33 Amazing Toy Facts - mental_floss on YouTube (Ep.216)

Hi, I'm John Green. Welcome to my salon. This is Mental Floss on YouTube

Did you know that when Twister first came out in 1966, critics denounced the game as sex in a box

Boy, with criticism like that, it's a wonder that it ever caught on. Teenagers around America were like, I can get sex in a box

Anyway, that's the first of many facts about toys that I'm going to share with you today

While 30-year-old Eleanor Abbott was recovering from polio, she kept herself busy by inventing

something that would benefit bedridden kids for decades, Candyland. By the way, in case you don't remember, Candyland involves absolutely no skill, which means

that your four-year-old can literally beat you at it. It's completely unfair, which is why I only play risk with four-year-olds

In addition to every other amazing thing he ever did, in 1996 Mr. Rogers poured the wax

that made the 100 billionth Crayola crayon. Alright, a few toy box names you probably didn't know

The original Hungry Hungry Hippos were named Happy, Henry, Harry, and Homer

It's rumored that Homer is blind, but some people think that's just folklore. The Rock'em Sock'em robots were Red Rocker and Blue Bomber, and if you want to call G.I

Joe by his full name, you should call him Government Issue Joe, but in a casual setting

he prefers just Joe. Hoosh balls were named for the sound they make when they hit your hand

And the Slinky is one of two toys to receive official state toy status

It presides over Pennsylvania. While the Teddy Bear is the official state toy of Mississippi

Legend has it that in 1902, Teddy Roosevelt was on a hunting expedition in Mississippi

when he came across a helpless bear and refused to shoot it, saying that it would be unsportsmanlike

The media grabbed onto the story and a New York toy company started calling their stuffed toy bears, Teddies

It's a lovely story, but we all know it's not true because Teddy Roosevelt never saw an animal he didn't kill

Anyway, toy companies failed to duplicate the success of Roosevelt's teddy bear with William Howard Taft's Billy Possum

And yes, that is a true story. In 1999 a man in Minnesota was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for selling counterfeit Beanie Babies He also had to pay for conspiracy to commit mail fraud I don know if you guys remember this from the 90s but we took our Beanie Babies very seriously That why we keep Meredith Beanie Baby meerkat

or the Meerkat as we like to call it, in a jar. Before they took off as stuffed animals

Care Bears were merely illustrations whipped up to sell American greeting products. And

now you're a real live plastic toy, Funshine Bear. The somewhat terrifying Teddy Ruxpin

was designed by a Disney engineer who used the same technology that you see in the animatronics

at Disneyland, which is weird because the country bears aren't at all terrifying. Hall of Presidents

on the other hand, I do see it a little bit. If you have the urge to adopt a Cabbage Patch

doll, you should head to Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia. It's situated

on about 650 acres of land where Mother Cabbage gives birth to babies every hour beneath the

the magic crystal tree, which is pollinated by a bee hybrid called bunny bees. Meredith

what am I even talking about? As a child I was terrified of Cabbage Patch Kids, and with

good reason. Like, the snack time Cabbage Patch Kids had mechanical jaws so they could chew

Surprisingly enough, this proved to be a disaster, and Mattel eventually had to offer refunds

after complaints that the dolls had chewed on and pulled out kids' hair

Let's move on to toys from a simpler time. The Radio Flyer Wagon? It's a strange name

for such a straightforward toy, but there's a reason for it. Its creator, Antonio Pazin

felt that humans flying and radio were two of our greatest achievements. With our third

greatest achievement apparently being wagons. Now, of course, if Antonio Pazin were inventing

the radio flyer wagon, he would call it the Chipotle iPhone wagon. The first toy ever to

be advertised on television was Mr. Potato Head. He was also the first toy to feature

real produce. That's right, the original Mr. Potato Head was actually a potato. Kids jammed

eyes, ears, and accessories into real vegetables, like his buddies included Katie Carrot, Pete

the Pepper, and Cookie the Cucumber. Why do they all get names but Mr. Potato Head doesn't

By the way, Mr. Potato Head is also the official travel ambassador for Rhode Island, where Hasbro

is headquartered And where nothing else happens We have Captain Kangaroo to thank for the success of Play When it was just a fledgling company with no advertising budget inventor Joe McVicker talked Captain Kangaroo into featuring it on the show

McVicker also offered Captain Kangaroo a portion of sales for promoting it to the kids, so

naturally Captain Kangaroo started promoting it three times a week. Also, before it was eaten by kids in classrooms everywhere, Play-Doh was just like wallpaper cleaner

People wishing to clean the soot and dirt from their patterned walls would just roll the ball of goop across the surface and it only came in off-white, although the flavor was

still delicious. In 2000, Fisher Price attempted to update the classic chatter telephone pull toy for

toddlers by adding push buttons and lights to resemble more modern phones

But nostalgic customers were outraged and the rotary dial was back next year. Off-topic, but can you imagine if that happened with, like, real phones

Like if we all went to the Apple store and complained because our new iPhones are so nice

and they don't have rotary dials? On to the Magic 8-Ball. So, the die that holds the mysterious answers to all of our questions

is called an icosahedron. For you D&D players, it's basically a 20-sided die. Anyway, 10

of the answers are versions of yes, 5 are versions of no, and 5 are wishy-washy. So

if you want anything from today's Metal Floss episode, it's that you should always ask the Magic 8-Ball questions that you want it to answer yes to

Nerf sold their first ever foam ball product in 1970 with the slogan, Nerf. You can't

hurt babies or old people. You can, of course, hurt babies and old people, just not with

nerf. Ronald Howes was inspired to create the lightbulb-powered Easy Bake Oven after observing

how New York City food vendors kept their pretzels and chestnuts warm, because if there's

anything that we should look to as a model of food safety for our children, it's New

York City street vendors. Ernie of Burton Ernie isn't the only one who loves his rubber ducky. According to the

BBC, none other than Queen Elizabeth II keeps a crown-adorned rubber ducky in her bathtub

Don't worry, rubber ducky. You could always marry into royalty. American troops stationed in Iraq use silly string to find trip wires in the dark

Before entering buildings, they'll spray the area from at least ten feet away to see

if the silly string catches on any barely visible wires, which are usually connected

to bombs. Another unlikely military tool the Viewmaster Slides of specific enemy ships planes and artillery were inserted into Viewmasters so military personnel could flip through them like flashcards to learn how to spot them But of course after the war the slides were more likely to be like vacation destinations

James Wright hoped that his invention would have a military use. In 1943, the GE engineer combined boric acid and silicone oil and produced a totally sci-fi substance that could bounce and stretch, had a high melting temperature, didn't collect mold

Mold? Mark, he invented flubber? Oh no, apparently he invented what he called nutty putty. The

government didn't have any use for Wright's nutty putty, so he slapped it into some plastic eggs because it was close to Easter and sold it as a toy. We're buying it today, of course

as silly putty. The Pet Rock was such an intense fad in 1975 that at $3.95 each, its inventor

became a multimillionaire in about six months. Remember Sugar Ray, you know, from the Scooby-Doo

movie with real people in it? And also, I guess, from the songs that they sang? Anyway

Milton Bradley threatened to sue them, that band's name was Shrinky Dinks

Finally, I return to my salon to tell you that sea monkeys were not in fact monkeys and

did not in fact live in the sea. They were just brine shrimp, which Harold Von Braunhut became fascinated with when he

learned that they could survive the salt lakes of Utah. Those lakes have a tendency to evaporate, so brine shrimp have developed the ability

to fall into a state of cryptobiosis, meaning that they could fall into suspended animation

until they were reintroduced to water. Problematic as non-sea non-monkeys might be, it's still better than ant farms

because my son's ant farm just recently arrived with a bunch of dead ants in it

And that happy note wraps up this toy-tastic episode of MennoFloss, which is brought to you with the help of all of these nice people

Every week, we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions. This week's question comes from Katie Douglas, who asks

is there a word for a person who loves music? Well, Katie, the answer is no, unless you just take out the space between music and lover and just make it music lover

Anyway, you might also want to try the French word melomane. I probably mispronounced that

If you have a mind-blowing question, please leave it below in comments. We'll try to answer as many as we can. Thank you again for watching, and as we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome