed to cross generations and are as popular today as they have ever been.

You can still buy these classic board games but you can also enjoy them online. Most sites offering these games offer a mix of games, just as going on the best bingo sites means you can play a wide variety of bingo formats.

Didn’t know they still existed? You are not alone!

 
Battleship
For ages 8 and above, this is one of the most popular retro games around today. It is a two player guessing game that may even have been invented before the First World War.

Playing the game involves positioning your ships as strategically as you can to make it hard for your opponent to guess their positions. To win, you have to guess the position of the opponent’s ships and sink them with the least moves possible. A movie was made out of the game in 2012 .

Feely Meely
This game was launched in 1967, and is for ages 5 and above. The rules are deceptively simple. You only need to pick a card and then try to find whatever you picked in the “Grab Box.” The game was a common sight at most house parties in the early 70s. It is a feel-good pastime that will always get people interacting.

 
Mystery Date
Ideally for girls aged 6 t0 14, this game is undoubtedly one of the best retro games around today. It was originally released in 1965 but has seen multiple reboots. The game can be played by as many as 4 players. The game play is focused on getting ready for a date by acquiring three matching color-coded cards to put together an outfit. The outfit must, however, match the outfit of the date at the mystery door. The date can be revealed by spinning the door handle to open a plastic door on the game board.

Lie, Cheat and Steal
This is an adult political simulation game where players are vying for election into office. Most political simulation games are based on how elections are supposed to be run but this one emphasizes rogue political methods. This is why it rarely makes   a list of top political games . Libel, vote buying and under the table deals are a must if you are to win and advance to office.

These are some of the best retro board games available today. How many did you know about?