To create a production of such massive impact and longevity was no easy feat. “My association with Avenue Q is very unusual,” recalls Lyon, who first met Lopez and Marx when they were still honing their skills at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater...

To date, some of his most recognizable works include a collection of surrealistic human forms, a life-size skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex comprised out of 80,020 pieces, and a redesigned to scale model of a 1500 pound Batmobile that measures over 18...

First called The Magic Cube and later renamed The Rubik’s Cube, the toy quickly gained momentum. It was discovered by Tom Kremer at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1979, who understood its potential and convinced Ideal Toy Company to take up its distributi...

It’s June of 2018. The shelves are empty save for a layer of dust. A few brightly colored items are strewn haphazardly on the floor — a few Legos, a Barbie shoe — plastic ghosts of juvenescent elation and consumerism. A final chnk sounds as the fluor...

Alfred Carlton Gilbert (1884 — 1961) was an incredible man of many talents. Although he was a record setting Olympic athlete, professional magician, industrious toymaker and successful entrepreneur, today he is most widely known as the inventor of th...

In almost every episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, a toy trolley brings the viewer to The Neighborhood of Make-Believe. This is a separate world within the Mister Rogers Universe, full of talking animals, magical characters, and the like. When t...

“The earliest-known written historical mention of a toy comes from about 500 BC in a Greek reference to yo-yos made from wood, metal, or painted terra-cotta. It is believed, however, that the yo-yo originated in China at a much earlier date. In addit...

The Velveteen Rabbit, or How Toys Become Real, (1922) is a British children's book written by Margery Winifred Williams Bianco (1881 - 1944) and illustrated by William Nicholson (1872 - 1949). It follows the story of a stuffed velveteen rabbit th...

When it comes to the creation of impactful social commentary, few things are as effective as satirical cartoons. Growing up in a rapidly evolving Japan, Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847 — 1915), a printmaker whose illustrated series of political cartoons re...

Mary & Gretel (1917) is a seven-minute-long black-and-white silent film that was adapted from a series of books called MoToys in Life, released by Toyland Publishing Co. and brought to the silver screen by the renowned American animator, Howard S. Mo...

The Twelve Magic Changelings (1907) by Glen, M. A. Published: Frederick A. Stokes Co.  Summary: "Cut-outs for children of Mary and her little lamb, Humpty Dumpty and the egg, Tom the piper's son and his pig, The town mouse and the country mo...

Pastime for little fingers-A photo essay | The girls' play-ground | The boys' play-ground | The Happy Family | The Circus | The Military Camp | The Christmas Tree