Puppet, Twister and Super Soaker picked for Toy Hall of Fame
By Laila Kearney NEW YORK (Reuters) - The puppet will take its rightful place in the National Toy Hall of Fame this year, officials said on Thursday, joining Twister, the 1960's-vintage party game, and Super Soaker, the giant water gun, as inductees into the gallery of playtime greats. In announcing its annual list of inductees, the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, said it was choosing the puppet because of its long history of entertaining children in public settings ranging from carnival plays and television shows to the privacy of playrooms. “Puppets belong in the play world of individual children," said Patricia Hogan, curator of the museum where the Toy Hall of Fame is housed. "Using puppets also allows children to try on new personalities, emotions, and goals." This year, a selection committee chose the inductees from a list of 12 finalists. A trio of generic classics - the top, the scooter and the colouring book - were among those that failed to make the cut, along with American Girl Dolls, Battleship, Jenga, PLAYMOBIL, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Wiffle Ball. Twister, which requires players to bend and stretch around one another on a colourful floor mat, was selected after a half-century of being on the market. The game was initially criticized for being too provocative, but its popularity soared when "The Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson played Twister with actress Eva Gabor on an episode of the late-night talk show. "When my team first conceptualised the game in 1964, we never could have imagined how engrained in pop culture and beloved by kids it would become," Twister inventor Reyn Guyer said in a statement released by the museum. Also joining the ranks this year was the Super Soaker pressurized water gun, once described by the late singer Michael Jackson as his favourite toy. About 27 million Super Soakers, developed in the 1980s by mechanical and nuclear engineer Lonnie Johnson, were sold at $10 each in the first three years of production. Anyone can nominate a toy for the Hall of Fame, established in 1998. A museum advisory committee of curators and historians selects the toys, which are rewarded with their own yearlong display at the museum. Last year, little green army men, Rubik's Cube and soap bubbles were selected. (Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Frank McGurty and Mohammad Zargham)
