Margaret Woodbury Strong, the museum’s founder, was an avid collector of dollhouses. A ticket from 1958 invited guests to the “First Public Showing of Mrs. Homer Strong’s World-Famous Collection of Doll Houses” at her residence in Pittsford, New York. The nearly 100 dollhouses exhibited represented only a portion of her collection. In celebration of Margaret Woodbury Strong’s fascination with spectacular miniatures, The Strong National Museum of Play has opened Dollhouses Unveiled. The exhibit provides a unique opportunity to view dozens of rare dollhouses and miniatures from The Strong’s collections (many not seen on public view in decades along with others new to the museum).

The dollhouses on display provide a sample of design and play patterns from the 1830s to present day. A few highlights include the Mystery House and Blue Roof Victorian Mansion, as they have been called. Around 1890, the famed FAO Schwarz toy store carried a line of dollhouses with delicately carved wood accents. Dollhouse expert Flora Gill Jacobs later named the series “Mystery Doll Houses,” because she couldn’t identify the maker, though some speculated that prisoners made them. The elaborate houses signaled luxury and were correspondingly expensive. One version sold for $80—nearly a half-month’s salary for a lawyer at the time. During the same decade, the Mortiz Gottschalk Company created an elaborate mansion with a blue roof. FAO Schwartz also featured this house as a Christmas exclusive. Its construction of lithographed paper on wood created a spectacular design with a wondrous concoction of gables, turrets, spindles, and balustrades.

Nearly 100 years later, Barbie moved into her Magical Mansion. Felix Burrichter, co-editor of Barbie Dreamhouse: An Architectural Survey, said the pale walls and fluffy sofa reminded him of the suburban house in the 1987 thriller Fatal Attraction. Snobs might have scoffed, but kids loved ringing the functioning doorbell and phone. While thinking about life in plastic, one of the most striking objects on display is the Kaleidoscope House manufactured by Bozart Toys in 2001. Designed by artist Laurie Simmons and architect Peter Wheelwright, the Kaleidoscope House has sliding transparent walls, an arced-slab partial roof, and modern art pieces. The creators sought to update the conventional dollhouse with subtle touches, like sliding walls that allow for play with color, design, and light. The Kaleidoscope House provides just one example of how the history of dollhouses reveals shifting ideas about domestic life, innovative design, and imaginative play.

Aside from the dollhouses that include Margaret Strong’s childhood dollhouse and elaborate recent  residences marketed to grownups, guests to the exhibit can complete a scavenger hunt for teeny tiny miniatures that replicate everyday life, play with the lights and sounds we’ve added to the 1837 Amsterdam House, and view vintage dollhouse advertisements and photographs. Dollhouses Unveiled will be on display through January 4, 2026.

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From my perspective, there are a couple great things about associating jigsaw puzzles with the holidays. For one, it gives me an automatic gift idea for my sister Kathy, the gift-giving equivalent of the free spot on a bingo card. More importantly, a jigsaw puzzle fits my definition of an ideal way to spend a winter day (or three) during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. A puzzle provides a low-key diversion with family members who may have run through their best conversational gambits by that point and are pleased to have an open-ended companionable project to putter at together. Chitchat isn’t forbidden, but it’s not required either. There’s also no need to round up a set number of players and coordinate getting them around the table for a board game or hand of cards. People can come and go as suits their taste, time, and attention span.

This year my gift to Kathy was a 1,000-piece jigsaw with a composite image of the names of dozens of U.S. National Parks, along with images representing the parks’ iconic scenery. The first step in our family’s jigsaw approach is to lay out all the pieces, right-side up, to corral all the border pieces. Fortunately, the puzzle board Kathy received a couple years ago was the perfect size for this puzzle. If you haven’t used one, a puzzle board allows you to plunk a puzzle onto the dining room or kitchen table under good overhead light and then move it safely out of the way if you want to engage in any other activities such as, say, eating a meal at the table. Plus the tray has removable auxiliary drawers that let puzzlers further organize loose pieces, though 1,000 pieces required enlisting some clean cookie sheets for the cause.

I’ll confess, the organizing curator side of me likes to sort puzzle pieces by color to spare myself looking at every single loose piece as I quest for the one particular piece that I’m envisioning snapping into place. And I’m also moderately obsessive about finding “just one more piece” to complete a section before I’ll go to bed or cede the table to other hungry family members who’re ready to sit down for a meal. For me, assembling a jigsaw is a way to spend time shoulder-to-shoulder with parts of the family who are happily dedicated to the common cause.

Beyond my personal affection for puzzles, the professional side of me holds jigsaw puzzles near to my heart as well. My immersion in all things jigsaw truly began back in 2017 when Nic Ricketts, The Strong’s curator responsible for puzzles, and I traveled to Lewiston, Maine to pack up and transport almost 7,000 puzzles collected by Anne D. Williams, the nation’s consummate expert on jigsaws and their history. Since then, Anne and other puzzle specialists have generously shared their knowledge and their puzzles with the museum. As of today, The Strong’s puzzle holdings have grown to nearly 9,000 examples, from unique and visually stunning hand-cut jigsaw puzzles made of wood or metal as well as the simple and inexpensive die-cut cardboard frame puzzles that initiate toddlers into the pastime.

So many puzzles! So little table space for me to assemble them! But I know my limits. When I was shopping for Kathy’s puzzle this year I spotted a couple attractive designs—only to realize that they were printed with related images on both sides of the pieces to assemble into two different images. An interesting challenge, you say? Nah! I know one of those would have been a step (or three) over the boundary for me and I pulled back from the brink just in time to seize on a more conventional puzzle I figured we’d find satisfying while not feeling impossible by our standards. Whatever style of puzzle suits you; may jigsaws bring you many happy hours. Little wonder that they were a 2002 inductee to the National Toy Hall of Fame.

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Hasbro based My Little Pony on their earlier My Pretty Pony. At about 11 inches high, My Pretty Pony was made of hard plastic and came in one color—brown with a white blaze. What made it endearing was the trigger beneath its chin that twitched its ears, winked its eyes, and swished its tail. Despite My Pretty Pony’s relative success, a Hasbro executive’s wife suggested that kids wanted a pony that was smaller, softer, and fun to brush. The Research and Design team soon got to work on a new concept. Hasbro filed a patent for My Little Pony in 1981 and listed Bonnie Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger, and Steven D. D’Aguanno as the inventors. Hasbro designer Maureen Patterson recommended the ponies come in pastel colors rather than natural colors. In a trial of test ponies, it was clear that children loved fantasy colors.

In 1983, Hasbro trotted out My Little Pony, six petite horse figures, each made of a soft vinyl with a silky mane and unique rump mark (symbols like stars, dots, and flowers later referred to as “cutie marks”) that reflected its name. The first characters of the line—Cotton Candy, Butterscotch, Blossom, Blue Belle, Minty, and Snuzzle—and the ponies that followed, had rounded bodies and anthropomorphized faces that made them irresistible. More varieties including Pegasus Ponies, Unicorns, and Sea Ponies followed.

My Little Pony combined doll play with modern marketing strategies. Hasbro understood the importance of storytelling and developing character personalities to expand play and collectability. Detail-oriented kids and adults coveted the latest pony with a new cutie mark. Hasbro also hired industrial designer Khipra Nichols to create play sets like My Little Pony Dream Castle, which included Spike, a baby dragon who rode up and down the castle in a basket inspired by a dark scene in the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock movie Rear Window.

By 1984, Sunbow Productions, an animation studio created by Hasbro’s ad agency Griffin Bacal, partnered with Marvel to create the My Little Pony (rebranded Rescue at the Midnight Castle) television special followed by Escape from Catrina. In “Toy Makers Frolic in Fantasy Land,” a New York Times article published two days before Christmas in 1984, Philip S. Gutis explored this new “prepackaged fantasy” trend in toy marketing. Gutis reported that some parents and children’s advocacy groups worried that these background stories prevented children from using their own imaginations. In response to the concerns, a Hasbro spokesperson said, “we give children the framework and they fill in the blanks and expand the fantasy.”

When My Little Pony: The Movie hit theaters just two years later, film reviewers criticized it as “the longest self-advertisement.” Despite the all-star cast including Danny DeVito, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, and Rhea Perlman, one reviewer noted “the real theme song is the ring of the cash register as Hasbro attempts to turn unwitting young viewers into customers.” Another observed “the sugary cuteness of My Little Pony masks a corporate greed as cold and sharp as a razor blade.” In her review, Nina Darnton declared “the little ponies are like those pastel heart candies that have little messages on them such as ‘I luv you.’ You can eat a few, but too many make you sick.” While these snarky commentors expressed concerns about children being immersed in consumer culture, they often failed to acknowledge that kids have independent thoughts, use their imaginations to fuel play, and demand that brands live up to their high expectations.  

By the time Hasbro discontinued the My Little Pony line in the United States in 1992, the brand had sold more than $1 billion worth of toys, clothing, home decorations, and other consumer goods. Many felt it was time for Hasbro to get off their high horse, as My Little Pony licensing deals seemed to run wild, but its popularity never truly died. Hasbro re-launched My Little Pony in the U.S. and continues to introduce new products today.

Many fans credit My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with the resurgence in popularity. Lauren Faust, the show’s creator, wanted to change the negative perceptions of animated programs geared toward girls. She wrote that the show was “wonderfully free of ‘token girl’ syndrome, so there is no pressure to shove all your ideals of what we want our daughters to be into one package.” The show also appealed to an unexpected audience—males between 13 and 35 who labeled themselves “bronies.” My Little Pony proved that unbridled femininity comes in many forms and continues to suggest that toy aisles don’t need to be defined by gender. In 2020, Hasbro did a cross-over between two of this year’s inductees My Little Pony x Transformers, further disrupting the gender stereotypes that were fervent when the toys came out in 1984.

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In 1982, Black inventor and Detroit native Ken Johnson leveraged his childhood of playing traditional rummy-style card games to create a game that could compete with Uno. Uno, after all, has its own roots in the playing card game Crazy Eights. Johnson had recently been laid off from his welding job at the Ford Motor Company at 19, and the publication of his first game, Dice Baseball, was met with disappointing sales. Four decades later, though, Phase 10 is played across the globe and rivals Uno, racking up sales that make it the second best-selling card game in the world.

The object of the game is to be the first player to complete the 10 phases. In each phase, the player must collect particular groups of cards, much like the melds in rummy. Phase One asks for two sets (a group of cards with the same number on them) of three, Phase Six requires one run (a sequential group of numbers such as one, two, three) of nine, and Phase Eight demands seven cards of one color. The game’s unique challenge lies in its strict sequence of phases; players cannot move on until their current phase is complete.

Johnson’s game mirrors his own experience in that it rewards players’ persistence to keep going even when they have fallen behind. Despite Dice Baseball’s lack of success, he convinced Kmart to order his new game. When Kmart worried Johnson did not have the capacity to fill the massive retailer’s orders, a determined Johnson gathered all the game’s components and a group of local teenagers, and assembled, packaged, and shipped thousands of copies of Phase 10 from his parents’ basement. The orders and reorders began to pour in. Within a year, Kmart sold it in all its 2,200 stores, and other retailers began stocking it. Phase 10 quickly became a staple of family game nights, and its relatively small size meant players often brought it with them to play with family and friends when they traveled.

Phase 10 continues to introduce its twist on card game fundamentals to new formats, reaching new audiences and connecting players across generations. It’s spawned several sequels and variations such as Phase 10 Masters and Phase 10 Twist, as well as a Phase 10 dice game that resembles the classic game Yahtzee. In 2019, Mattel introduced its Phase 10: World Tour mobile video game, which allows people to play together remotely anytime in virtual versions of family game night. Available in more than 100 countries, tens of millions of players around the world play. To celebrate the card game’s 40th anniversary in 2022, Mattel launched a special edition of the game during Black History Month that includes a letter from Johnson. Today, Mattel reportedly sells four million Phase 10 decks annually in 60 countries and in more than 20 languages. Whether played in its original form or in one of these variations, over the last four decades Phase 10 has become an iconic game title that continues to encourage multigenerational social and competitive play. In 2024, it’s ready to move onto its next phase: the National Toy Hall of Fame.

By: Mirek Stolee, Curator

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One of the great things about kids’ imaginations is their capacity to magically turn one thing into another as part of their play. A big empty cardboard box becomes a spaceship. A group of dolls and stuffed animals becomes the students in a classroom. A cluster of marbles rolling across the carpet becomes a herd of horses, evading the cowpuncher who wants to round them up and train them. In a child’s mind, anything is possible, and transformations can happen any day.

It’s that kind of transformational power in play that Japanese toy companies first tapped into in the early 1980s when they introduced shape-changing robot toys. The Japanese toy lines, called Micro Change and Diaclone, offered robots that could transform into other objects—ordinary vehicles, electronics, or weapons. Looking around the world for new product ideas, the American toy manufacturer Hasbro thought these shape-shifting playthings showed commercial promise for the U.S. market. It purchased the rights to Takara’s toy lines and rebranded them as Transformers. With the insights it had garnered by creating and marketing G.I. Joe, Hasbro sought to make the most of its new assets. In 1984, it introduced Transformers action figures with an elaborate backstory, developed by Marvel Comics, about the mechanical world of Cybertron, a planet decimated by civil war. The conflict of Cybertron spread when its warriors—Transformers—crash landed on Earth. On Earth, the Transformers shifted their shapes—rearranging their parts—to better blend in with the machines of the human world. Transformers searched Earth for fuel—a plotline that echoed the energy crisis of the 1970s. The characters split into two factions: the heroic Autobots—peaceful transport vehicles led by Optimus Prime—facing off against the villainous Megatron and his Decepticons—evil weapons of war. Each of the 21 figures issued in 1984 had its own array of talents and capabilities, like speed, intelligence, strength, and cunning. The details of each character appeared on the Tec Spec Chart and Bio Card packaged with the figures and pointing kids toward plotlines for play.

Successive incarnations of the toy line built and expanded its popularity. The first figures (later known as Generation 1) were followed by (naturally) Generation 2. Eventually, Beast Wars, Robots in Disguise, Armada, Universe, Energon, Alternators, and later lines rejuvenated the franchise and captivated new generations of five-year-olds. Tie-ins to television shows, a 1986 animated movie, new issues of comic books, and electronic games kept the toy line in front of kids even as they pursued other pastimes. Hasbro brokered licensing agreements with non-toy companies to produce a variety of consumer goods bearing Transformer images. Kids took Transformer pencil boxes and lunchboxes to school and wore their Transformer pajamas or t-shirts while playing Transformer board games and putting together Transformer puzzles. In 2002, Hasbro offered retro versions of Generation 1 Transformers, allowing the very first fans of the toys to share their enthusiasm with their own sons. Following in a continuing series of blockbuster Transformers live-action films, the first ever fully CG-animated film, Transformers One was released in September 2024. Naturally there will be movie-related toys tied to the line’s 40th anniversary to keep Transformers as popular as ever.

Transformers enjoy such popularity, in part, because Hasbro has used tried-and-true marketing methods—the multimedia venues for toy-related shows, books, and movies; related consumer products; and new variations and characters regularly added to the line—to keep the toy in front of American kids. But the toys are also popular because they are so suited to the ways kids play. The toy line feeds kids’ imaginations and fantasy play. Though the backstory of Transformers is well known to youngsters who watch television and movies, read comics, and play electronic games, the details of the story are just the starting point of their own narratives of Transformer play. The transforming function of the toy line—a clever gimmick, to be sure—materially suits how kids easily mix up their toys for more imaginative play. In their car and truck forms, Transformers merge easily into play with Hot Wheels, Tonka Trucks, and other vehicles. Transformers in their robotic forms fight fiercely beside the Star Wars’ Stormtroopers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Trek figures, and other action figures. Kids use toys as they best suit the play underway. When kids change their play, the Transformers can, too. No wonder Transformers were one of the 2024 inductees into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

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Inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2000, Mr. Potato Head checks off all of the hall of fame criteria: icon-status, longevity, discovery, and innovation. He was invented by George Lerner in 1949, and the original product was designed to be used on potatoes and other vegetables, consisting of a variety of facial features and accessories to press into the veggie. With parents expressing displeasure with the rotting vegetables their kids were leaving around, eventually the plastic potato body would be supplied alongside the accessories. Mr. Potato Head’s advertising campaign also broke new ground with television commercials targeting children, not just adults.

Mr. Potato Head has become an icon over his 70+ years of existence. His feature role in four Toy Story films took the popular toy and gave him life and voice via Don Rickles, turning a childhood playmate into a movie star. One of the first things most kids enthuse about as they enter The Strong’s G. Rollie Adams Atrium is the giant Mr. Potato Head above them. I’ve observed many stopping to stare or getting their adult’s attention to point out the large spud. He’s certainly become an intergenerational celebrity.

Little did our earlier young guest know, but he wasn’t so far off in his mistaken name for our potato friend, as the Mr. Potato Head franchise wasn’t always just potatoes. The early kits were marketed to be used on a variety of produce, empowering children to create a family as diverse as their garden or pantry. Once the plastic bodies were in use, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and their family were joined by friends like Pete the Pepper, Oscar the Orange, Katie the Carrot, and Kooky/Cooky the Cucumber. A picnic-themed playset also included friends like Willy Burger, Mr. Ketchup Head, Frenchy Fry, Mr. Soda Pop Head, Frankie Frank, and Mr. Mustard Head, ready to be customized with a variety of accessories.

These non-potato friends are no longer in production, but a variety of spud variations are, often featuring licenses like Star Wars and Marvel. You too can own The Yamdalorian and the Tot. While we may have to stick to Veggie Tales for Bob the Tomato or Larry the Cucumber, Mr. Potato Head and family aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. His place in American culture is solidified, and in fact he’s taken on a new pedestal at The Strong. With the opening of the Hasbro Game Park, he is now featured prominently among other Hasbro licenses in the title wall for a garden exhibit area that evokes nostalgia and play for guests.

And who knows, maybe Pete the Pepper will make a resurgence someday alongside a new Mr. Tomato Head.

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The oldest known baseball card shows the entire Brooklyn Atlantics team from around 1860. Later that decade, baseball became a professional sport and its public popularity soared. The first baseball cards were essentially trade cards—premiums given away with products to make a purchase more desirable. A photograph or drawing of a single player on the front was accompanied by product information on the back. Often these products had nothing at all to do with baseball. But people, especially kids, enjoyed keeping the cards marked with their favorite sports heroes. In the later 19th and early 20th centuries, baseball cards were packaged with cigarettes to stiffen the pack. Candy manufacturers likewise found their sales increased when they packed multiple cards with one large piece of gum. And they retooled to manufacture their own cards to keep costs down. Flat sheets of bubble gum still accompany standard packs of baseball cards today.

Attendance at baseball games as well as the manufacture of baseball cards slowed during World War I and afterwards through the Great Depression. And card production came to a sudden stop in 1941 when the United States entered World War II and both gum and paper were rationed. The candy maker Leaf brought out the first new card series in 1949, featuring brightly colored photos and including memorable rookie cards for players Jackie Robinson and Satchell Paige. In 1951, Bowman’s gum produced a card series now prized by collectors, with images of Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. Sy Berger of Topps Candy Company instituted a standardized card design in 1952. Berger’s design featured player photos, team insignia, and player signatures on the fronts, with player statistics on the backs. In 1953 Bowman made a set utilizing Kodachrome film, resulting in even richer color portraits. And the mid-20th century marked the first high point of classic baseball card production and collecting. At the same time, the values of certain cards began to climb.

It’s difficult to analyze the actual market for baseball cards or, more accurately, the market baseball cards created. After the 1950s, card production continued to grow and serious collectors somehow trusted that cards would keep their values, despite increased production over the years. But the baseball card market experienced a significant setback in the late 1990s. Author Dave Jamieson described it in his book Mint Condition:

“It was greed on the part of card makers because they rolled out so much product that it diluted the power of the cards and killed the golden goose. It was greed on the part of the baseball unions, because they sold a lot of rights—and made a lot of royalties on those rights—until they had too many card makers. Then you had greed on the part of dealers, surly guys who didn’t care to talk to the nine- year-olds who came into their shops, and (who) were there just to sell cards.”

Perhaps, like the stock market, baseball card values were due for a correction. Regardless, certain significant cards never really lost value and the market slowly came back some few years later—with a cautionary footnote. Savvy collectors and dealers learned that they could not depend on baseball cards to finance their kids’ college tuitions, or to ensure their own early retirements. Many felt it was foolish to have thought this in the first place. The world of baseball cards—and now collectible cards devoted to every other sport and other celebrities, groups, and even cards from card games—are still collected and bought and sold as investments.

Collecting baseball cards still holds a place in the hearts of many kids and adults. Baseball itself may not have the same grip on the imaginations of youngsters as it did in past decades, but the sport is still popular. Watching baseball, whether live in the ballpark or from the sofa, can be a family affair. And baseball card collecting remains as popular as the game. It will remain so if there remain great teams, star players, memorable games, and cards to commemorate all of these.

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Influenced by Martha Nelson Thomas’ Doll Babies, art student Xavier Roberts combined his interest in needle molding with the quilting skills he learned from his mother to craft soft sculptures he called Little People. Roberts’ creations featured a pudgy face with close-set eyes and hair fashioned of colored yarn. They were funky rather than conventionally pretty, contrasting sharply with mass-produced plastic beauties. He dressed his homely babies in clothing picked at garage sales and gave them names he took from the 1938 birth records in his native Georgia. So far, the tale reads a bit like a storybook with a few red flags (who is Martha Nelson Thomas?), but it gets more complicated.

Roberts did not exactly “sell” Little People to customers. Instead, he offered them up for “adoption”—in return for a fee. He included a birth certificate and adoption papers with each doll. His marketing strategy proved interesting, considering that the Baby Scoop Era had come to an end. You’ve probably heard of the Baby Boom years, but the Baby Scoop Era has been defined by scholars as occupying the years following World War II through the early 1970s. During this period, an increase in out-of-wedlock pregnancies led many expecting women to adoption as the only option to navigate social expectations, poverty, illness, and family crisis. Within this social context, Roberts’ use of birth certificates and adoption papers to sell baby dolls seems completely unrelated to the feminist movement and the female experience. But the tactic proved fruitful.

Next on Roberts’ agenda was the organization of Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc. He transformed a turn-of-the-20th-century abandoned medical clinic into the company’s headquarters, and named the complex BabyLand General Hospital. Staff dressed as doctors and nurses greeted guests with southern hospitality. With national print and television media attention on his softly sculpted Little People, Roberts struggled to satisfy consumer demand.

In 1982, Original Appalachian Artworks negotiated a licensing agreement with Coleco Industries (a company founded in 1932 to make leather goods and named the Connecticut Leather Co.) to produce the dolls with vinyl (instead of soft-sculpted) heads and cloth bodies. Given that Fisher-Price already had a line of toys called the Little People, marketing wiz Roger Schlaifer renamed the dolls Cabbage Patch Kids and developed the logo and packaging. With his wife Susanne Nance, Schlaifer also double-downed on the surreal legend of the birds and the bees—or more specifically the Bunnybees and magic crystal dust. A sanitized birth story such as this fits with the history of adoption in America.

The first dolls were ready in time for the 1983 holiday season. But Coleco couldn’t keep up with the massive wave of orders. As the holiday season progressed, parents and adults became more desperate to find them for their kids. Retail stores everywhere reported disturbances as frenzied customers battled each other for the few available dolls. While adult behaviors exhibited the power of scarcity, Cabbage Patch Kids expanded children’s notions of nurture and fantasy. At the peak of their popularity, more than 2,000 products featured the Cabbage Patch Kids brand name.

For more than 40 years, the brand has intended to convey messages about unconventional beauty and belonging. As a kid, one of my favorite dolls was a bald, brown-eyed Cabbage Patch Doll marketed as a “preemie.” The appeal for me was in the doll’s baby powder scent and weighted bottom. As an adult, I find the mass-marketing of adoption, premature babies, and the consumer culture it created unsettling, but the success of Cabbage Patch Kids is undeniable.

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As you’re strolling through The Strong’s new Hasbro Game Park, you’ll see a 14-foot-long replica of the Scottie dog token from the classic Monopoly board game. A short walk away, there’s a 9 ½-foot long replica of the race car token. There’s also a 7-foot-tall hotel and a 6 ½-foot house. There’s even a Get Out of Jail Free area, bars included.

If you’ve ever played Monopoly, it’s only natural to look at these pieces and think of how much fun it would be to actually play a game with pieces that big. And you’re not alone. Merv Griffin thought it would be fun, too.

By 1990, the idea of a “Monopoly” game show had been taking shape in Griffin’s company for at least three years. Marc Summers hosted a pilot in 1987 for a format that he later remembered as convoluted and confusing. The rules of the traditional Monopoly board game just didn’t translate well to a 22-minute TV show.

In 1988, Griffin streamlined the format to one in which contestants spent the first half of the game solving crossword-style clues to acquire properties, and the second half of the game rolling the dice and circling the board to collect rent and bonuses. Peter Tomarken (formerly of “Press Your Luck”) hosted a pilot that worked somewhat better, but he clashed with the staff, upset about the way he was asked to treat his on-camera assistant, a little person dressed as Rich Uncle Pennybags.

Why was Griffin so interested in a Monopoly game show? The answer may have revealed itself during a rehearsal game played before the pilot was shot. A contestant landed on Boardwalk, and Griffin, a real estate mogul outside of his TV efforts, proudly told the room, “I own that for REAL.”

By 1990, “Monopoly” finally went on the air, in prime time. The television landscape had been unfavorable to prime-time game shows for the previous 20 years. They were rare and, they didn’t perform well in the ratings, compared to daytime and syndicated games. Griffin sold the show to ABC as part of a Saturday night hour-long game block, to air for 13 weeks along with “Super Jeopardy!,” a tournament of the all-time “Jeopardy!” champions from past seasons.

Beyond the stage-sized board and the glowing houses and hotels lining it, the most unusual thing about the “Monopoly” game show was its host, a 26-year-old named Mike Reilly who had been working as a waiter four weeks prior to the show’s premiere. Reilly, who had been a contestant on “Jeopardy!” the previous November and acted as a contestant in Peter Tomarken’s unaired pilot, was asked to come in as a contestant for a rehearsal to be hosted by Griffin while he was still looking for a host. At one point, Reilly jokingly asked if he could be host for a round and Griffin playfully obliged him…only to be surprised and impressed by how Reilly performed in the role. Griffin found his host.

The game lasted for only the initial 13 weeks that ABC ordered, but the idea of a Monopoly game show has endured. Two game shows, “Monopoly Millionaire’s Club,” and “Family Game Night,” have featured mini-games inspired by “Monopoly.” None of the games were particularly difficult, but what we have at The Strong National Museum of Play now? That’s a real walk in the park.

DO YOU REMEMBER…THESE OTHER GAME SHOWS BASED ON BOARD GAMES?

SCATTERGORIES (1993, NBC) – Dick Clark hosted this show, which could have been called “The Don’t-Match Game.” Contestants were given a category and a letter, and had to name something starting with that letter that fit the category. The object of the game was to give an answer that WASN’T given by one of the five celebrity guest stars.

SCRABBLE SHOWDOWN (2011-2012, THE HUB) – Justin Willman hosted this series, in which contestants played a series of mini-games all inspired by the classic board game. National Archives of Game Show History co-founder Bob Boden was co-executive producer.

25 WORDS OR LESS (2018-PRESENT, SYNDICATION) – Meredith Vieira hosts this twist on Password in which contestants must convey five words at a time, and bid on how few clues they think they’ll need to make their opponents say all five words.

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On November 10, 2022, Masters of the Universe took their place of honor in the National Toy Hall of Fame. This is not the first time He-Man, Skeletor, and Castle Grayskull made recent headlines. Mattel Creations just launched a Masters of the Universe Origins He-Man 40th Anniversary Pack and fans who attended the San Diego Comic Con posted the grandiose Eternia play set to social media. Just this past July, Masters of the Universe: Revelation, developed by Kevin Smith, began streaming on Netflix. I championed for Masters of the Universe to get into the NTHOF, yet I did have one reservation. Do the images of He-Man impact male body image? Is He-Man the equivalent of Barbie whose voluptuous body and tiny waist has generated criticism since her inception in 1959?

The story of Masters of the Universe begins in 1979 when Ray Wagner of Mattel formed a Male Action Team to explore creation of the company’s next big action figure line. Until that point, Mattel’s action figures had been limited to Big Jim, a brawny sports hero, and a product that received a ho-hum response from kids at best. The company recognized that it needed to compete with the movie-fueled success of Kenner’s Star Wars action figures.

Roger Sweet, a member of the team, found inspiration in Charles Atlas (“the world’s most perfectly developed man”) and Frank Frazetta (painter of “The Destroyer”) when he decided to add modeling clay to bulk up Big Jim. Sweet wanted his action figure to make all other action figures look like wimps. If He-Man was scaled up to 6’1”, he would have weighed 720 lbs. (all of it vascular, sculpted muscles). In turn, Mattel illustrator Mark Taylor developed the proposed aesthetics for the action figure and, voila, He-Man was born. Instantly distinctive among competing toys, He-Man was super-ripped, scantly clothed, larger-than-life, and possessed brute force unlike any other action figure.

In my limited search, I was unable to find much criticism from the 1980s of He-Man and his friends and foes (all the males in the series had the same chiseled abs). There are academic studies of action figures and the male body. In “Evolving Ideals of Male Body Image as Seen Through Action Toys,” Harrison G. Pope, Jr., Roberto Olivardia, Amanda Gruber, and John Borowiecki measured the waist, chest, and bicep circumference of selected action figures and scaled these measurements using classical allometry. In comparing different versions of G.I. Joe, they found that the earliest figures had no visible abdominal muscles, but the modern figures showed distinct serratus muscles. The mid-1990s version, G.I. Joe Extreme, featured the equivalent of a 55” chest and a 27” bicep. A 1998 Batman had a 57.2” chest and 28.8” biceps and Wolverine had a 62” chest and 32” biceps. One could argue that Batman and Wolverine are superheroes and are not fully human. And while the advent of steroids and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appearance in the 1977 film Pumping Iron, inspired some to bulk up, G.I. Joe Extreme was literally larger than life.

Contemporary scholarship suggests that these action figures do impact male body image. Dr. Raymond Lemberg, a clinical psychologist with a focus on male eating disorders, believed “the media has become more of an equal opportunity discriminator. Men’s bodies are not good enough anymore.” Action figures and the messages associated with these toys suggested more muscles mean more power. When considering the build of male action figures, Dr. Lemberg noted “only one to two percent of males actually have that body type. We’re representing men in a way that is unnatural.” Research suggested that children will resort to unnatural means to obtain a certain physique. In a 2012 study published in Pediatrics journal, the authors warned that “38 percent of middle-and high-schoolers surveyed were using protein powders and supplements to bulk up.” Some of these children also admitted to taking steroids.

When I casually asked my husband and a few of his friends if, as children, they aspired to have bodies like those of the characters from Masters of the Universe, I got a resounding “no way” and “it was just fun to play with them.” They also thought I threatened to “take the fun” out of He-Man and Skeletor by even discussing body image. Let’s not forget that this generation also grew-up listening to bands like Skid Row, Motley Crue, and Twisted Sister whose members were predominately white with long, permed hair, and long, slender legs clad in the tightest of pants. Anyhow, unattainable body images have been portrayed since Doryphoros of Ancient Greece.

All of this led me to the same thought I had about Barbie—despite the piling on by cultural critics and observers, when I look at these action figures, I see opportunities for creative play. Toys represent just a fraction of the ideas kids receive about body image. Frankly, I’m more concerned with educating my kids on the privilege implied by mass fitness, the health at every size movement, the dangers of misogyny, and the power of confidence. Mattel’s main-man, after-all, regularly asserted, “I have the power.” And self-esteem, in itself, is reason to celebrate the induction of Masters of the Universe into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

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