The Toys Portal
.jpg)
A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pets. Toys can provide utilitarian benefits, including physical exercise, cultural awareness, or academic education. Additionally, utilitarian objects, especially those which are no longer needed for their original purpose, can be used as toys. Examples include children building a fort with empty cereal boxes and tissue paper spools, or a toddler playing with a broken TV remote control. The term "toy" can also be used to refer to utilitarian objects purchased for enjoyment rather than need, or for expensive necessities for which a large fraction of the cost represents its ability to provide enjoyment to the owner, such as luxury cars, high-end motorcycles, gaming computers, and flagship smartphones.
Playing with toys can be an enjoyable way of training young children for life experiences. Different materials like wood, clay, paper, and plastic are used to make toys. Newer forms of toys include interactive digital entertainment and smart toys. Some toys are produced primarily as collectors' items and are intended for display only. (Full article...)
Selected article -
The Mansion of Happiness: An Instructive Moral and Entertaining Amusement is a children's board game inspired by Christian morality. Players race about a 67-space spiral track depicting virtues and vices with their goal being the Mansion of Happiness at track's end. Instructions upon virtue spaces advance players toward the goal while those upon vice spaces force them to retreat.
The Mansion of Happiness was designed by George Fox, a children's author and game designer in England. The first edition, printed in gold ink "containing real gold" using one copperplate engraving and black ink using a second copper plate engraving, produced a few hundred copies. Water coloring was used to complete the game board, making a brilliant, colorful, and expensive product fit for the nobility. Later in 1800, a second edition was printed, probably for rich but common folk. Only one copper plate was used to print black ink and no water coloring was used. The game must have become quite popular in England as a third edition was printed using two copper plates, one for black, and the second for green lines to indicate blank spaces. Water colors were added to make a beautiful product. Laurie and Whittle published all three editions in 1800. On all three editions George Fox was listed as the inventor and the game honored the Duchess of York. In the first edition, gold not only added color and price but homage to royalty. In all three editions, the paper was glued to linen so it could fold up and be inserted into a heavy attractively labeled cardboard case. The game influenced later games, such as The Checkered Game of Life. (Full article...)General images -
-
Girls playing in a park in the Netherlands (from Girls' toys and games) -
-
Rows of pink girls' toys in a Canadian store, 2011 (from Girls' toys and games) -
Paintings of girl with dolls (from Girls' toys and games) -
An infant boy playing with a toy dump truck at the beach. (from Boys' toys and games) -
A ball-in-a-maze puzzle (from List of wooden toys) -
Burr puzzles (from List of wooden toys) -
-
Lego bricks are a construction set example. (from Construction set) -
Various spinning tops (from List of wooden toys) -
Girls in Barbie Fashion Show in Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from Girls' toys and games) -
A bauernroulette game (from List of wooden toys) -
Detail from Children's Games by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1560), showing Flemish girls playing popular games of the era (from Girls' toys and games) -
Toy Museum - http://www.raheelpatel.com/toymuseum.html. (from Toy museum) -
A puzzle of dexterity, a type of mechanical puzzle (from List of wooden toys) -
1970s No. 2 Meccano set (from Construction set) -
-
A gee-haw whammy diddle in use (from List of wooden toys) -
-
Girls assembling a puzzle (from Girls' toys and games) -
A matryoshka doll taken apart (from List of wooden toys) -
Tartu Toy Museum (from Toy museum) -
-
-
Interlocking Disks enable the construction of high-symmetry models such as that of C
60 Fullerene. (from Construction set) -
Jeujura wooden construction set (Swiss chalet) (from Construction set) -
Constri (from Construction set) -
A girl in Udaipur playing "Jungle Child" (from Girls' toys and games) -
A bead maze (from List of wooden toys) -
Hello Kitty Dreamcast set, 2009 (from Girls' toys and games)
_-_WGA3349.jpg)
Selected image
A dollhouse is a toy home, made in miniature. For the last century, dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. The term dollhouse is common in the United States and Canada. In UK the terms dolls' house or dollshouse are used.
Did you know...
- ... that Elizabeth II's childhood toys at 145 Piccadilly included 30 toy horses and a farm set collected from Woolworths?
- ... that before becoming a voice actor, Kikunosuke Toya was the keyboardist of an all-male Princess Princess cover band in high school?
- ... that "Toy Town" was said to have "almost destroyed" the happy hardcore scene?
- ... that the Roman emperors Augustus and Claudius may have had an affinity for gambling?
- ... that the case Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc. was considered essential to the future of video game modding in the United States in 1992?
- ... that Woody from Toy Story was originally written as a ventriloquist's dummy and the main villain of the film?
- ...that antique china dolls were predominantly made in Germany in the 1800s?
- ...that fingerboards are reduced scale model figures of skateboards that are featured in videos and used as 3-D visual aids for skateboarders to understand potential tricks and maneuvers?
- ...that Merrythought is the last remaining teddy bear manufacturer in the United Kingdom?
Subcategories
Related portals
Topics
| By type | |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Organizations | |
| Related topics | |
Types: • Doll • Vehicle • Puzzle • Teddy bear
Industry: • American Specialty Toy Retailing Association • Birmingham toy industry • International Union of Allied Novelty and Production Workers • Kiddicraft • Play value • Toy safety • Toy store • Toyetic • Wooden toymaking in the Ore Mountains
WikiProjects
- Parent projects
- Arts • Entertainment • Visual arts • Games
- Main project
- Toys
- Sub-projects
- Board and table games • G.I. Joe • Transformers • My Little Pony
- Related Projects
- Animation • Anime and manga • Biography • Comics • Film • Fictional characters • Media franchises • Music • Television • Video games
Things you can do
edit · history · watch · purge
 |
Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
|
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
