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Little green army men are among contenders for this year's National Toy Hall of Fame.
The National Toy Hall of Fame will induct two new toys into its august pantheon Thursday, and toy chests across the nation are rocking with anticipation.
Twelve finalists made the cut, including the Magic 8 Ball and Fisher-Price Corn Popper. Only two will emerge as the new kings of the play room. Based on an online poll, Star Wars action figures and "little green army men" - yes, all of them - are favored to win among consumers.
The other toys vying for glory are Clue, Dominoes, Lite-Brite, Pogo Stick, Sidewalk Chalk, Simon, the tea set, and Twister.
It's a tough field, almost as gripping as 2008 when the Hall anointed "the stick" its newest inductee. Giggle away, but with a touch of child's imagination, the lowly wooden rod can become a Harry Potter wand, a ship's mast, or a banner-holder. That's why kids have been playing with them ever since the caveman days when they were the only toys around.
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No doubt the Magic 8-ball has been shaking itself all day and asking itself whether it will get the honor. At the moment, the answer is "Cannot predict now."
What do you think?
Of the 12 finalists, which toy on the list should make it into the National Toy Hall of Fame this year? Give us your choice and why below.
Scott Eklund / Red Box Pictures
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Army men, hands down.
We use 4-8 bags of these all-time classics every year. Hours go into building up miniature bases, formations, and picking the best sniper-spots.
Hours more go into unwinding miles of firecrackers, prepping smoke bombs and positioning bottle rocket launchers...
And then the Great Battle begins - opposing generals on opposite sides take aim, and fireworks rain down on the hapless green and I dunno what the other color is supposed to be troops.
It's simply... a blast!
I'd say army men too, but lite bright was also the shizzznit!
Definitely brings me back to the holidays as a kid! awesome..but now i have grown up.. need more adult gift ideas hah..speaking of ..i just saw an awesome idea for cheap gifts this year.. i am making my own spice mixes.. wrapping them up with cellophane and then giving them with a copy of this hilarious politically incorrect cookbook.. I got the recipe for the mixes on the site for the book.. again.. it's unpc so i won't tell you the name of the site, but if you google "whipped and beaten culinary works" you will find it.. but don't go if you can't take a good joke and get offended easily.. then it's not for you.. but you may like the spice mixes.. they are under the "blogs and recipes" tab.
Army men were good for target practice lol!
Com'on! Seriously! Without a doubt it would have to be "Army Men"... I carried a "radio man" with me in my ruck for for over 16 years, he was with me through Ranger School and the Q-Course... he has over 60 jumps to include Grenada and Panama and he deployed to the First Gulf War. He's retired now too, now he just hangs out on the mantel next to the coins I collected... Green Army Men or Magic 8 Ball, right.
Little green army men, hands down! Takes you back to the days when we actually had an imagination and used it. 1/2 gallon milk cartons with one side cut out were our landing crafts and any irrigation ditch was our waterway. Those figures never got old and matched up with Lincoln Logs they were unbeatable!
My first choice is the army men, but if allowed more than one; I would add Lite Bright and the Tea Set. All provided hours of fun using our imaginations.
Just play Call of Duty, man - videogames are the shortcut for everything.
It has to be the army men, as far as I can remember the boys and girls played army in the dirt mounds. More imaginations developed in these little ones that grew up to up hold our country in one of our armed forces. And still going strong.
My first choice is the Lite Bright. It encourages creativity and also helps develop kid's brains problem solving areas...they have to figure out how to best place the different colored pegs to create the lines and shapes they want, in order to make their finished design look like they want it to. My kids loved it! My older brother who grew up to serve a career in the military would definitely disagree though, and vote for the green army men. I can't tell you how many summers I and my siblings had to tip-toe through the backyard grass in order to avoid stepping through the battle fields that were laid out, waiting for the final victory to be won...by him or the "enemy" army of the kid down the street. Between my siblings and my own children, we have enjoyed all the mentioned toys though.
Indigo-Rage, sounds to me as if "explosives" are your top pick.
I can't argue with that :P
Defintely the green army men, I think #1 or #2 should go to the magic eight ball( that's my favorite), everybody else has a shot at next year, that one will be tuff, there is so much out there and really next year will be hard to choose, because after these two toys, you'll open a can of worms that nobody can say what's best. PS, I'm 56 years old and still want a magic eight ball(I'll buy it, when I find the time)
Seriousy, when Retired Marine Intel Chf endorses little green army men in their milk jug landing craft and 82AllAmericans takes the radio guy into actual combat in three theaters, what is there left to say? It's gotta be the army men!
gotta agree! GREEN ARMY MEN! my neighbors were a fosterfamily 60s-70s.played with them alot in a sandbox.2nd pick would be litebrite.8-ball was around as well,but just dont remember being as popular in the old neighborhood.Marine intel is good intel.82nd is as well.just between us 82nd,rm thanks you,unfortunately this one was droped on his head.oops.usn-88.thnx to all.ARMY MEN!
Little Green Army Men were totally awesome (gray opposing units, the poor bastards - heh heh), and for the code breaker types - my second choice goes to Clue.
C'mon Hands down in honor of Myth Romney the ETCH-A-SKETCH!
Hands Down was also a good game (JohnRN).
hahahahahah hands down hhahahahaha i remember that game ...my finger got stuck under the hands and i screamed hahahah it was a fun game until that happen. wow you really brought back memory. i was a 5 years old hahahahah wow. im old now hahahah
ARMY MEN!! Me and my cousin used to have bags of them, and used to make squadrons, and let our imagination run wild!
The Kiss mego figures from the late 70's. Are they in yet.
Army men by a landslide. I had the green ones, grey ones (WWII Germans) and the not so PC tan/yellow ones (WWII Japanese), and even a few blue ones (US Navy), plus tanks, jeeps, sandbag sets, Navy landing craft, etc... Almost every friend I had, especially other male friends, had them, and so did quite a few female ones too (glad the current trend of making anything aimed at girls pink wasn't around as much back then).
Later I got US Civil war ones, and then US War of Independence ones (very popular in 1976). It started me on a lifetime of collecting and painting miniatures from 25mm size to 54mm, and even 90mm ones. I am currently teaching my 8 YO Nephew how to paint military miniatures and models, as he loves to build things. Had it not been for the Green Army Men, I wouldn't have found this hobby, or majored in History (Military History of the Crusades and Mongol Expansion in Asia). Those other toys were OK, but the Army Men rocked! Plus they are now also gummies! Fight your battles and eat the casualties ;-)
Absolutely army men - it's what boys did before video games.
That's about the most astute thing I everr read. If your power goes out...no video game. Army men don't need no electricity. They fight in the dirt and they fight on a terrain of pillows under a blanket.
A lot of our toys back in the fifties and sixties encouraged more imaginative play, I think. Growing up during those times, we had open fields on our city block, and some of our favorite passtimes were playing cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, etc. Our bikes were our most treasured possession and figured in every day's play. They were our horse, our motorcycle, our mustang convertible, our rocket...and our transportation up to the swimming pool. Hopefully someone has already inducted the good old twenty-incher...a timeless treasure for kids everywhere.
Robert Duckworth, you forgot...
they will fight our country's battles in the air, on land and sea
DaddoS: I am a girl, and I always used to have army men. And then I grew up, got married and had children. This conversation brought me back to it. I will definitely think of army men in this year's Christmas list!
I also remember my Dale Evans (from Roy Rogers) cowgirl outfit that I had to have every year. Gun, boots and all. And my tea set. Aahh!
LG-1820657 - Yes, my wife also has found memories of army men, but generally speaking, the convention of the times was dolls for girls and army men for boys. My parents would not let me have a GI Joe. To me, it was a posable army man with accessories, to them it was controversial boy-doll, hence forbidden.
Well, that and Doctor, but I think there's a different Hall of Fame for that game....
My gods man, I HOPE you mean a bike!
In the words of Sgt. Schultz: "I know nothing. NOTHING!"
Little green Army men HAVE to be inducted. Yes, some of my Army men felt the wrath of a firecracker "mortar" attack, but they were always brave. I still have a prone sniper that seems to be misplaced constantly.
I grew up in the 70's and really liked airplanes. I discovered that paper airplanes naturally stack very neatly on top of each other, the fuselage of one nestling in the fuselage of the one below. I would fold a couple of squadrons (the ones with the broad, square wings were best), paint the USAF insignias on one stack and the Red Soviet Star on the other ones. It was conveniently easy to climb to the top of our garage. Get up there with a pack of matches, light the stack, and... dogfight!!! An hour to set up, about ten seconds of action, and repeat. Great fun :)
I vote for the green Army men. Yes!
The Army guys are good. How about the dolls that pee?
Every home I've ever lived in I have found at least one Army guy buried in a garden or somewhere around the yard. They live forever!
Army men hands down......though... I must say I do miss my view master.....
Army men. My son played with the ones I had, including the Guns of Navarone fortress. There's probably a thousand soldiers still in the boxes along with tanks, trucks and cannons. We'd play for hours on end.
Army men, I swear in my childhood houses yard you'd find hundreds of "Buried casualties" and maybe under the deck you might find my extensive trench lines.
You could get 50-60 of em for $1 at the dollar store, so many possibilities
Army men, I went the Airfix, Marx rout nothing like watching Combat and playing with your Army men.
Along with the army men, include the Let's hook-up Patraeus" doll.
Now That's funny!!!!
"How about the dolls that pee" Betsy Wetsy dolls My sister had one and she filled the bottle with milk, fed it to the doll and it smelled like curdled milk after that.
We'd spend hours setting up the army guys then shooting them with our bb guns. Big fun. i was 7 yrs old when I got a Red Ryder for Christmas. My little brothers played with the army guys when I was done.
What, you never fed Betsy Wetsy a bottle of red Kool-Aid and opened up a salvo of bb's on her? I think you missed a golden opportunity, Codger :P
Feed Betsy-Wetsy ketchup and she becomes "My First Period".
@ Cincy Joe - If I dared touch my older sister's (rip) stuff, she'd have torn off my head & spit in the hole. Good idea though.
Gotta go against the flow and say Tinker Toys. Yes army men are an icon. But so are the ever loving building sticks and spools. I so wish I still had mine.
The Erector Set was cool and they still make them. You can buy antique ones on Ebay. It was origionally designed in France. Also Whammo had the Superball and the Monster Magnet. Lincolin Logs, Hot Wheels....when it stayed in the track, anyway. I had a Spirograph I liked. My nephew when little loved his Leggos. I'm fifty three now.
While your on building, spin-welder was cool. There was a trick to doing it right.(not glue!) and I have to agree on erector sets. Imagination is cool(green army) but add hands and creativity(any building) and your doing.
I have to agree. All of my friends had army men and Tinker Toys and we spent more time with the TT's than the army men. However, I come from a generation that had toy guns and overgrown empty lots, We were always playing army, cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians, so the army men were only an occasional toy. I was a stone cold killer as a kid, with my six shooter and my toy tommy gun. And yes, blowing up army men with Black Cat firecrackers. I must have worked all that stuff out because I've been pretty much a pacifist as an adult.
Don't forget Lincoln Logs, regular blocks (that we made anything and everything out of), and my favorite...Thumbelina. She was adorable. And like Chuck W, we also had empty lots around us and toy guns,, and some of our favorite passtimes were playing cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, etc. Our bikes were our most treasured possession and figured in every day's play. They were our horse, our motorcycle, our mustang convertible, our rocket...and our transportation up to the swimming pool. Hopefully someone has already inducted the good old twenty-incher...a timeless treasure for kids everywhere.
Yep, the 20-inch Huffy was freedom. Throw a baseball glove on the handlebar, or grab a nerf football, and head for the vacant lot or ballpark... magic!
With 27-inch forks in front and a cut down fender. Nice safe chopper,unlike cutting up old forks and adding like some kids. Oh a Shwinn was my choice.
When I was 11 or 12, my mom took me to buy a used bike somebody had for sale. Like 25 bucks. I got a Schwinn Orange Krate. Yes, I was cool....for a while anyway.
The Atari 2600 or the Nintendo Entertainment System or both have to be placed into the hall of fame as well as the Duncan yo-yo, matchbox cars,legos and RC vehicles of all kinds.
Agree with all..I did like playing with the log cabin building set too..brown wooden logs and green roofs with red I believe as chimmys.
Army men no doubt is #1 pick though.
Too bad it has to be a toy you buy not home made.. I made go carts from a 2x 4 , wooden milk bos and two o0ls metal roller skates for FREE!
Hate it when my time runs out to correct the comments.
I always wanted Rock'em Sock'em robots, but my parents never bought it. A few years ago, I saw it in a store and I bought it. I will not be denied!
Ohh the Erector set was a cool toy as well.
Little green army men, for sure. Besides, while you were waiting to attack and be attacked, you could chew on them. Plenty of younger siblings were punched for chewing on the green men. Uh, dogs munched them too!
Army men for sure. I remember the good old days with them having fights with my plastic dinosaurs.
Army men attacked by G. I. Joe (11), the Giant Knights and Vikings, Johnny West and Chief Cherokee, Custer. I had the Marx, Airfix, Revell, Play sets plus I bought the 32, packs. I started work when I was 10.
I'm guessing we can all agree on why Toy Story was such a great movie.
Verti- Bird with the styrofoam Coastgaurd Cutter Ship.I played with that thing until it no longer worked.I just wish I would have kept it.I'm sure it was a simple fix.
Little green army men! Simple and tons of fun; how else would you define a classic?
Evel Kenievel Stunt Cycle....That toy was awesome.
Hot Wheels and their connecting racetracks.
I loved my Hot Wheels... that is until my mom figured out that the tracks were better for "whippin ass" than a belt...
I would include the all time detective game Clue...
Little green men. I spent hours every week playing army with my little brothers. Those were the days!!
Army men!!!! Too much fun as a kid. Didn't have a gun so used lighter fluid and a match for the flame thrower. Fire crackers took care of the tanks.
hahaha did the exact same thing! couldn't tell you how much me and brother inhaled those toxic chemicals and got pelted by shards of plastic when the firecrackers blew up those tanks.
Fourth of July was pretty much D-Day for Army men and model cars. Took a Roman candle to some models and that little flaming ball hit the tank/car with NO mercy. My oldest brother has an HO model train in his basement that was in Model Railroader magazine. If you're into trains you may have heard of my brother Charlie. I went to a shopping mall and they had a bunch of trains set up. I walked up to two guys and said "My brother does this. They said you should have brought him. I said he lives in Omaha NE. His name is Charlie Duckworth. They not only knew him, but had been to his house and seen his layout. He's expanding on it right now.
Never heard of him (nor you for that matter) but you both can continue to feel important in your own minds.
...you've never heard of "Choo Choo Charlie"...? Sorry Duckworth, but I couldn't let that pass.
Love a great train set, but never had one. I used to love the electric race track, though. Can't tell you how many times I took 'em apart, cleaned up, oiled 'em up... had a whole bunch of different hot rods.
The Etch-A-Sketch board whiled away many a mile of trips over the river and through the woods to Grandma's along with the View Master!
The Etch-A-Sketch was one of my favorites until I broke it over my sisters head. What a mess say nothing about the trouble I got in. Never did get a new one!!!
haha, should have just blown up her Betsy Wetsy.
what ever happened to GI joe or stretch armstrong??? i never put those down! these ary men were just for projects
army men should be added along with the lite brite! if i had to choose one it would be the army men. Very popular.