McDonald’s general collaboration with both Mattel and Hasbro’s is actually the glue that holds a lot of American toy culture together. Its for that reason that the happy meal is arguable the most iconic symbol of American childhood in the 1980s and 90s.
This is largely true, but as a kid in the 90s I seem to recall plenty of other fast food chains having cool toys (or at least what I thought were cool) in their kids' meals. Nowadays McDonald's essentially has a monopoly (pardon the pun) on that market with Happy Meals, but I don't think that was always the case.
@@hotwax9376 In the 80s I remember Wendy's giving away ALF records that were pure fire and Kentucky Fried Chicken had dope California Raisins figures. Those weren't even in kid's meals because they didn't have those yet. As a kid, the only way you got one was because adults ordered food and just gave it to you. Very hard to collect being limited and Kentucky Fried Chicken wasn't something you go for at just any given time the way McDonald's was. I had a babysitter who hooked me up with the coveted guitar guy after her boyfriend didn't want it so she saved it for me 😊!
JJ really needs to publish a “American Cultural Cannon” book based off all of his videos. He goes into such detail about all these products that even an American like myself learns something new. And it’s fascinating what things he chooses and why.
The missing toy is of course Barbie! I hope JJ can talk about its history someday, including the weird fact that the Barbie media universe has of late become legitimately good TV.
Another big part of the IP explosion in the 1980s JJ didn't touch on in this video was Regan's deregulation of the television industry which made it possible for toy companies to make cartoon shows to directly sell toy lines to children
Nope. You'll wanna look into how Reagan de-regulated advertising and allowed corporations to directly and indirectly target children. Free market capitalism! What could go wrong? 😂
@@CharlesJohnson-tp7qq still kinda messed up toy company's are allowed to directly market to childern. In the USA tho it's not legally for a cartoon to directly market a toy or product. Like say the rugrats couldn't have the babies say we like coke brand cola or a specific toy that is not legal anymore in the United States. When the UA-cam kids thing happened a few channels did videos on it also about how youtubers directly marketing to chikdern is illegal but not being prosecuted yet.
“I did grow up into a weird adult so it all tracks” lmao I think we’re all extremely glad you’re a “weird adult” I always thoroughly enjoy your content
The story of how GI Joe went from 12 inches to 3 inches is actually pretty interesting. Hasbro gave the license for Joe to Japanese toy company Takara who marketed it as Combat Joe. But military toys weren’t very popular so Takara rebranded it as a super hero called “ Henshin Cyborg” to capitalize on the popularity of shows like Ultraman and Kamen Rider. Takara wanted to make place sets and vehicles for the toys to have but because of the 70s oil crisis they decided instead to shrink the toys down in size to 3 inches and rebranded again as Microman. Microman would be brought over to America by toy company Mego as “Micronauts”. The Micronauts size would then inspire Kenner to make their Star Wars toys that size as well which would inspire Hasbro to do as well with the rebooted GI Joe. Microman would also have two spin off lines called Micro Change and Diaclone that Hasbro would also later import as Transformers.
To paraphrase Hank on Breaking Bad "they're ACTION FIGURES, Marie!!!" Man, Micronauts were so AWESOME!!! The larger Baron Karza with the magnetic joints and fists and missiles that shot, & you could turn him into a centaur as well (same as his enemy with the opposite colored white armor, forget his name) was kind of a bridge between the small 3 inch ones and the Shogun Warriors die cast toys (I wanted the large plastic versions about 2ft high, but no bueno from the parental units, claiming "safety" ...but I was allowed to play with lawn darts, so go figure^^). Acroyer, Time Traveller, what was it, Biolab the giant robot guy, they later on had some alien/bug humanoid type series that was cool too & the city track with tubes they could travel in, very "Logan's Run" -ish. Very cool, I had the Adventure Joe's being a 70s kid, they were a lot of fun, esp once the Six Million Dollar Man action figure came out, could have them all fight bigfoot XD. The story of how 20th century fox gave up the merchandising rights to Star wars to Lucas is always one of those tales in hindsight seemed so foolish, but considering the studio's skepticism over the movie and budget and filming issues, toys were the last thing on their mind. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.....
Actually, a part that is not often talked about is this first venture of a transforming robot toyline collaboration between takara and hasbro called mysterians. This was where the toys that eventually that became Micro Change Jeep or later Brawn in the transformers, Micro Change American truck or late Huffer and Micro Change Transam or Windcharger originated from. The toyline was cancelled before release and the existence of this toyline makes the whole "Hasbro employees discovering Diaclone and micro changers at a Japanese convention" story that led to the importation of the figures sound sketchy. The Mysterians toyline was eventually released in 1984 by a company called Marchon but the details behind how this non hasbro owned company got the rights to use the abandoned designs from Mysterians that were never used in Micro change and transformers is still not clear till this day.
Good video, JJ. As for other toys, I think Super Soakers, Nerf, and Hot Wheels are definitely worthy of being mentioned as part of the American cultural toy canon. And while they're not as popular now, Beanie Babies were a bona-fide cultural phenomenon that at least deserves an honorable mention.
Were kids actually into beanie babies? I have a hard time thinking very many parents would let their kids play with "investments" like that, but what knows.
@@tomifost I don’t know if it’s really universal, but at my elementary school in particular (in the early 2000s) they were huge. Not among everyone, but with me and my friends. However I do feel like they weren’t big enough among the general population to reasonably be a part of this cultural canon.
Hot Wheels definitely belong. I feel like most kids, regardless of gender had at least a few Hot Wheels. When I think of my childhood and my own kid’s childhood, Hot Wheels and Lego heavily feature in both.
Nerf, Hot Wheels, etc are essential American toys and more important than many toys in this video, but they aren't literally iconic. You can't represent them with a single image like Mr. Potatohead or Snake-eyes. They are more abstract and generalized. Nerf (hasbro) is just foam projectiles/balls/blasters and Hot Wheels is thousands of miniature wheeled vehicles. Other toys that could be iconic are transformers (hasbro), lego minfigs, Barbie.
@@Annie_Annie__ That's basically most of my late childhood. Hot Wheels and Legos, along with wooden trains. Though, Hot Wheels continue being a hobby for me today.
As a Pennsylvanian, hearing my state mentioned in any context makes me wonder if this is how smaller countries feel when they get mentioned in the media
Well, Pennsylvania is still a pretty big state, home to more people than Illinois, for example. And Pittsburgh and (especially) Philadelphia have lots of culture and history in them.
@@JJMcCullough PA feels like one of those places where you can go to any town or city and there will be at least one notable event, invention or person associated with it. And it's all a lot closer together than out west, distances between big towns and cities feel more "european".
i like many of my family are native pennslyvanians who have moved elsewhere, new jersey for me i didnt get too far lol, like at all i'm 8 minutes away from philadelphia
One correction - I wouldn't call Georgism "esoteric" at the time. His book sold numbers only second to the Bible, his funeral was only second to Lincoln's in size, and his fame was only third to Twain's and Edison's. However, he's unheard of today. Its fascinating - I'd call him "the most famous man nobody's ever heard of."
@@JJMcCullough This is an absurd statement. Georgist ideas are still commonly discussed, especially by economists. The land value tax is an idea which has had particular popularity and influence across the world. I don't agree with much of George's writing but you're being dismissive to a degree which does not suit Georgism's actual prominence.
@@JJMcCullough I wouldn't think that he is overly obscure, most people haven't heard of him but he is still quite popular in alot of circles, especially that of the internet & American collage culture, which makes sense given his stance on property tax. I do think that the commenter above me is a tad bit overzealous and I wouldn't say that it's an obsurd statement to make, but he has actually seen a bit of a resurgence in the 21st century, just in general, mainly due to the fact that Andrew Yang has seemingly thrown his support behind George's ideals. I personally find him at least interesting and while I can't speak for everyone else, I do know that some internet personalities like Mr. Beat is a fan of him as well.
Its because his ideas were both "dangerous" and popular, you might even call him a populist. But precisely because his message was anti-elite and ant-capitalist to some extent those elites with their vested interests did everything short of assasination to bury his message.
Still, even as a Georgist myself, I'd say that Georgism was and is esoteric, mostly because the way it conceptualises land value is somewhat idiosyncratic. (Of course I have to believe that, because if people actually understood Georgism, they would all be Georgists, because I believe it is the best system of taxation there is.) Still, there can be no doubt that he was a major celebrity in his time, but almost completely forgotten by WWII, having been overtaken by economic Liberalism and Socialism.
You also missed the Transformers and He-Man, toys that have since their release have gotten massive cult followings thanks to their media presence (both of them having lackluster movies)
Also, Transformers is fascinating because they where toy lines from two separate Japanese toy companies that Hasbro sold in America under the single moniker "Transformers"
Anyone interested in these toys and even the mystery Mattel toy, theres an AMAZING SERIES on Netflix which is basically a fully fleshed out, episodic version of this topic. Its called: 'The Toys that Made Us' Such a fun topic to learn the history about. Theres so much going on
As a kid who grew up as a “horse girl,” I would definitely add My Little Pony to the list (and, while I don’t think it has the same sweeping relevance, Breyer Horses.) A newer phenomenon in the world of girls toys has been Monster High, which was kinda revolutionary in the sense that it redefined what a fashion doll could be. I.e. you could make a doll that was a centaur, or had green skin, or big hairy feet, and little girls (and also me lol) would love and buy them. Tons of doll lines took notes from monster high and introduced their own “fantasy/monster” variants, including, funny enough, My Little Pony, with their “human version” dolls.
It would include Hot Wheels in a list of "iconic" toys. It might have been the first toy to have a cartoon based on it, and was the reason that (until the 1980s) that the practice was banned. Also, do modern kids even know about My Pet Monster? Another (much less successful) character generated in a similar manner was Robotman. As part of a push to get the character into various products, his owners convinced United Features Syndicate to put the character into a newspaper comic strip. The syndicate tried to get Bill Waterson to put the character into Calvin and Hobbes, but Waterson refused. They eventually just made a new comic strip for the character, and after a few years everyone gave up on making Robotman a thing, and the author of the strip was asked to phase the character out of the strip. The strip is now known as Monty.
For anyone who wants more of this type of lighthearted historical education, Netflix’s “The Toys That Made Us” does a good job of giving a fun insight into the origins of a lot of very popular 70s-90s toys.
@@JJMcCullough reading off the full list of episodes: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Power Rangers My Little Pony Professional Wrestling Star Trek Transformers LEGO Hello Kitty Star Wars toys Barbie He-Man G.I. Joe
JJ , I just wanna appreciate you for the great content you produce. Following you for the last 5 years have heavily influenced my teenage life for good. Keep up the good work.
2:36 that Monopoly/McDonalds promotions always fascinated me. I remember looking up the Wikipedia page for it once and seeing the differences in it from country to country
I don't know if it's like that in other countries but in Brazil we don't see a lot of Monopoly around. Usually children (and adults) play the Brazilian version of the game called Banco Imobiliário. This basically happens because in 1946 Hasbro transferred the rights to the game to Estrela, which is basically the giant of the toy world in Brazil, and that company started using the name Banco Imobiliário. After a while the two broke the deal, Hasbro started selling Monopoly on its own in Brazil and Estrela started selling Banco Imobiliário with some changes from Monopoly, especially localizing the name of the properties. In the Brazilian game, you can buy properties on Avenida Paulista and Praça dos Três Poderes, famous addresses in Brazil. The game also has numerous versions, specifically versions for different ages of players, such as the "Junior" versions. I don't know if this happened only in Brazil or if Hasbro also had problems with other companies in other countries. If you know something let me know
The Monopoly Man's name is Uncle Pennybags, and he collects pennies as a hobby. How quaint right? I'm not sure if they would be considered too 90s, but I remember the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seeming to kickoff a ton of copycats of "cool anthropomorphic animals." Swat Cats, Biker Mice From Mars, Street Sharks. The list goes on.
I feel like monopoly is one of those games that nobody plays correctly and everyone plays by slightly different rules, despite the rules coming in the box. I also feel like growing up in the early 2000s, Monopoly was a stand-in for a boring “family” game that takes forever and never ends.
Me and my sisters, cousins etc. never finished a game of Risk. Once the world is reduced to just two players, you hit a bit of an equilibrium, and one person can not obliterate the other. Maybe that's one of the lessons the game teaches, switching to a "cold war" is inevitable and a good outcome.
I think you right. Although actually monoly is not that long and complicated compared to most games. An hour and a half, at most, if you follow the rule but like you said everybody changes the rules slightly and things change. I just always played how my family said it was played and did not know there was an auction until 3 or 4 years ago. I think people look at say risk a full game can take a few hours and it looks very complicated.
@@Landon_C_Official my dad bought us monopoly as kids, and I think maybe to keep the game from being confusing he had us just play until we ran out of money. We were kids, so the game didn’t last long, but the older we got, we just kept playing like that and never bothered to actually look up the rules or anything, and we got smarter with money, and games took absolutely forever because we would budget like crazy and try and have hotels everywhere. Def played it very, very wrong
Monopoly always felt like that one game that the family would only play if they were desperate. If there was nothing good on the telly on a Sunday afternoon, and you'd used up all the fun board games that week, and if it frankly was too early to just go to bed - you'd reach for Monopoly. Usually accompanied by audible groans and at least one younger member of the family just complaining outright. Although seeing what others have said about the game, both in this thread's replies and elsewhere, it could just be that me and family were incredibly stupid ;p
I live right next to Hasbro and always see the Mr potato statue in front. It always made me wicked happy as a kid. Plus I remember neighbors working at the company and letting me test out toys. To a 5 year old kid, having a nerf gun no one else had was the best thing ever.
@@JJMcCullough live right across the the Massachusetts line in Bristol County, Mass. Which shares a border with Bristol County, Rhode Island. It's one central road away from me.
This is fascinating in that MOST of these toys are non-gendered save for the GI Joe series. It also misses the Barbie and Pony genres which I would EXPECT to see and introduces the Glo-Worm which I've never thought of as part of the American toy canon. Indeed, the toy canon I think of when I think 'American' is almost explicitly 50's based as that was when toys for the average middle class American became a real thing. The cowboy, Lincoln logs, tin robots and the like.
Mattel ...Barbie is another iconic toy, along with Ken. Fun video that took me back as well. I didn't really like the smell of Play-Doh either. Having a teacher for a mom, she always had a bunch in her classroom. 😜😄
As a proud Rhode Islander, born and raised, the absolute joy of anticipation of my small home being shouted out arose in me as soon as you said hasbro. I was like "hey! We have that! Thats us! Woot!"
I wonder how much of Mr. Potato Head's prominence today is due to the Toy Story movies. I remember being surprised to find out it was an actual toy that had kinda been forgotten until the movies came out. The timeline makes sense; Mr. Potato Head was one of the toys that originally belonged to Andy's dad before being passed down to Andy, so the writers had to look to toys from the 50s.
Slinky seems like a huge omission. Wham-O Frisbee, Magic 8 Ball… they all became popular during the war but were juggernauts through the 2000s. Hasbro’s Ouija has been ubiquitous since the 19th century.
I never had a Stretch Armstrong toy, but, I do remember having a toy of Mister Fantastic, which was pretty much the same thing. We had him for about two days before my brother and I wanted to see if he could stretch from one side of our living room to the other, he could not. RIP lol
Milton Bradley also invented complex color. His color wheel was used by William James and Gertrude Stein to research emotional response to those complex colors.
My favorite Americana story related to Monopoly is how this one guy ran an inside job scam at the McDonald's Monopoly game for like 10 years, bilking away about $24M. I'd post a link but I think youtube will flag me for it; it's easy enough to google. Good treatment of Elizabeth Maggie / The Landlord's game, btw!
Loved this, as others have said Barbie has to be the Mattel juggernaut. For me, growing up in the late 70s and 80s my biggest toys were Star Wars, GI Joe, Legos and Transformers. Like you mentioned, so much of what we played with had its origins in TV at the time and I remember very fondly rushing home after school to watch the GI Joe TV Show which invariably led to a Christmas Sears Catalog with easily thousands of dollars of GI Joe merch circled and begged for. Of course you would only get one or two of the items so they were a birthday and Christmas specialty that you saved for and collected. The interim more mundane toys for me were the Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars which I had trains of all over the house for my parents to stomp on and curse :). Awesome nostalgia trip as always JJ! Thank you for this and Happy Saturday everyone!!
You are very good at making videos J.J. I'm also from Canada and love watching these types of videos you make. I hope your channel has a bright future.
The big Mattel one that comes to mind for me is the Viewmaster. The other big "All American" toys that come to mind for this "canon" are the Slinky and Lincoln Logs. Someone earlier mentioned Etch a Sketch, but that's not very American unless we want to count a Canadian toy invented in Europe.
I haven't read the comments, so this is a pure guess: Mattel's Barbie dolls. They came out in 1959 really banking on that new "plastic" craze that was taking off and served as a sort of contemporary role model for girls and young women. Considering they still exist and I have a coworker that still buys every new one that comes out for her collection, I'm taking a bet that it's the missing item from the canon. (If that's wrong I'm swinging over to Cabbage Patch Kids :P )
I remember always being told that the modern version of what we now call Monopoly had its genesis in an idea to market a property-and-wealth-accumulating game during the United States' Great Depression as something that would (and seemingly did) appeal to those who aspired to greater wealth and prosperity.
"Rhode Island has very little going on" In defense of RI: oldest baptist church in america, oldest synagogue in america, Brown University, RISD, Newport mansions, the first season of crimetown, a disproportionate amount of mentions in movies, Johnson and Wales University, and as well as being the HQ for Hasbro, we are also the HQ for CVS. Also, a ton of cultural things that are unique to our state, that most Rhode Islanders would know about, Del's lemonade, Benny's (R.I.P.), Iggy's, Waterfire. Also, the second oldest operating Boyscout camp in the U.S. thank you for coming to my TED talk
“Lantern Jaw” is an interesting way to describe someone or something. After this fabulous video essay, I’ll definitely be seeking out the etymology of it. Your videos always send me off on some great “rabbit hole” adventures. Thanks 🙂🐿❤️🌈
I’m really glad to see you upload today, and it made my day a whole hell of a lot better. I hope you’re doing really great, and I hope you know how awesome your Contant is.
I had a My Pet Monster in my teens, My mom had found it at a garage sale and I had it in my room as a decoration. I put it outside on our bench during October as a Halloween decoration and someone stole it!!! I'd love to find another one or a smaller version to just have on my work space. To Ebay I go!
Not as much a toy but a cultural touchstone of the US and a major influence for many video games, Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast who make Dungeons and Dragons as well as Magic the Gathering. So two of the most influential games of all time.
I'd guess Lego is an a league of its own in the cultural American canon for toys. Not only because it's part of a worldwide toy canon, being a Danish company that's pretty much settled in all regions; culturally; but also because many people wouldn't consider them as toys anymore. They can be decorative, buildings, puzzles, action figures, playing toys and even stimulation tools. Legos are indeed above all toys in the market.
Hey JJ! I love your content, and I think a really interesting video topic could be one of the real obvious cultural differences between the US and Canada: University culture. Do you think you could do a video talking about both countries approach to university and how they compare and contrast? (For example, why Canada doesn’t have an Ivy League, why frats aren’t as popular, etc) Thanks and keep up the good work!
@@JJMcCullough I completely disagree, as someone who has both canadian and american friends. The cultural attitude toward university is completely different. Canadian universities are publicly funded and as such aren’t as stratified and there aren’t any tiers per-se. This causes a lack of student debt which means most canadians don’t make university as big a part of their lives as americans. Canadians aren’t expected to know all the big universities, college football is a much smaller deal, and “where did you go to school” is less likely to pop up in canadian conversations. Additionally, I feel like there’s much less of an emphasis on university being a defining period of your life. Since most good canadian universities are in cities, commuting is more common and there is less of an emphasis on the “college experience” as in the US. Frats aren’t as popular and hazing is much more looked down upon. I don’t know if it’s the same as in english canada, but here in Quebec you choose a major and stick to it, thus there are no gen-ed classes and no undeclared majors, meaning university is much more of a way to invest in a career rather than something you should do just because. Was hoping to hear a bit more in depth about this as opposed to just “they’re basically the same” because they’re really not, and the place they have in society is very much different.
@@sbel6626 I agree! I have worked at both US and Canadian universities, and the funding for research is on a different level. Of course, there is much variation between individual institutions.
@@sbel6626 The point about student debt is patently false. Student debt in Canada is a significant issue, especially among younger people, with thousands of dollars of debt being common. The median debt levels between US and Canadian graduates are actually not all that different.
I grew up near Cincinnati in the early 80's. I often was invited to Kenner focus groups to check out concept toys or to give opinions on some advertising campaign. Once I made it into a Star Wars commercial shooting, but didn't make the final cut. Good times.
I'd say two pretty prolific (maybe) toys not mentioned would be Nerf and Hot Wheels. From what I understand they both come from the 80s-90s like the last few entries. At least I know that those were some of the more important (I guess) toys of my childhood.
It is amazing how concentrated the toy market is in North America. I wasn't really looking at the video when I heard you do the lead up about the company and I already knew that the video was going to be about Hasbro.
I was born towards the early end of Gen Z and even someone like me, whose house still had a VCR for several years into the early 2000s, wasn’t really focused on the kinds of toys like you described in this great video. Video games have really come to dominate childhood playmaking that I don’t know if kids really focus on physical Toys anymore. LEGO, which can’t be included in this list, is probably the only toy brand which has gotten stronger over the last 20 odd years. For the canon, I’d probably take out glo worm and my pet monster and probably even stretch Armstrong and replace them with Transformers, Barbie, My Little Pony and Nerf.
Cincinnatti and Ohio in general was the most influential city/state to American toy cannon. The Cincinnatti Toy museum is amazing with the best collection of first edition Ohio designed toys including Star Wars, GI Joe, Barbie, Glow-Worm, Care Bears, Etch-a-Sketch, and so many more.
Honestly the biggest thing that's missing here is the Rubik's Cube. It was originally a product of Hungary, but it became a worldwide icon in the early 80's, including in the US. Most people didn't know how to solve it when it was first released (although a few people managed to figure it out) but with the later introduction of the internet in the 90's and onward, more and more people have been able to find tutorials online. Nowadays it's very easily reproduced by other companies, especially ones from China, and many off-brand models are often of higher quality than the originals, and are thus almost unanimously preferred by speed-cubers and are also legal in cubing competitions.
It's actually very jarring to know that all of the great toy companies have all been absorbed into Hasbro, as the names of the companies were as well-known to us 80s kids as the toys they made!
Yeah, I asked my 13-year-old if he’s ever heard of Milton Bradley, and he hadn’t. I only just realized I hadn’t heard or seen the name in a long time and that most of my kid’s board games even say Hasbro on them. It’s starting to feel like pretty soon 90% of toys are going to be made by either Hasbro or Mattel.
Except Mattel--that one hasn't been yet (and they own quite a few smaller toy companies themselves, like Fisher Price and Pleasant Company (the makers of American Girl dolls). And plenty of the toys they created in-house have been successful as well (like Barbie Dolls and Hot Wheels cars.)
I love how monopoly went from an anti-capitalist game to not only a somewhat pro-capitalist but an incredibly successful product in a capitalist market and how the anti capitalist rules ended up being replaced to sell better. Ironic. Although as JJ says this is kinda an over-politicized bit of irony.
Georgism isn't anti-capitalist, it is simply anti-rent seeking. The derivation of unearned rents from the common inheritance of the human race is a perversion of liberal values, and therefore a market system.
The Landlord's Game isn't so much anti-capitalist as it is anti-landlord. Georgism makes the distinction between capitalists, who profit from the productivity of their investments, and landlords, who profit from hoarding land and waiting for its value to rise without putting it to productive use.
Thanks for covering toys! Most of my toy-video watching comes from collectors, and it's great to get another angle on the history. There's a ton of other little interesting tidbits if you ever want to dive deeper! You touched on G.I. Joe changing gears when a war came around, and that ebbed and flowed like the tides! Theb12 inchers became Adventure Team, and then the Joes of the 80s shrunk and went back to war, then the Gulf War made Joe change directions again to (of course) battling Drug Lords, fighting Eco Terrorism, going to Space etc. It's interesting to watch it all change and get brighter colors and guns that look less and less like real guns. You get a separation in collectors where 80s kids miss the real military styling, where as a 90s kid (like myself) is more nostalgic for the neon weapons that barely looked like guns.
Another banger J.J., thanks for the great content as always. This makes me want a video about classic board games like Monopoly. The top toys for me when I was a kid were video games/game boy, Pokémon cards, Star Wars toys especially lightsabers, power rangers toys, Batman, X-Men, comic book stuff in general, tomagotchi, furby, Barbie, pogs, beanie babies, Gak, bop it, super soakers/water guns and nerf balls. Damn I miss my childhood lol.
Great video! Got me thinking how much the modern 'european toy canon' (or atleast my childhood) is dominated by construction toys, not just lego but also playmobil, kapla and k"nex (which is actually american).
Yeah, construction toys have always been big. One such toy that was more popular with Baby Boomers but is still sold is Erector set, but even before that there were of course building blocks.
Dude, you truly deserve many more subs and views. What a thoughtful and well-researched video -- par for the course on your channel. Keep it up! I love your channel. It's also nice to see a person from another country do a video about America that isn't full of hate and politics -- though, to be honest, we kind of consider Canada all as a "sister" country, even though most Canadians look down on us (literally and figuratively).
Perhaps they don't fit the "modern" narrative of this video - nowadays some of them are seen as a "throwback to the old days" - but you can't really talk about famous American toys without bringing up *something* made/purchased by Wham-O, notably Frisbee, Hula Hoop, Super Ball, Slip 'N Slide, Silly String, and Hacky Sack.
Love your videos! you’re awesome ✨🙌🏼✨thanks for this video, I grew up with so many of these toys in Europe, it’s cool to see this origins, especially the 80s/90s ones
@@JJMcCullough If you’re willing to make it, I think your viewers would be happy to watch very long videos. Longform content is more popular with UA-cam these days too
My Buddy. If I’m not mistaken, was the first ‘traditional’ stuffed doll that was marketed at boys as well as girls. This doll was also the inspiration behind the ‘Chucky’ horror franchise.
Mattel has a few brands of popular American toys. Barbie, Transformers, and Thomas the Tank Engine (okay it’s based on a British book series but it’s definitely super popular here too). Lego is also iconic but it’s hard to categorize as a “toy”
Barbie's the obvious omission, but the list as a whole is lacking in "girls' toys." A lot of toys are aggressively marketed based on gender, and any attempt at a 'toy canon' should take that into account. Surely My Little Pony or Polly Pocket deserve a spot on the pantheon more than My Pet Monster.
Hey JJ, what plushy are you making after the nanaimo bear? Excited to see new editions of cultural mashup plushies, maybe one that is based off of famous stereotypical toys as a continuation from food? Much love from Ontario!
As someone who works in a warehouse throwing a lot of boxes, i can tell you that barbie, lego, and Jurassic park. Are some of the most popular by a large margin.
I know this is mainly a video about hasbro and their contributions to the toy industry, but c’mon! You cant make a video about the cultural canon of toys without talking at least a little about barbie She’s so famous that people use ‘barbie’ as a sort of interchangeable stand in word when talking about any standard fashion doll
I had a Mr. Potato Head as a kid. And needed a potato. I always felt that it was a bit of a ripoff when they went to the plastic potato - but by then I was too old for such things.
To me, Lego is undeniably one of the biggest mainstays in the toy making world. They’ve been around for generations and are still adding to their massive empire, particularly by acquiring the rights to make Star Wars, marvel, dc comics, Disney, and more products.
No idea how this would fit but my most iconic toys growing up were trains and slot car sets. I had no idea at the time but thought about it since how much sacrifice my parents made as the only room large enough to set up the tracks was the living room, so as long as they were set up everyone had to step over the tracks for days and days.
I work for one of the Hassenfeld family members. She has all the board games with the main characters faces changed with family members faces. They are super nice people.
every time jj has described one of his videos as "award winning" ive thought, "oh wow! impressive, but warranted!" i just realized he may be kidding around lol
A huge bow and thanks to you JJ for growing up to be a weird adult. I too was stricken by a combo of weird and nerd. For real best wishes, amazing vid.
I love how the version of Monopoly we play today is the simplified version. I can only imagine a game at Christmas taking days if not weeks using the original rules
I would argue that the Rubiks Cube, although not invented in America, should be considered one of the most important toys of recent times, mostly because both children and adults could play with it, and both children and adults would find it incredibly difficult yet addicting. It also followed the 80s trend of having its own cartoon series and a near endless amount of merchandise, and a lot of the time the cube is considered one of the great symbols of the 1980s
I like how Mr. Monopoly's name was actually Rich Uncle Pennybags but know knew that and just called him Mr. Monopoly and eventually Hasbro just changed his name to that.
I think He Man is a very iconic American toy universe. I grew up past the most popular phase of it but still loved several of their toys despite not knowing what they were from or anything about them
In the 90's it seems that all kinds of slime and goop were really popular, likely fueled in part by Nickelodeon, which itself licensed several Play-Doh offshoots like "Gak" and "Floam." We also had those stretchy sticky hands you could whip around and stick to things.
“Batteries not included” just reminds me of the joke my dad play every Christmas, where he gave my brother and I a dead battery with a tag saying “Toy not included” which he did til he died.
The reason children’s Saturday morning programming is what it is today in the US is because of the marketing strategies of toy companies in the 1980s for toys like GI Joe, Transformers, and My Little Pony, where they were advertise the toys during the eponymous cartoons. Parents groups saw the cartoons as “30 minute commercials”, and thus put a lot of pressure on the FCC to modify the guidelines for “educational and informative” children’s programming (E/I), and banned “related” advertisements in children’s programming.
McDonald’s general collaboration with both Mattel and Hasbro’s is actually the glue that holds a lot of American toy culture together. Its for that reason that the happy meal is arguable the most iconic symbol of American childhood in the 1980s and 90s.
Is JJ gay or just SUPER Canadian? I can NEVER tell!
@@bocawilliams9200 ua-cam.com/video/XY9PmBNb3PE/v-deo.html
@@bocawilliams9200 It's both, he is gay and also SUPER Canadian
This is largely true, but as a kid in the 90s I seem to recall plenty of other fast food chains having cool toys (or at least what I thought were cool) in their kids' meals. Nowadays McDonald's essentially has a monopoly (pardon the pun) on that market with Happy Meals, but I don't think that was always the case.
@@hotwax9376 In the 80s I remember Wendy's giving away ALF records that were pure fire and Kentucky Fried Chicken had dope California Raisins figures. Those weren't even in kid's meals because they didn't have those yet. As a kid, the only way you got one was because adults ordered food and just gave it to you. Very hard to collect being limited and Kentucky Fried Chicken wasn't something you go for at just any given time the way McDonald's was. I had a babysitter who hooked me up with the coveted guitar guy after her boyfriend didn't want it so she saved it for me 😊!
JJ really needs to publish a “American Cultural Cannon” book based off all of his videos. He goes into such detail about all these products that even an American like myself learns something new. And it’s fascinating what things he chooses and why.
I'd buy such a book -- if J.J. wrote it. 😊👍
@@markmh835 I'd buy it if it was actually a cannon.
These are the best of his chann imo
Is JJ gay or just SUPER Canadian? I can NEVER tell!
@@bocawilliams9200 no he mentioned on a past video he was gay
The original Milton Bradley created the game Life in the 1860s, which had very Victorian outcomes on the squares, like, "You've been disgraced".
I wanna play that version
"You've been disgraced"-- certainly the story of MY Life...... 😁👍
Username checks out.
"You've been challenged to a duel, and you've lost. Relinquish your family's honor and go back ten spaces."
The missing toy is of course Barbie! I hope JJ can talk about its history someday, including the weird fact that the Barbie media universe has of late become legitimately good TV.
what about Hot Wheels?
This video does a good job explaining why there was such an IP explosion in the 1980s.
Thanks Detroit Borg! You have a lot of subs!
@@JJMcCullough I love his review of the nook simple touch
Another big part of the IP explosion in the 1980s JJ didn't touch on in this video was Regan's deregulation of the television industry which made it possible for toy companies to make cartoon shows to directly sell toy lines to children
Nope. You'll wanna look into how Reagan de-regulated advertising and allowed corporations to directly and indirectly target children. Free market capitalism! What could go wrong? 😂
@@CharlesJohnson-tp7qq still kinda messed up toy company's are allowed to directly market to childern. In the USA tho it's not legally for a cartoon to directly market a toy or product. Like say the rugrats couldn't have the babies say we like coke brand cola or a specific toy that is not legal anymore in the United States. When the UA-cam kids thing happened a few channels did videos on it also about how youtubers directly marketing to chikdern is illegal but not being prosecuted yet.
“I did grow up into a weird adult so it all tracks” lmao I think we’re all extremely glad you’re a “weird adult” I always thoroughly enjoy your content
Me too. J.J seems to know more about American culture than us actual Americans do sometimes.
@@valutaatoaofunknownelement197 he’s American
@@자시엘 Really? I didn't know that.
@@valutaatoaofunknownelement197 yeah he’s Canadian
@@자시엘 Dammit.
The story of how GI Joe went from 12 inches to 3 inches is actually pretty interesting. Hasbro gave the license for Joe to Japanese toy company Takara who marketed it as Combat Joe. But military toys weren’t very popular so Takara rebranded it as a super hero called “ Henshin Cyborg” to capitalize on the popularity of shows like Ultraman and Kamen Rider. Takara wanted to make place sets and vehicles for the toys to have but because of the 70s oil crisis they decided instead to shrink the toys down in size to 3 inches and rebranded again as Microman. Microman would be brought over to America by toy company Mego as “Micronauts”. The Micronauts size would then inspire Kenner to make their Star Wars toys that size as well which would inspire Hasbro to do as well with the rebooted GI Joe. Microman would also have two spin off lines called Micro Change and Diaclone that Hasbro would also later import as Transformers.
You sound like quite the action figure fan!
@@JJMcCullough thank you
To paraphrase Hank on Breaking Bad "they're ACTION FIGURES, Marie!!!"
Man, Micronauts were so AWESOME!!! The larger Baron Karza with the magnetic joints and fists and missiles that shot, & you could turn him into a centaur as well (same as his enemy with the opposite colored white armor, forget his name) was kind of a bridge between the small 3 inch ones and the Shogun Warriors die cast toys (I wanted the large plastic versions about 2ft high, but no bueno from the parental units, claiming "safety" ...but I was allowed to play with lawn darts, so go figure^^). Acroyer, Time Traveller, what was it, Biolab the giant robot guy, they later on had some alien/bug humanoid type series that was cool too & the city track with tubes they could travel in, very "Logan's Run" -ish. Very cool, I had the Adventure Joe's being a 70s kid, they were a lot of fun, esp once the Six Million Dollar Man action figure came out, could have them all fight bigfoot XD.
The story of how 20th century fox gave up the merchandising rights to Star wars to Lucas is always one of those tales in hindsight seemed so foolish, but considering the studio's skepticism over the movie and budget and filming issues, toys were the last thing on their mind. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.....
Actually, a part that is not often talked about is this first venture of a transforming robot toyline collaboration between takara and hasbro called mysterians. This was where the toys that eventually that became Micro Change Jeep or later Brawn in the transformers, Micro Change American truck or late Huffer and Micro Change Transam or Windcharger originated from. The toyline was cancelled before release and the existence of this toyline makes the whole "Hasbro employees discovering Diaclone and micro changers at a Japanese convention" story that led to the importation of the figures sound sketchy. The Mysterians toyline was eventually released in 1984 by a company called Marchon but the details behind how this non hasbro owned company got the rights to use the abandoned designs from Mysterians that were never used in Micro change and transformers is still not clear till this day.
_how GI Joe went from 12 inches to 3 inches_ Hmm. 🤔Oh! I know. 😎 It's called _detumescence._ 🤣😂😅
Good video, JJ. As for other toys, I think Super Soakers, Nerf, and Hot Wheels are definitely worthy of being mentioned as part of the American cultural toy canon. And while they're not as popular now, Beanie Babies were a bona-fide cultural phenomenon that at least deserves an honorable mention.
Were kids actually into beanie babies? I have a hard time thinking very many parents would let their kids play with "investments" like that, but what knows.
@@tomifost I don’t know if it’s really universal, but at my elementary school in particular (in the early 2000s) they were huge. Not among everyone, but with me and my friends. However I do feel like they weren’t big enough among the general population to reasonably be a part of this cultural canon.
Hot Wheels definitely belong. I feel like most kids, regardless of gender had at least a few Hot Wheels.
When I think of my childhood and my own kid’s childhood, Hot Wheels and Lego heavily feature in both.
Nerf, Hot Wheels, etc are essential American toys and more important than many toys in this video, but they aren't literally iconic. You can't represent them with a single image like Mr. Potatohead or Snake-eyes. They are more abstract and generalized. Nerf (hasbro) is just foam projectiles/balls/blasters and Hot Wheels is thousands of miniature wheeled vehicles. Other toys that could be iconic are transformers (hasbro), lego minfigs, Barbie.
@@Annie_Annie__ That's basically most of my late childhood. Hot Wheels and Legos, along with wooden trains. Though, Hot Wheels continue being a hobby for me today.
As a Pennsylvanian, hearing my state mentioned in any context makes me wonder if this is how smaller countries feel when they get mentioned in the media
I’ve really come to realize that PA played a huge role in American culture and should get more credit.
Well, Pennsylvania is still a pretty big state, home to more people than Illinois, for example. And Pittsburgh and (especially) Philadelphia have lots of culture and history in them.
It's a big state and had plenty of manufacturing. It's always been important historically since the birth of the country (first capital and all that).
@@JJMcCullough PA feels like one of those places where you can go to any town or city and there will be at least one notable event, invention or person associated with it. And it's all a lot closer together than out west, distances between big towns and cities feel more "european".
i like many of my family are native pennslyvanians who have moved elsewhere, new jersey for me i didnt get too far lol, like at all i'm 8 minutes away from philadelphia
One correction - I wouldn't call Georgism "esoteric" at the time. His book sold numbers only second to the Bible, his funeral was only second to Lincoln's in size, and his fame was only third to Twain's and Edison's. However, he's unheard of today. Its fascinating - I'd call him "the most famous man nobody's ever heard of."
Well he can’t have been that great if everyone forgot him so quickly
@@JJMcCullough This is an absurd statement. Georgist ideas are still commonly discussed, especially by economists. The land value tax is an idea which has had particular popularity and influence across the world. I don't agree with much of George's writing but you're being dismissive to a degree which does not suit Georgism's actual prominence.
@@JJMcCullough I wouldn't think that he is overly obscure, most people haven't heard of him but he is still quite popular in alot of circles, especially that of the internet & American collage culture, which makes sense given his stance on property tax.
I do think that the commenter above me is a tad bit overzealous and I wouldn't say that it's an obsurd statement to make, but he has actually seen a bit of a resurgence in the 21st century, just in general, mainly due to the fact that Andrew Yang has seemingly thrown his support behind George's ideals.
I personally find him at least interesting and while I can't speak for everyone else, I do know that some internet personalities like Mr. Beat is a fan of him as well.
Its because his ideas were both "dangerous" and popular, you might even call him a populist. But precisely because his message was anti-elite and ant-capitalist to some extent those elites with their vested interests did everything short of assasination to bury his message.
Still, even as a Georgist myself, I'd say that Georgism was and is esoteric, mostly because the way it conceptualises land value is somewhat idiosyncratic. (Of course I have to believe that, because if people actually understood Georgism, they would all be Georgists, because I believe it is the best system of taxation there is.) Still, there can be no doubt that he was a major celebrity in his time, but almost completely forgotten by WWII, having been overtaken by economic Liberalism and Socialism.
You also missed the Transformers and He-Man, toys that have since their release have gotten massive cult followings thanks to their media presence (both of them having lackluster movies)
I like the first 2 transformers movies :/
He-Man wouldn't work cuase he's Mattel so he wouldn't be here but transformers is a hasbro property so idk why it's not in the line up
Also, Transformers is fascinating because they where toy lines from two separate Japanese toy companies that Hasbro sold in America under the single moniker "Transformers"
Lego too
holy shit bro pay attention to the video
Anyone interested in these toys and even the mystery Mattel toy, theres an AMAZING SERIES on Netflix which is basically a fully fleshed out, episodic version of this topic. Its called:
'The Toys that Made Us'
Such a fun topic to learn the history about. Theres so much going on
I've been waiting for series 4 for ages. It's a great light hearted documentary series, when you want to learn about something less serious.
As a kid who grew up as a “horse girl,” I would definitely add My Little Pony to the list (and, while I don’t think it has the same sweeping relevance, Breyer Horses.)
A newer phenomenon in the world of girls toys has been Monster High, which was kinda revolutionary in the sense that it redefined what a fashion doll could be. I.e. you could make a doll that was a centaur, or had green skin, or big hairy feet, and little girls (and also me lol) would love and buy them. Tons of doll lines took notes from monster high and introduced their own “fantasy/monster” variants, including, funny enough, My Little Pony, with their “human version” dolls.
It would include Hot Wheels in a list of "iconic" toys. It might have been the first toy to have a cartoon based on it, and was the reason that (until the 1980s) that the practice was banned.
Also, do modern kids even know about My Pet Monster? Another (much less successful) character generated in a similar manner was Robotman. As part of a push to get the character into various products, his owners convinced United Features Syndicate to put the character into a newspaper comic strip. The syndicate tried to get Bill Waterson to put the character into Calvin and Hobbes, but Waterson refused. They eventually just made a new comic strip for the character, and after a few years everyone gave up on making Robotman a thing, and the author of the strip was asked to phase the character out of the strip. The strip is now known as Monty.
Ohhh I remember him! I liked that comic
I mean in my personal experience growing up in the 2010s no I don't believe they are anymore.
@@JJMcCullough Just "like", not "love"? Because he "needs love". ua-cam.com/video/zPMLoqVKAfo/v-deo.html
For anyone who wants more of this type of lighthearted historical education, Netflix’s “The Toys That Made Us” does a good job of giving a fun insight into the origins of a lot of very popular 70s-90s toys.
Which toys do they talk about!
@@JJMcCullough reading off the full list of episodes:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Power Rangers
My Little Pony
Professional Wrestling
Star Trek
Transformers
LEGO
Hello Kitty
Star Wars toys
Barbie
He-Man
G.I. Joe
@@SpiralSine6 oh nice, so not too much overlap. I was worried I had missed a big possible reference source for this video
JJ , I just wanna appreciate you for the great content you produce. Following you for the last 5 years have heavily influenced my teenage life for good. Keep up the good work.
2:36 that Monopoly/McDonalds promotions always fascinated me. I remember looking up the Wikipedia page for it once and seeing the differences in it from country to country
I don't know if it's like that in other countries but in Brazil we don't see a lot of Monopoly around. Usually children (and adults) play the Brazilian version of the game called Banco Imobiliário.
This basically happens because in 1946 Hasbro transferred the rights to the game to Estrela, which is basically the giant of the toy world in Brazil, and that company started using the name Banco Imobiliário. After a while the two broke the deal, Hasbro started selling Monopoly on its own in Brazil and Estrela started selling Banco Imobiliário with some changes from Monopoly, especially localizing the name of the properties. In the Brazilian game, you can buy properties on Avenida Paulista and Praça dos Três Poderes, famous addresses in Brazil. The game also has numerous versions, specifically versions for different ages of players, such as the "Junior" versions.
I don't know if this happened only in Brazil or if Hasbro also had problems with other companies in other countries. If you know something let me know
The Monopoly Man's name is Uncle Pennybags, and he collects pennies as a hobby. How quaint right?
I'm not sure if they would be considered too 90s, but I remember the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seeming to kickoff a ton of copycats of "cool anthropomorphic animals." Swat Cats, Biker Mice From Mars, Street Sharks. The list goes on.
Get it right or pay the price!
It’s RICH Uncle Pennybags!
TMNT is one of those brands that gets a new show and a new set of toys every few years, I'd say they count. Same with Transformers.
Haha i played with some street sharks n tmnt mixed!
The Mighty Ducks were my favourite of those, if you count them.
I feel like monopoly is one of those games that nobody plays correctly and everyone plays by slightly different rules, despite the rules coming in the box. I also feel like growing up in the early 2000s, Monopoly was a stand-in for a boring “family” game that takes forever and never ends.
I’d say uno even more so.
Me and my sisters, cousins etc. never finished a game of Risk. Once the world is reduced to just two players, you hit a bit of an equilibrium, and one person can not obliterate the other. Maybe that's one of the lessons the game teaches, switching to a "cold war" is inevitable and a good outcome.
I think you right. Although actually monoly is not that long and complicated compared to most games. An hour and a half, at most, if you follow the rule but like you said everybody changes the rules slightly and things change. I just always played how my family said it was played and did not know there was an auction until 3 or 4 years ago. I think people look at say risk a full game can take a few hours and it looks very complicated.
@@Landon_C_Official my dad bought us monopoly as kids, and I think maybe to keep the game from being confusing he had us just play until we ran out of money. We were kids, so the game didn’t last long, but the older we got, we just kept playing like that and never bothered to actually look up the rules or anything, and we got smarter with money, and games took absolutely forever because we would budget like crazy and try and have hotels everywhere. Def played it very, very wrong
Monopoly always felt like that one game that the family would only play if they were desperate. If there was nothing good on the telly on a Sunday afternoon, and you'd used up all the fun board games that week, and if it frankly was too early to just go to bed - you'd reach for Monopoly. Usually accompanied by audible groans and at least one younger member of the family just complaining outright.
Although seeing what others have said about the game, both in this thread's replies and elsewhere, it could just be that me and family were incredibly stupid ;p
I was watching a video from another Canadian UA-camr, but when I got the notification, I came to my favorite Canadian UA-cam channel.
I live right next to Hasbro and always see the Mr potato statue in front. It always made me wicked happy as a kid. Plus I remember neighbors working at the company and letting me test out toys. To a 5 year old kid, having a nerf gun no one else had was the best thing ever.
You’re a Rhodie??
@@JJMcCullough live right across the the Massachusetts line in Bristol County, Mass. Which shares a border with Bristol County, Rhode Island. It's one central road away from me.
The Transformers are a huge one they missed. Although people these days i think tend to associate them with the movies or maybe the 80s cartoon.
Transformers is weird In that Hasbro shares ownership of the franchise with the Japanese toy company Takara.
Transformers started out as a rebranding of a couple of different Japanese toylines, though. Which makes them not American.
Transformers is a Japanese toyline brought to America by Hasbro.
This is fascinating in that MOST of these toys are non-gendered save for the GI Joe series. It also misses the Barbie and Pony genres which I would EXPECT to see and introduces the Glo-Worm which I've never thought of as part of the American toy canon.
Indeed, the toy canon I think of when I think 'American' is almost explicitly 50's based as that was when toys for the average middle class American became a real thing. The cowboy, Lincoln logs, tin robots and the like.
I'd add those little plastic toy soldiers that list.
Mattel ...Barbie is another iconic toy, along with Ken. Fun video that took me back as well. I didn't really like the smell of Play-Doh either. Having a teacher for a mom, she always had a bunch in her classroom. 😜😄
As a proud Rhode Islander, born and raised, the absolute joy of anticipation of my small home being shouted out arose in me as soon as you said hasbro. I was like "hey! We have that! Thats us! Woot!"
I wonder how much of Mr. Potato Head's prominence today is due to the Toy Story movies. I remember being surprised to find out it was an actual toy that had kinda been forgotten until the movies came out. The timeline makes sense; Mr. Potato Head was one of the toys that originally belonged to Andy's dad before being passed down to Andy, so the writers had to look to toys from the 50s.
I think it'd be totally discontinued if it wasn't for toy story
I just wanted to say I love the little caricatures you put into your videos when talking about historical figures
Slinky seems like a huge omission. Wham-O Frisbee, Magic 8 Ball… they all became popular during the war but were juggernauts through the 2000s. Hasbro’s Ouija has been ubiquitous since the 19th century.
I never had a Stretch Armstrong toy, but, I do remember having a toy of Mister Fantastic, which was pretty much the same thing. We had him for about two days before my brother and I wanted to see if he could stretch from one side of our living room to the other, he could not. RIP lol
Milton Bradley also invented complex color. His color wheel was used by William James and Gertrude Stein to research emotional response to those complex colors.
What a hero!
My favorite Americana story related to Monopoly is how this one guy ran an inside job scam at the McDonald's Monopoly game for like 10 years, bilking away about $24M. I'd post a link but I think youtube will flag me for it; it's easy enough to google. Good treatment of Elizabeth Maggie / The Landlord's game, btw!
Loved this, as others have said Barbie has to be the Mattel juggernaut. For me, growing up in the late 70s and 80s my biggest toys were Star Wars, GI Joe, Legos and Transformers. Like you mentioned, so much of what we played with had its origins in TV at the time and I remember very fondly rushing home after school to watch the GI Joe TV Show which invariably led to a Christmas Sears Catalog with easily thousands of dollars of GI Joe merch circled and begged for. Of course you would only get one or two of the items so they were a birthday and Christmas specialty that you saved for and collected. The interim more mundane toys for me were the Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars which I had trains of all over the house for my parents to stomp on and curse :). Awesome nostalgia trip as always JJ! Thank you for this and Happy Saturday everyone!!
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉m🎉🎉🎉🎉mmmmm
I like
You are very good at making videos J.J. I'm also from Canada and love watching these types of videos you make. I hope your channel has a bright future.
The big Mattel one that comes to mind for me is the Viewmaster. The other big "All American" toys that come to mind for this "canon" are the Slinky and Lincoln Logs. Someone earlier mentioned Etch a Sketch, but that's not very American unless we want to count a Canadian toy invented in Europe.
Barbie....
Man, seeing MB just brought back memories.... those were great
I guess I never really thought of the Monopoly man as a toy 😂
He's a boy toy 🤑
Neither is Pla-Do or Operation. They just represent the games in action figure form.
He's typically not
@@lilbbgrinchiepoo2429 more of an old man toy. eww
The cartoon faces of the specific workers are the best part of this video! Great work JJ! Another entertaining and informative video
I haven't read the comments, so this is a pure guess: Mattel's Barbie dolls. They came out in 1959 really banking on that new "plastic" craze that was taking off and served as a sort of contemporary role model for girls and young women. Considering they still exist and I have a coworker that still buys every new one that comes out for her collection, I'm taking a bet that it's the missing item from the canon.
(If that's wrong I'm swinging over to Cabbage Patch Kids :P )
Mattel also got the inspiration for Barbie from a German doll called Lilli that was marketed primarily to adult collectors.
I had forgotten I had a glow worm as an early 80s youth until you brought those memories flooding back.
I remember always being told that the modern version of what we now call Monopoly had its genesis in an idea to market a property-and-wealth-accumulating game during the United States' Great Depression as something that would (and seemingly did) appeal to those who aspired to greater wealth and prosperity.
9:10 : I like that the can specifies that it is the 'non-crumbly type'
J.J. I got in my nanaimo bear and I love it ❤️ such great quality ❤️ thank you!
"Rhode Island has very little going on"
In defense of RI: oldest baptist church in america, oldest synagogue in america, Brown University, RISD, Newport mansions, the first season of crimetown, a disproportionate amount of mentions in movies, Johnson and Wales University, and as well as being the HQ for Hasbro, we are also the HQ for CVS. Also, a ton of cultural things that are unique to our state, that most Rhode Islanders would know about, Del's lemonade, Benny's (R.I.P.), Iggy's, Waterfire. Also, the second oldest operating Boyscout camp in the U.S. thank you for coming to my TED talk
“Lantern Jaw” is an interesting way to describe someone or something.
After this fabulous video essay, I’ll definitely be seeking out the etymology of it. Your videos always send me off on some great “rabbit hole” adventures.
Thanks 🙂🐿❤️🌈
I’m really glad to see you upload today, and it made my day a whole hell of a lot better. I hope you’re doing really great, and I hope you know how awesome your Contant is.
I had a My Pet Monster in my teens, My mom had found it at a garage sale and I had it in my room as a decoration. I put it outside on our bench during October as a Halloween decoration and someone stole it!!!
I'd love to find another one or a smaller version to just have on my work space.
To Ebay I go!
I just ordered the modern version of the GloWorm and am excitedly awaiting its arrival. I loved mine as a kid!
Watching this when it's 30 seconds old.
2 minits
4 mins
5m :,)
Would love to see another video like this featuring those typical 90's era toys like furbies, tomagotchi, easy-bake ovens etc.
Not as much a toy but a cultural touchstone of the US and a major influence for many video games, Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast who make Dungeons and Dragons as well as Magic the Gathering. So two of the most influential games of all time.
I'd guess Lego is an a league of its own in the cultural American canon for toys. Not only because it's part of a worldwide toy canon, being a Danish company that's pretty much settled in all regions; culturally; but also because many people wouldn't consider them as toys anymore.
They can be decorative, buildings, puzzles, action figures, playing toys and even stimulation tools. Legos are indeed above all toys in the market.
Hey JJ! I love your content, and I think a really interesting video topic could be one of the real obvious cultural differences between the US and Canada: University culture. Do you think you could do a video talking about both countries approach to university and how they compare and contrast? (For example, why Canada doesn’t have an Ivy League, why frats aren’t as popular, etc)
Thanks and keep up the good work!
There's no real difference other than Canada's schools are less prestigious.
@@JJMcCullough I disagree JJ. I think the whole attitude towards post secondary education could be explored in a separate video
@@JJMcCullough I completely disagree, as someone who has both canadian and american friends. The cultural attitude toward university is completely different. Canadian universities are publicly funded and as such aren’t as stratified and there aren’t any tiers per-se. This causes a lack of student debt which means most canadians don’t make university as big a part of their lives as americans. Canadians aren’t expected to know all the big universities, college football is a much smaller deal, and “where did you go to school” is less likely to pop up in canadian conversations.
Additionally, I feel like there’s much less of an emphasis on university being a defining period of your life. Since most good canadian universities are in cities, commuting is more common and there is less of an emphasis on the “college experience” as in the US. Frats aren’t as popular and hazing is much more looked down upon.
I don’t know if it’s the same as in english canada, but here in Quebec you choose a major and stick to it, thus there are no gen-ed classes and no undeclared majors, meaning university is much more of a way to invest in a career rather than something you should do just because.
Was hoping to hear a bit more in depth about this as opposed to just “they’re basically the same” because they’re really not, and the place they have in society is very much different.
@@sbel6626 I agree! I have worked at both US and Canadian universities, and the funding for research is on a different level. Of course, there is much variation between individual institutions.
@@sbel6626 The point about student debt is patently false. Student debt in Canada is a significant issue, especially among younger people, with thousands of dollars of debt being common. The median debt levels between US and Canadian graduates are actually not all that different.
I grew up near Cincinnati in the early 80's. I often was invited to Kenner focus groups to check out concept toys or to give opinions on some advertising campaign. Once I made it into a Star Wars commercial shooting, but didn't make the final cut. Good times.
I'd say two pretty prolific (maybe) toys not mentioned would be Nerf and Hot Wheels. From what I understand they both come from the 80s-90s like the last few entries. At least I know that those were some of the more important (I guess) toys of my childhood.
It is amazing how concentrated the toy market is in North America. I wasn't really looking at the video when I heard you do the lead up about the company and I already knew that the video was going to be about Hasbro.
I was born towards the early end of Gen Z and even someone like me, whose house still had a VCR for several years into the early 2000s, wasn’t really focused on the kinds of toys like you described in this great video. Video games have really come to dominate childhood playmaking that I don’t know if kids really focus on physical
Toys anymore. LEGO, which can’t be included in this list, is probably the only toy brand which has gotten stronger over the last 20 odd years. For the canon, I’d probably take out glo worm and my pet monster and probably even stretch Armstrong and replace them with Transformers, Barbie, My Little Pony and Nerf.
I was gonna say as a Gen Zer I've never really heard of Glo Worm, My Pet Monster or Stretch Armstrong before this video
Cincinnatti and Ohio in general was the most influential city/state to American toy cannon. The Cincinnatti Toy museum is amazing with the best collection of first edition Ohio designed toys including Star Wars, GI Joe, Barbie, Glow-Worm, Care Bears, Etch-a-Sketch, and so many more.
I didn’t know GloWorm was an American brand! My English grandma had some of the books and they felt very English.
Gloworm is an English publisher of children's books.
Honestly the biggest thing that's missing here is the Rubik's Cube. It was originally a product of Hungary, but it became a worldwide icon in the early 80's, including in the US.
Most people didn't know how to solve it when it was first released (although a few people managed to figure it out) but with the later introduction of the internet in the 90's and onward, more and more people have been able to find tutorials online.
Nowadays it's very easily reproduced by other companies, especially ones from China, and many off-brand models are often of higher quality than the originals, and are thus almost unanimously preferred by speed-cubers and are also legal in cubing competitions.
It's actually very jarring to know that all of the great toy companies have all been absorbed into Hasbro, as the names of the companies were as well-known to us 80s kids as the toys they made!
Yeah, I asked my 13-year-old if he’s ever heard of Milton Bradley, and he hadn’t.
I only just realized I hadn’t heard or seen the name in a long time and that most of my kid’s board games even say Hasbro on them.
It’s starting to feel like pretty soon 90% of toys are going to be made by either Hasbro or Mattel.
Except Mattel--that one hasn't been yet (and they own quite a few smaller toy companies themselves, like Fisher Price and Pleasant Company (the makers of American Girl dolls). And plenty of the toys they created in-house have been successful as well (like Barbie Dolls and Hot Wheels cars.)
@@hotwax9376 Mattel owns Fisher-Price???
My mind cannot even grasp that Hot Wheels and Little People toys are under the same umbrella.
‘ . . . a weird adult. So it all tracks’ 😂 You’re the best, JJ
I love how monopoly went from an anti-capitalist game to not only a somewhat pro-capitalist but an incredibly successful product in a capitalist market and how the anti capitalist rules ended up being replaced to sell better. Ironic. Although as JJ says this is kinda an over-politicized bit of irony.
The original game: anti capitalist
The game now: pro capitalist
Playing the game: anti-social
Play the game and stay friends with people, I dare you.
I love how they made a tax evasion edition, now I can really feel like a billionaire.
kinda reminds me how Oliver Stone would talk about ppl leaving the movie Wall Street, and being all psyched to be like Gordon Gecko.......
Georgism isn't anti-capitalist, it is simply anti-rent seeking.
The derivation of unearned rents from the common inheritance of the human race is a perversion of liberal values, and therefore a market system.
The Landlord's Game isn't so much anti-capitalist as it is anti-landlord. Georgism makes the distinction between capitalists, who profit from the productivity of their investments, and landlords, who profit from hoarding land and waiting for its value to rise without putting it to productive use.
Thanks for covering toys! Most of my toy-video watching comes from collectors, and it's great to get another angle on the history. There's a ton of other little interesting tidbits if you ever want to dive deeper! You touched on G.I. Joe changing gears when a war came around, and that ebbed and flowed like the tides! Theb12 inchers became Adventure Team, and then the Joes of the 80s shrunk and went back to war, then the Gulf War made Joe change directions again to (of course) battling Drug Lords, fighting Eco Terrorism, going to Space etc. It's interesting to watch it all change and get brighter colors and guns that look less and less like real guns. You get a separation in collectors where 80s kids miss the real military styling, where as a 90s kid (like myself) is more nostalgic for the neon weapons that barely looked like guns.
THE MOUSTACHE IS BACK
It's been back...
Another banger J.J., thanks for the great content as always. This makes me want a video about classic board games like Monopoly.
The top toys for me when I was a kid were video games/game boy, Pokémon cards, Star Wars toys especially lightsabers, power rangers toys, Batman, X-Men, comic book stuff in general, tomagotchi, furby, Barbie, pogs, beanie babies, Gak, bop it, super soakers/water guns and nerf balls. Damn I miss my childhood lol.
Great video! Got me thinking how much the modern 'european toy canon' (or atleast my childhood) is dominated by construction toys, not just lego but also playmobil, kapla and k"nex (which is actually american).
Ironically playmobil started as action figures with set pieces at first. Construction doll houses only came later.
Yeah, construction toys have always been big. One such toy that was more popular with Baby Boomers but is still sold is Erector set, but even before that there were of course building blocks.
Dude, you truly deserve many more subs and views. What a thoughtful and well-researched video -- par for the course on your channel. Keep it up! I love your channel. It's also nice to see a person from another country do a video about America that isn't full of hate and politics -- though, to be honest, we kind of consider Canada all as a "sister" country, even though most Canadians look down on us (literally and figuratively).
Perhaps they don't fit the "modern" narrative of this video - nowadays some of them are seen as a "throwback to the old days" - but you can't really talk about famous American toys without bringing up *something* made/purchased by Wham-O, notably Frisbee, Hula Hoop, Super Ball, Slip 'N Slide, Silly String, and Hacky Sack.
Love your videos! you’re awesome ✨🙌🏼✨thanks for this video, I grew up with so many of these toys in Europe, it’s cool to see this origins, especially the 80s/90s ones
Hey JJ. Do you you think you can do a video about analysing the (main) references of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start The Fire'?
That would be fun but it would take a very long time. There are like 100 references so the video would be hours long to explain it all.
@@JJMcCullough If you’re willing to make it, I think your viewers would be happy to watch very long videos. Longform content is more popular with UA-cam these days too
There is a podcast analyzing every lyric of we didn’t start the fire called what else “we didn’t start the fire”
My Buddy. If I’m not mistaken, was the first ‘traditional’ stuffed doll that was marketed at boys as well as girls.
This doll was also the inspiration behind the ‘Chucky’ horror franchise.
I really enjoy your videos! I suppose Barbie is missing as one of the most iconic toys (not only in the US/Canada) 🌹
Mattel has a few brands of popular American toys. Barbie, Transformers, and Thomas the Tank Engine (okay it’s based on a British book series but it’s definitely super popular here too). Lego is also iconic but it’s hard to categorize as a “toy”
Barbie's the obvious omission, but the list as a whole is lacking in "girls' toys." A lot of toys are aggressively marketed based on gender, and any attempt at a 'toy canon' should take that into account. Surely My Little Pony or Polly Pocket deserve a spot on the pantheon more than My Pet Monster.
You’re right. I guess girls don’t but these sorts of collectible things. Though there are a lot of girly Funkos.
awesome edit jj. keep it up bro
Hey JJ, what plushy are you making after the nanaimo bear? Excited to see new editions of cultural mashup plushies, maybe one that is based off of famous stereotypical toys as a continuation from food? Much love from Ontario!
As someone who works in a warehouse throwing a lot of boxes, i can tell you that barbie, lego, and Jurassic park. Are some of the most popular by a large margin.
I know this is mainly a video about hasbro and their contributions to the toy industry, but c’mon! You cant make a video about the cultural canon of toys without talking at least a little about barbie
She’s so famous that people use ‘barbie’ as a sort of interchangeable stand in word when talking about any standard fashion doll
Lincoln Logs should be on any American toy list. They're the only toys that i played with as a kid and also my parents and grandparent's played with.
I had a Mr. Potato Head as a kid. And needed a potato. I always felt that it was a bit of a ripoff when they went to the plastic potato - but by then I was too old for such things.
I always found it silly that he carried his parts in his butt.
To me, Lego is undeniably one of the biggest mainstays in the toy making world. They’ve been around for generations and are still adding to their massive empire, particularly by acquiring the rights to make Star Wars, marvel, dc comics, Disney, and more products.
My favourite american toy is my daddys gun
NO!
@@JJMcCullough pew pew !
...your Illustrations are very good and cool mate!
I think Barbie should be on that list
That's the Mattel toy he mentioned at the end.
@@T1mesAreHard Thanks lol must have missed that
Absolutely loved this video. This one will win some awards for sure
First
Good job 👍
No idea how this would fit but my most iconic toys growing up were trains and slot car sets. I had no idea at the time but thought about it since how much sacrifice my parents made as the only room large enough to set up the tracks was the living room, so as long as they were set up everyone had to step over the tracks for days and days.
I work for one of the Hassenfeld family members. She has all the board games with the main characters faces changed with family members faces. They are super nice people.
every time jj has described one of his videos as "award winning" ive thought, "oh wow! impressive, but warranted!"
i just realized he may be kidding around lol
Lincoln Logs, Erector Set, electric trains, cap guns are some that I remember from my childhood.
A huge bow and thanks to you JJ for growing up to be a weird adult. I too was stricken by a combo of weird and nerd. For real best wishes, amazing vid.
I love how the version of Monopoly we play today is the simplified version. I can only imagine a game at Christmas taking days if not weeks using the original rules
I would argue that the Rubiks Cube, although not invented in America, should be considered one of the most important toys of recent times, mostly because both children and adults could play with it, and both children and adults would find it incredibly difficult yet addicting. It also followed the 80s trend of having its own cartoon series and a near endless amount of merchandise, and a lot of the time the cube is considered one of the great symbols of the 1980s
I like how Mr. Monopoly's name was actually Rich Uncle Pennybags but know knew that and just called him Mr. Monopoly and eventually Hasbro just changed his name to that.
I think He Man is a very iconic American toy universe. I grew up past the most popular phase of it but still loved several of their toys despite not knowing what they were from or anything about them
In the 90's it seems that all kinds of slime and goop were really popular, likely fueled in part by Nickelodeon, which itself licensed several Play-Doh offshoots like "Gak" and "Floam." We also had those stretchy sticky hands you could whip around and stick to things.
Thanks for confirming that the memory of me having a cartoony-looking Stretch Armstrong as a kid wasn't just the Mandela Effect.
“Batteries not included” just reminds me of the joke my dad play every Christmas, where he gave my brother and I a dead battery with a tag saying “Toy not included” which he did til he died.
The reason children’s Saturday morning programming is what it is today in the US is because of the marketing strategies of toy companies in the 1980s for toys like GI Joe, Transformers, and My Little Pony, where they were advertise the toys during the eponymous cartoons. Parents groups saw the cartoons as “30 minute commercials”, and thus put a lot of pressure on the FCC to modify the guidelines for “educational and informative” children’s programming (E/I), and banned “related” advertisements in children’s programming.