The Toys Portal
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...)
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A jigsaw puzzle (with context, sometimes just jigsaw or just puzzle) is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaicked pieces. Typically each piece has a portion of a picture, which is completed by solving the puzzle.
In the 18th century, jigsaw puzzles were created by painting a picture on a flat, rectangular piece of wood, then cutting it into small pieces. The name "jigsaw" derives from the tools used to cut the images into pieces—variably identified as jigsaws, fretsaws or scroll saws. Assisted by Jason Hinds, John Spilsbury, a London cartographer and engraver, is credited with commercialising jigsaw puzzles around 1760. His design took world maps, and cut out the individual nations in order for them to be reassembled by students as a geographical teaching aid. They have since come to be made primarily of interlocking cardboard pieces, incorporating a variety of images and designs. (Full article...)
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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)
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Various spinning tops (from List of wooden toys)
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A gee-haw whammy diddle in use (from List of wooden toys)
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1970s No. 2 Meccano set (from Construction set)
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Interlocking Disks enable the construction of high-symmetry models such as that of C
60 Fullerene. (from Construction set) -
A matryoshka doll taken apart (from List of wooden toys)
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An infant boy playing with a toy dump truck at the beach. (from Boys' toys and games)
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A girl in Udaipur playing "Jungle Child" (from Girls' toys and games)
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Hello Kitty Dreamcast set, 2009 (from Girls' toys and games)
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A bead maze (from List of wooden toys)
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Paintings of girl with dolls (from Girls' toys and games)
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Rows of pink girls' toys in a Canadian store, 2011 (from Girls' toys and games)
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A bauernroulette game (from List of wooden toys)
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A puzzle of dexterity, a type of mechanical puzzle (from List of wooden toys)
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Lego bricks are a construction set example. (from Construction set)
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Constri (from Construction set)
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Burr puzzles (from List of wooden toys)
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A ball-in-a-maze puzzle (from List of wooden toys)
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Girls playing in a park in the Netherlands (from Girls' toys and games)
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Tartu Toy Museum (from Toy museum)
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Jeujura wooden construction set (Swiss chalet) (from Construction set)
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Girls in Barbie Fashion Show in Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from Girls' toys and games)
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Girls assembling a puzzle (from Girls' toys and games)
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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 "Toy Town" was said to have "almost destroyed" the happy hardcore scene?
- ... 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 the Roman emperors Augustus and Claudius may have had an affinity for gambling?
- ... that the design for the water playground at Chelsea Waterside Park was criticized because local residents thought that the sprinklers resembled sex toys?
- ... that crab is served in school meals in Toyama Prefecture?
- ... that Korean brick toys, colloquially called "Korean Lego", often feature themes of "war and danger", including sets such as military vehicles?
- ...that The Brady Bunch actress Maureen McCormick was one of the many people who voiced the 1960s toy Chatty Cathy?
- ...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 as of 1981, New York City's Toy Center was the site of 95% of the toy business transacted in the United States?
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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
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