X-Nico

unusual facts about toys



Abiku

Gerald Brom's illustrated novel, The Plucker, depicts a child's toys fighting against an abiku.

Action Force

Action Force characters have appeared as limited edition toys and comic characters as part of the International G.I. Joe Convention, under the name Special Action Force or SAF (a riff on the SAS; not to be confused with the Philippines' real-life Special Action Force).

Aotearoa Cafe

By 2001 the Aotearoa Cafe (by that time now hosted on Aotearoalive) became embroiled in cyber terrorism against the toymaker company LEGO, makers of the Bionicle series of toys.

Association for Childhood Education International

During World War II, ACEI sent books, toys, and curriculum materials to teachers and children in Austria, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Italy.

Autopia

Each was designed to be tied into the Chevron line of animated 'Chevron Cars', and 4 versions of the Autopia cars were sold as toys during the 2000 summer season at Chevron stations nationwide.

Box of Toys

Box of Toys were a short-lived British New Wave band, consisting of members Brian Atherton (lead vocals and keyboards), Andy Redhead (drums and guitar), Phil Martin (sax, keyboards and vocals), and Roy Campbell (bass and vocals).

Brian Sutton-Smith

He has participated in making television programs on toys and play in Great Britain, Canada, and the U.S., and has been a consultant for Captain Kangaroo, Nickelodeon, Murdoch Children's Television, and the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia.

Budgie

Budgie Toys, a line of diecast toys, mainly miniature cars and trucks made in England

Buffalo Bill Gun

The Buffalo Bill Gun was one of the first toys made by the Milton Bradley Company.

CE marking

For example, most electrical products must comply with the Low Voltage Directive and the EMC Directive; electrical toys must also comply with the Toy Safety Directive.

Century 21 Merchandising

Century 21 Merchandising and Century 21 Toys were merchandising companies associated with Gerry Anderson's Century 21 Productions.

Dara O'Rourke

He is also the founder of GoodGuide, an online consumer tool for retrieving information about the supply chain of consumer products such as toys, food, and detergents.

DC Universe: Justice League Unlimited Fan Collection

The line, in its various incarnations, has explored several types of packaging - single, 2-packs, 3-packs, 4-packs (as Justice League Toys "R" Us exclusives), 6-packs (as Target exclusives), and 7-pack (featuring the original members as Toys "R" Us exclusives both in the 3" and 4.5" scales.)

Disney Mobile

Working with Spin Master, DMobile launched in October 2011 the first Disney Appmates game with Cars 2 toys that interact with an iPad screen.

Donald O'Connor

O'Connor appeared in the short-lived Bring Back Birdie on Broadway in 1981, and continued to make film and television appearances into the 1990s, including the Robin Williams film Toys as the president of a toy-making company.

Economy of Birmingham

Famous brands from the "city of a thousand trades" include Bird's Custard, Typhoo Tea, the Birmingham Wire Gauge, Brylcreem, Chad Valley Toys, BSA, Bakelite, Cadburys chocolate, HP Sauce, Epsc and the MG Rover Group; although no Rover cars are set to be produced in the future, with Nanjing Automobile Group to focus on the MG cars.

Friendly Floatees

--where did "Friendly" come from? original package just says "Floatees"-->are plastic bath toys marketed by The First Years, Inc. and made famous by the work of Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who models ocean currents on the basis of flotsam movements including those of a consignment of Friendly Floatees, containing 29,000 plastic yellow ducks, red beavers, blue turtles and green frogs, washed into the Pacific Ocean in 1992.

Funday Times

It also included reviews of various toys and songs, interviews with celebrities, including Will Smith, Gail Emms and Matt Groening, and interesting events coming up during the week.

Galt Toys

Galt toys also work with TV Agony Aunt and Parenting Specialist Miriam Stoppard on a selection of educational toys.

GEA Westfalia Separator

Reconstruction began in 1946 and, insofar as materials could be procured, a wide range of own constructions were designed and manufactured such as spin dryers, circular saws, lamps, sledges, candleholders, scooters, coat racks, toys and Braille typewriters.

Grandview–Woodland

Known locally as "The Drive", visitors find everything from trendy coffee shops to hangouts for many ethnicities (celebrations during the FIFA World Cup can bring out soccer fans of many nationalities, for example) to sex toys to hemp shops.

Here Comes the Zoo

"Hands on the Bible" references two Aerosmith songs, "Toys in the Attic" and "Rats in the Cellar", switching the words "attic" and "cellar" to form the lines "Rats in the attic / Toys in the cellar".

James May's Top Toys

James May's Top Toys is a BBC documentary in which James May explored and celebrated his favourite toys, including Etch-A-Sketch, Airfix model aeroplanes, Lego, Meccano, Top Trumps, Scalextric, model cars, and Hornby model trains.

John Shelton Lawrence

Matthew Kapell and Lawrence’s co-edited book, Finding the Force of the Star Wars Franchise: Fans, Merchandise, and Critics (2006), examines the myths, the stereotypes, sexualities, the toys, and the critical response to the two Star Wars trilogies.

Laura McGloughlin

Translations include Lluisa Cunillé's play The Sale (Parthian, 2008), Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal (Peirene, 2010), Toni Hill Gumbao's crime novel The Summer of Dead Toys, and The Island of Final Truth by Flavia Company.

LeapFrog Enterprises

In 2002, LeapFrog partnered with Sega Toys and Benesse Corporation to produce localized versions of their toys for the Japanese market.

Little Toys

In 2003, Singaporean composer Mark Chan, in a co-commissioned project by the Hong Kong Arts Festival and Singapore Arts Festival, did the score for the silent film and productions were staged in each country, featuring live music accompanying the screening of Little Toys.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

Gary Coleman, dressed as an elf, summons 'N Sync to take over. The boys deliver toys, presents, and good cheer throughout. The video debuted on TRL December 14, 1998. A reference to Coleman's classic sitcom Diff'rent Strokes is made when after Coleman tells 'N Sync to deliver the presents, they say, "Whatchu talkin' about, Gary?", a play on the classic line, "Whatchu talkin' about, Willis?".

Mickey O'Brien

Currently, she is also one half of Tragic Toys, a band formed with her boyfriend of ten years, actor and musician, Jim Sturgess.

Miles Millar

Millar and Gough are currently writing and executive producing Existence 2.0 for Paramount, as well the screenplay for Monster High, based on Mattel's line of books, webisodes, animation, and toys which is being produced by Hairspray team Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

Nob Yoshigahara

Perhaps best known as a puzzle inventor, he commercially licensed his designs, such as the Rush Hour puzzle game, to companies including Binary Arts (now known as ThinkFun), Ishi Press, and Hanayama Toys.

Primal Rage

Toys, comics, a novel (Primal Rage: The Avatars by John Vornholt) and other merchandise tie-ins were also produced.

Protesting the Dixie Chicks

In the man-on-the-street style of "Heavy Metal Parking Lot", anonymous fans and protesters are interviewed outside the arenas of the Dixie Chicks 2003 USA tour, while the context of the drama is reenacted with toys and action figures of Natalie Maines, Toby Keith, General John Abizaid, Senator Richard Lugar, Senator John McCain and President George W. Bush.

Q-in-Law

Although he toys with Picard while asking to be allowed to attend the wedding festivities, he promises to behave himself.

Reifendrehen

Today part of the exhibition at the Ore Mountain Toy Museum in Seiffen is dedicated to the craft of the turners - the Reifendreher - who make these toys.

Roma Ryan

Her lyrics can be heard in films such as The Frog Prince (1984), Green Card (1990), L.A. Story (1991), Toys (1992), Cry, the Beloved Country (1995), and Calmi Cuori Appassionati (2001), all of which feature Enya's music.

Ron Spencer

Ron Spencer has also actively worked with Toy Vault, Inc. in creating plush toys and slippers, with various designs under their horror and fantasty brands such as Cthulhu, "Here Be Monsters", and dragons.

Rosalia, Washington

Outdoor scenes for the 1992 film Toys were filmed in the Palouse region of the eastern part of the state, near Rosalia.

Sexual fetishism

In 1951, Donald Winnicott presented his theory of transitional objects and phenomena, according to which childish actions like thumb sucking and objects like cuddly toys are the source of manifold adult behavior, amongst many others fetishism.

Shera

She-Ra a fictional character and the heroine in the Filmation cartoon and series of toys produced by Mattel called She-Ra: Princess of Power

Showbag

Common themes for showbags include confectionery brands, trademarked toys such as Barbie, The Simpsons, G.I. Joe and Batman, broad areas of children's play interest such as "cowboy" or "pirate", and sporting teams.

Snowshill

The manor house contains an unusual collection of furniture, musical instruments, craft tools, toys, clocks, bicycles and armour, all collected by architect and craftsman Charles Paget Wade between 1900 and 1951.

The Toyes

In late 1983 The Toys received a Cease and Desist letter from Motown Records' legal department threatening a lawsuit over the use of the name "The Toys", who were a signed act of Motown and who recorded "A Lover's Concerto".

Toccata for Toy Trains

Most of the toys come from a mix of museum and private collections, including that of the Museum of the City of New York, and apparently date from before the 1920s.

Tofa

TOFA (TOys FActory), Czechoslovak toy company based in Semily

Tweenies

They also created The Fun Song Factory, Boo!, BB3B, Jim Jam and Sunny, Basil Hair The Squirrel and Entertainment Right's The Magical Lives of Toys.

Uglydolls

Uglydoll is a brand based upon a line of plush toys which began as a long distance letter between the creators David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim.

USB toys

The use of a USB port to power toys was probably not what they were intended for.

Vivian Schilling

In 2006 she portrayed feminist and author Gertrude Atherton (b. 1857–1948) opposite Campbell Scott's Ambrose Bierce (b. 1842–1915?) in the film anthology Ambrose Bierce: Civil War Stories. In 2012, Schilling provided the voice of Buttercup in Toys in the Attic alongside co-stars Forest Whitaker, Joan Cusack and Cary Elwes.


see also