The game was invented in Ohio in 1971 by Merle Robbins, a barber, and his wife and son and daughter in law. They invested $8,000 to create the game, and later sold it to Mattel. Robbins died in 1984 at age 72.

The game has umpteen iterations, and is sold in all sorts of branded editions, though the classic is still a favorite of most. There is also an online version at letsplayuno.com.

If anyone has any stories of the early history of the game, and the Robbins family, we would love to have them add it in the comments below.

Wikipedia’s entry has the company has it founded in 1907 as the Ideal Toy and Novelty Company, eventually merging into CBS Toys. The Queens-based company later became part of Tyco and later Mattel, which still makes the Rubik’s Cube and Magic 8 Ball. It was know for toys like Mouse Trap, Kerplunk, Careful, Panic and Odd Ogg. It also made dolls like Betsy Wetsy.

The Ideal brand has resurfaced on the Tinker Toy-like item Fiddlestix, which was a product of Plaza Toys of New York. Ideal is now one of the brands of Poof-Slinky Inc., 45400 Helm Street; P.O. Box 701394; Plymouth, MI 48170.

The revival is an instructive case because the people run large companies in the U.S. mostly have a doctrine of killing off the corporate brand when they purchase other companies. It is mistakenly believed that corporate brands do not have value, and they are routinely discarded in mergers. In the toy sector, many classic company brands have disappeared including Marx, Selchow and Righter, Mego, Remco and others. The kids that bought the toys knew that different companies stood for different things. These brands were well-known, and the companies that they were merged into became the new parent brand brand for the individual toy.

Some sub-brands have survived. For instance Hasbro has wisely kept its Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley identities. They seem to get it more than other companies.

St. LOUIS - The walls of Cracker Barrel always have amusing signs, all real.

One brand we saw along at one on I-95 in South Carolina were Alox Shoe Laces.

Alox was founded by John Frier (1895-1974), who in 1919 invented a new way to make shoelaces by crimping a shoelace with a bit of metal. Frier later made kites and marbles (Wilder American Flyer brand), but was known for his laces. Their slogan was “Good Shoe Laces for a Nickle; Better ones a Dime.”

Today, there are but a few shoe care brands. Perhaps the only well-known shoe care brand is Kiwi; an upstart is Penguin. Another is Collonil; yet another is Meltonian. As far as we know, there is no more Alox.

Guillow’s started as Nu Craft Toys in 1926, and with the ownership of Paul Guillow, grew into an iconic American toy brand, and now makes airplane kits, rubber-band powered planes and even radio controlled planes. Guillow is one of BrandlandUSA’s Nifty Science Brands, a list that includes Revell Models, Estes Rockets and Gilbert and Chemcraft chemistry sets.

According to the company history, the first line of Guillow balsa shelf model kits offered consisted of 12 different W.W.I biplane fighters with 6″ wing spans that retailed for 10¢ each. Each kit contained a 3-view plan, balsa wood cement, 2 bottles of colored dope, a strip of bamboo for wing and landing gear struts, all in all a great value even in those distant days.

It survived the decades.

The company started making promotional planes in the 1980s, and bought the foam airplane manufacturer Tiger Incorporated in 1994.

In 1998, Guillow bought Comet Industries/North Pacific of Chicago, and the purchase turned Paul K. Guillow, Inc. into the nation’s major maker of toy airplanes.

The company still makes planes in the U.S.; we happened to notice at a toy store that only the bags were made in China.

Paul K. Guillow, Inc.
40 New Salem Street
P.O. Box 229
Wakefield, MA 01880
USA Phone:  781-245-5255

Many a college thesis could be written. Questions include:

• Was he smarter than her?
• Why was she standing?
• Why did she have her arm behind him?
• What was that dress?
• Aren’t all Asians smart?
• Were you supposed to be able to try to beat them at the game, or were they playing against each other?
• Were they a couple?
• Was she his ????

The models in the photo were an accident; a bit about the history is online at the site of the University of Leicester. The woman was pulled right off the street the day of the shoot.

A bit about the cover:

Distinguished-looking Bill Woodward was then the owner of a chain of hairdressing salons and young Hong Kong born Cecilia Fung was studying for a computer science degree at the University of Leicester. Little did they know that the photo session at Leicester studio would produce a result which was destined to cut across all international barriers and become one of the world’s most famous and enduring images.

To make a brand, you need something clever. But sometimes, you get a funky accident and you make something memorable when you didn’t mean to. That’s the case of Master Mind.

By the way, the original game was made by Invicta Plastics of the U.K. At right, the current version by Pressman Toys.

We like the old design better, frankly. While its the same game, the new one misses, eh?

The most interesting point? They mention that Romper Room, a brand Hasbro dropped years ago, will be revived on the TV cabler. (Read our June 2008 post advocating the renewal and continued value of the brand entitled Where’s Romper Room. In the post, we set out the parameters for a Romper Room redux, and showed the value in the forgotten franchise.)

Last year, we noticed that the defunct brand had been registered as a television brand by River West Brands of Chicago, but it appears looking at the USPTO site that Hasbro has the rights.

Both the network and the venture’s online component will feature content from Hasbro’s intellectual property including original programming for animation, game shows, and live-action series and specials. The press release said new programming will be based on Hasbro brands such as Romper Room, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, Cranium, My Little Pony, G.I. Joe, Game of Life, Tonka and Transformers. The Discovery brands include Bindi The Jungle Girl, Endurance, Tutenstein, HI-5, Flight 29 Down and Peep and the Big Wide World.

“Hasbro continues to evolve as a company with an unwavering vision of reimagining the potential of our incredible portfolio of brands well beyond traditional toys and games,” said Brian Goldner, Hasbro’s President and CEO, in a press release. “Today, consumers are embracing our powerful brands through unique and immersive entertainment and educational experiences in a number of areas, including movies and new digital platforms.

“We believe the time is right for Hasbro to take the next step into television through our partnership with Discovery Communications,” continued Goldner. “David Zaslav and his talented team have the experience, track record and ambition necessary to make this joint venture a long-term success as we build this network.”

“This joint venture reinforces Discovery’s strategy to develop strong brands, maximize the potential of our extensive distribution in the U.S. and work with the highest quality content partners to create long-term value,” said David Zaslav, President and CEO of Discovery Communications.

Annoying children’s television haters criticized the deal as running the risk of overly commercializing children’s television, but they are always pulling this sort of junk. They are laughable in an era when other, less civic-minded networks like Viacom’s MTV, are busy sexualizing pre-teens with vulgar programming, and receive no criticism at all from these supposed do-gooder groups. We urge busybodies like Susan Linn Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood and Robert Weissman of Commercial Alert to start worrying about real things.

At the closing of the transaction, Hasbro will purchase a 50% stake in the venture, which will hold the assets related to Discovery Kids Network in the U.S., for which Discovery Communications will receive $300 million. The joint venture’s re-branded network is expected to debut in late 2010 reaching approximately 60 million Nielsen households in the U.S. with programming geared to boys and girls 14 years of age and under. The joint venture also will participate in merchandising opportunities associated with on-air content. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including satisfaction of all requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.

Each company will have equal representation on a board of directors that will oversee a management team responsible for programming, scheduling and operations. The search for a President and General Manager for the network will begin immediately. Discovery Communications will handle advertising sales services, distribution, origination and other operational requirements for the proposed venture, while Hasbro will provide studio-produced programming.

Hasbro will also make a separate investment to establish a creative team in the next few months that will allow Hasbro to create and produce the consumer-driven content children and families have come to expect from Hasbro’s unmatched brands. The creative team will have the capability to produce animated, live-action, and game show programming as well as content designed for digital and mobile extensions.

Programming on the network will be designed to entertain and educate, echoing the popularity and appeal of Hasbro’s portfolio of brands and Discovery’s long-standing commitment to life-long learning with the goal of making our emerging networks more valuable to affiliates and more compelling for viewers. In the tradition of Discovery Kids, this will include a number of daily hours voluntarily devoted to educational/informative content.

The network will continue to operate as Discovery Kids until the debut of the to-be-named channel and new programming slate. Discovery Communications will retain the Discovery Kids brand for, among other things, its international networks and its licensing and merchandising business.

Launched in 1996, Discovery Kids Channel has won multiple Daytime Emmys and Parents’ Choice Awards for its series and specials. Discovery Kids programming helps children satisfy their curiosity about a full range of science, adventure, exploration and natural history topics through documentaries, reality shows, scripted dramas and animated stories.

Hasbro was advised by The William Morris Agency, John Fogelman of WMA and Bank of America/Merrill Lynch & Co. in connection with this transaction.

Discovery was advised by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.

It’s the story.

And the unique thing about a good brand is that when a brand turns classic, it outlives the original founder, and creates a life of its own. It keeps the idea, the story, alive, and that idea continues to keep something going in society after the moment is passed.

We picked up the book Timeless Toys by Tim Walsh. The book, subtitled Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them, is about men like Martin Glass, the father of the game Operation, who created many of the great toys of the 1960s and 1970s. The book is great because it is not about companies, or groups or toys created by marketing studies. It is about toy makers who risked it all for products that they thought would make life better, funnier or happier. Toys like Erector Sets, Monopoly, Barbie, Play Doh, Crayola, GI Joe, Big Wheel, Frisbee and Sea Monkeys.

Any good brand is a singular expression of one person. A good brand brings about heaven on earth because it is a bit of perfection; it expresses something universal. Outside of toys, think of Kemmons Wilson and Holiday Inn. Or Walt Disney, or Milton Hershey.

In most cases, these entrepreneurs were not out to make piles of money. Certainly, they knew there would be a reward, but that is only a by product. Mostly, they were out to make a living, and knew they had to do it some way, and they could either make a living by doing something they hated, or make a living by doing something that would make society better.

We were flipping through channels the other week and found evangelist Jentezen Franklin. He’s an Assemblies of God minster who talks about dreams. Not money dreams, but God dreams. God gives good dreams, and his whole premise is that God can make dreams happen.

Now, some readers might not be into the theology of the Assemblies of God. We aren’t either; we’re more fuddy-duddy Anglican. But that doesn’t stop us from finding inspiration wherever we can find it. In this video here, he talks about dreams. Of Hubert Humphrey’s dream to work in Washington. And then, he goes on to talk about Joseph, of the Old Testament, and his dreams while in Egypt. His point? The dream doesn’t become real until you pay the price for it.

Joseph, if you recall, was imprisoned because the pharoah’s wife had the hots for him. He was a slave, a man of skill, a Hebrew who would rescue the Egyptian nation from seven years of starvation through his brilliance. Where is today’s Joseph?

Even in prison, Joseph knew he had a mission in life, and kept at it, even when it hit bottom. It’s a great lesson for all of the country today. Says Franklin:

“And if that’s not bad enough, they throw him into the pit where there is no water. Everything is drying up. … Your dream is drying up. Your love and joy and excitement and opportunity are drying up. Nothing seems to be going right. What’s happening? You got yourself a for-real dream. Congratulations.”

We’d like people to put in place a few of their dreams. We all need some new dreams. And at BrandlandUSA, we’d also hope we can hold onto some of the old ones too.

To maximize full potential, the kids media business has the challenge to reach boys more effectively. According to the boys and parents we’ve talked to, there is a shortage of programming  that connects with them , challenges them and inspires them on their journey.

High School Musical just won’t do it; there is plenty for boys who want to sing out there. The success of the Dangerous Book for Boys has shown interest in straightforward boys stuff; lay off the feminism please!

Crimefighting. Outdoors. Construction. Forts. Science. Cowboys. Morse code. Pen knives. Trees. Bugs. Daisy BB guns. Even a dead squirrel tail.

A few suggestions of franchises for Disney to look at; the Hardy Boys are great but there are so many more to consider. Email us if you need more ideas.

1. Boys’ Life and Boy Scouts. Scouting could use the Disney touch. Indeed Disney could entirely reinvigorate the non-profit institution worldwide with a weekly program that simply shows Boy Scouts from Africa, Asia, Europe and U.S. earning merit badges. Perhaps it’s a weekly 1/2 hour television show of Boys Life? Imagine seeing a story of Boy Scout troops in Kenya?
2. Tomorrowland. Disney’s version of tomorrow is ripe for a Pirates of the Caribbean revival. Is it a TV program around science and exploration? Or maybe look at the intellectual property of Estes Rockets. Estes gives boys a sense of power and excitement launching rockets. Slight danger element, too. Movie on the founder Vernon Estes? A real Rocketeer.
3. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. In fact, all of the Jules Verne novels would translate well to new audiences. Danger, a giant octopus!
4. Davy Crockett. Sometime in the 1990s, Davy Crockett ‘coon caps came back in the inner city, as a street fashion. It was proof to me then that there was something cool about Davy Crockett, and very timeless. If Disney can get kids interested in the scenery and political climate of the pre-Revolutionary British Colonial territories through Pirates of the Caribbean, it can certainly re-interest boys in Frontierland.
5. Adventure Literature. In fact, all of classic boys’ literature is of interest for creating Disney franchises, think Jack London and Mark Twain. Schools love this too; excellent opportunity for that education market.
6. Main Street U.S.A. Some of the stores on Main Street are perfect franchises for Disney to claim for boys. While girls like the shopping on Main Street USA, the boyish things have been forgotten. How does a steam engine work (trains)? How do fires get put out? What about photography and computers at the camera shop?
7. Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. This book series was the best, ever. Bring it to the screen, please.
8. Classic Boys’ Toys. Chemcraft Chemistry Sets come immediately to mind. These were the best. What about programming and product licensing that deals with mixing things up, and dealing safely with chemicals? Hasbro (NYSE: HAS), Disney’s partner, has other brands that are ripe for renewal, including Battleship and Stratego. What about Erector and the other construction related brands? Radio Shack is another potential partner; their scientific kits are genius.
9. Snow Treasure. This book by Marie McSwigan (illustration above) would be perfect for a Disney movie. Boys AND girls defying frightening Nazis to smuggle gold during World War II, by sled. Think of the Disney ride on that one!

Mickey Rooney returns as the voice of Santa Claus (I think many had forgotten he was still performing; thank goodness he is still keeping the Mickey Rooney franchise alive) and George S. Irving returns as Heat Miser. This time, Santa throws out his back and is unable to deliver gifts for Christmas, and the Misers have to help. This softer side of Heat Miser will be a relief to radioman Glenn Beck, who has said on his show that the character frightened him terribly as a child.

An ABC Family release states that the show is produced by Warner Bros. Animation in association with Cuppa Coffee Studios. Executive producers are Adam Shaheen, Howard Schwartz and Linda M. Steiner, with a script written by Eddie Guzelian and directed by Dave Barton Thomas.

Perhaps now is the time to ask for the return of the Rankin Bass brand; it has as much meaning as Hanna Barbera, and would help to define the genre, namely stop-animation figures, and perhaps bring a pipeline of specials back onto ABC. Even better, Rankin Bass is so well known it could be used in theme parks.

By Alice Pollard

Mrs. Beasley was my favorite doll. Just like Buffy on Family Affair. (Above, Mrs. Beasley sits on a chair as Uncle Bill explains the birds and bees.)

I don’t know if Mrs. Beasley was created for the show or if she was a popular doll made more popular by the TV show, like Cindy Brady’s Kitty Carry-All. It didn’t matter to me as a six-year-old. Nor did it matter that my doll was a snippy old woman with a pull string that said very odd and creepy things. Things like “Come a little closer so Mrs. Beasley can hear you.”

Toy brands take us back in a way that nothing else can; it’s best when a toy is exactly as it was originally created. There is genius in a toy marketer that does not alter the product in any way. The very toy is the brand, and holds all the appeal.

I remember everything about Mrs. Beasley. The way she smelled, sounded, even the weight of her in my arms, with her clunky 1970 pull-string voice mechanism, and when I saw her in the Back to Basics Toys catalog the rush of emotion knocked me of my feet, until the $95 price tag made me think again.

I do hope the Back to Basics Toys catalog does very well this Christmas, in spite of the economy. It is brilliant. All the classics are in there. Here are a few:

• Lincoln Logs, 1916: just like the first set designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son.
• View Master (now Fisher-Price, formerly Sawyers and GAF): The name keeps changing, as does the viewer, but everything else stays the same.
• Trio of Big Band Horns: I had a sax. I can taste it!
• Slot Car Racing, 1957: Anyone who owned one was instantly cool.
• Bozo, 1965: Was it sand in the bottom?
• Gnip Gnop, 1971: Had the best commercial. A stupid toy with a great name. They kept the color.
• Shrinky Dinks 1973: Nothing better than getting kids to melt flammable plastic in a hot oven.

The Back to Basics Toys catalog also has every toy that I coveted from my chic Danish cousins. They were a family with seven beautiful toe-headed children and true to their Scandinavian heritage they had every blond wood, well-made toy ever created under the 14-foot candlelit Christmas tree:

• Wooden Block Set: Clunky and overpriced, they can’t be beat.
• The Original Brio Labyrinth, 1947: Made popular again by a recent car commercial that gives me vertigo.
• Skittles, 1932: Endless fun and hiliarous.
• Shoot the Moon, 1920: Frustrating test of nerves. Another metal ball game.
• Wooden Maze with grooves and holes: What’s up with all the metal balls and Scandinavian toys?
• Original NOK Hockey, 1948: Air Hockey is more exciting.
• Our Rugged Balance Board, 1940: It says it helps with coordination and holds up to 250 pounds. Like to see that.

The catalog has products that are reminiscent of the original. I am glad they are in there, because they show that it is vital to keep these toys in circulation. But eventually, they need to be brought back to their original perfect form.

• Colorforms, 1951: I can just smell ‘em. Can’t you? I am sure the modern version is probably less toxic but they have done away with the cool packaging and themes.
• Lite Brite: I don’t know what happened here, but please set it right. Perhaps fire hazard? “Light Bright makin” things with light…outta sight makin things with Lite Brite!”

NEW YORK – The FAO catalog is out. Christmas is coming.

Sure as the turn of leaves along the Taconic Parkway, the iconic New York toy retailer FAO Schwarz has released its fall offerings, this year with the Muppets on the cover. No matter the misery on Wall Street, at least the Christmas buying season will arrive, and give everyone a push.

The travails of FAO Schwarz, at least on the consumer side, appear to be over. For a time, they went mass market, and it was horrible. The Fifth Avenue store became more like Kay Bee. The main store at the General Motors building shut down in January 2004, after bankruptcy. The pieces of the company were purchased for $41 million by D.E. Shaw Laminar Portfolios. The flagship FAO reopened after a redo that year, done by Rockwell Partners. The redesign restored the magic by opening up the cluttered feel; the new version even includes a Madame Alexander Doll Factory.

The brand, actually owned by the F.A.O. Schwarz Family Foundation, is one of those iconic New York experiences, and it is now a parent company of Best & Co., which is a redo of another venerable New York retail brand. Like Times Square, Rockefeller Plaza, the Empire State building and Central Park, it is a civic icon for New York. So much so that it was even mentioned in the SNL Katie Couric/Sarah Palin interview skit.

The catalog is as much of, or more of an icon than the store. For most of us folks in the hinterlands, we only rarely got to see the real store, but spent hours with the catalog. Like the Sears Wish Book or Neiman-Marcus Catalog, it was a part of every fall.

The items in the catalog appear to be unique, and not too pricey. That’s good, because the company never had a new money feel. There is a big page of Lionel, a cool Hudson Hornet die cast car, even a microscope. A $170 Super Star theater is in line with the original sort of stuff, and a real FAO-type of product. It is larger than life, and involves a bit of creativity by the kids.

The best thing of all is a Muppet Whatnot Workshop. This Muppet making toy is a bit pricey for a puppet, but we found it irresistible. Just pick eyes, ears, nose, clothes and the like, and then your kit arrives. No wonder they put it on the catalog cover. It is exclusive to FAO, which is genius of them, and Muppets Studio LLC. Just looking  at the colors makes one want to spend the $130 to order one for a kid.

Some stuff is a bit iffy. We would not want to buy a Project Runway Projector Kit for a 12-year-old girl. While there is nothing wrong with the toy, the show is totally inappropriate for a pre-teen. If they want to watch it at 16, buy them a real sewing machine for $100 at Wal-Mart. Don’t like the When Santa Turned Green stuff either. We are sure that it sells to the guilt ridden, but please keep the didactic Al Gore claptrap away from the kids at Christmastime. Rationale: Elves are green, Santa is red. 

The company should keep the collector stuff to a minimum. For instance, special collector dolls, and even a Bob Mackie Barbie, are reaching an audience WAY off base from FAO. The adult collector audience has ruined toy trains and turned it into model railroading. They make it a game, and impose adult “rules” on how to play with toys. That is not to say that FAO shouldn’t have lots of specialty items that it sells, only that it shouldn’t promote it.

There is some quintessentially New York stuff. They sell a Madame Alexander Rockette Trunk Set. It allows girls to dress up a Rockette with different outfits. While we would be curious comparing what a Madame Alexander would sell for in the 1970s compared to today, $280 seems a bit of a steep price, and makes the item more of a collector thing and less of an actual toy.

But those are small criticisms. The catalog is magic, and we are glad the company is in such a good place, at least creatively.

Learn more

Read our post on historic New York brands called “Revived Prep Brands Abercrombie and Best.”

Mattel’s boys’ toy car line is composed of Hot Wheels, Tyco and Matchbox. Of the three, Hot Wheels is having its 40th birthday. To celebrate, the company is taking life-sized “Wheels” across the country from El Segundo to Watkins Glen, N.Y. It’s the Hot Wheels 40th Anniversary Road Trip.

It’s a great way to promote a solid old brand, with events that connect with new and old fans. While Mattel has to be careful with toy collectors (too many old guys running a brand history can ruin it, as evidenced by what happened to the model train industry, which is now all about old farts), it is smart that it owns its collector site and can keep an eye on what happens there.

For instance, Tyco was a brand that completely blew away Lionel trains in the 1970s, and was known much more for trains than racecars. At that time, interest in Lionel dried up among boys, and Tyco took over the market with train sets in the HO gauge. But Tyco is no longer in that business, something we still feel has potential, but only if the toy trains market is MOSTLY divorced from old men, and can be for boys again. In an age where Conn Iggulden’s The Dangerous Book For Boys is a hit, there is certainly a market for Tyco trains.

The Hot Wheels anniversary website has downloads, screen savers and the latest commercials.

The convoy will be led by a Hot Wheels trailer and will stop:

• Thursday, 8/21, 10 AM to 2 PM – Wendover, UT. (Bonneville Salt Flats), Sponsor of “Speed Week”
• Sunday, 8/24, 10 AM to 4 PM – Speed, KS. (Downtown, off Route 9) Local vendor participation/booths, Car show, More information: http://www.phillipsburgks.us/speed/hotwheels.htm
• Saturday, 8/30, 10 AM to 2 PM – Indianapolis, IN. (Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Hall of Fame Museum at 4790 West 16th St., Indianapolis, IN 46222), Hall of Fame Museum – admission is $3, More information on the Hall of Fame Museum: http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/
• Monday, 9/01, 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM – Detroit, MI. (Automotive Hall of Fame at 21400 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn, MI 48124), Automotive Hall of Fame Museum – admission is free, More information: http://www.automotivehalloffame.org/
• Friday, 9/05, 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM – Watkins Glen, NY. (Along Franklin Street) The Hot Wheels® booth will be opening at 12:00 pm, Historical race participation (Hot Wheels car to lead first lap), More information: http://www.grandprixfestival.com/

Winners will compete next May at Walt Disney World and win a foodie trip to San Francisco.”For the past 45 years, the EASY-BAKE Oven has given kids their first baking experience,” said Meg Luby, vice president of U.S. marketing for Hasbro, in a Business Wire press release. To enter the contest, children ages 8 through 12, along with their “sous chef,” will log onto www.easybake.com and submit new recipes, using one or more mixes. In addition to submitting a copy of their recipe, entrants must upload a photo that features their creation, themselves and their “sous chef.”

The classic side-loading oven that bakes with a light bulb returns to let bakers-in-the-making whip up tasty snacks for friends and family, including cakes, brownies and cookies. This fall, in honor of its 45^th birthday, the iconic brand will cook up a new look by bringing back its original aqua color! (Click on image above for a link to the toy history website www.timewarptoys.com) The oven comes with three different mixes, two baking pans, two utensils, a pan pusher, two warming cups and recipes/instructions. One 100-watt standard light bulb is required but not included.

The ovens have cult following, even among manly men chefs (Bobbie Flay is said to be a fan). Youtube.com has lots of user-demonstration videos, including this video from TBO.com. In the video, The Tampa Tribune’s Jeff Houck and Rommie Johnson attempt to cook an entire holiday meal in a video produced by Ryan Bauer.

O.K., but here’s the question. When the annoying schoolmarm bureaucrats finally issue their edict that there will be no more incandescent light bulbs, what will happen to the Easy-Bake oven? All of us will have to add even more bulbs to our closet storage for the day that the bulbs die.

This Fourth of July weekend, we are thinking about great American brands with FIRE-POWER. And for decades, there has been no greater fun (and learning) for boys than Estes Rockets. Along with brands like Chemcraft and Gilbert chemistry sets (click here for a great rant on the subject of politically correct chemistry sets on the blogsite 12 Angry Men), Heathkit electronics kits, and Radio Shack Science Fair kits, Estes was part of a great American commie-beating tradition.

What’s not to like?

Estes was the creation of Vernon Estes. The company, headquartered in Penrose, Colorado, was a great innovator and became an icon of its time. If Erector Sets were for the early 20th century, then an Estes Rocket was the toy of the late 20th, and perhaps 21st. The first great toy of Estes was the Astron Scout. Pictured here is the AstroVision, which seems to be the perfect toy for our Google earth era. It is described thusly:

Get ready to take fantastic movies or photos from over 300 feet (91 m) with the Estes® AstroVision™, a Ready-to-Fly camera rocket. Select “Movie Mode” and take a 12 second digital movie while the rocket is in flight. Switch to “Photo Mode” and take a digital photo of your neighborhood.

Now that’s fun!

Rockets are not an easy thing to give to pre-teen boys, as they do have a habit of doing things with them that might not always be safe, like shooting them at things that are NOT up in the air. That was the problem with chemistry sets; boys wanted to blow crap up, like their sister’s Barbie planes. But to learn about rockets, you’ve got to let boys shoot them. Often.

If you are interested in model rocketry, the website Greg’s Rocket Page has some great information, including photos of Vern Estes himself in his house, with all of his model rockets.

Want to read about Radio Shack and how they are bringing back innovation with their Innovation Labs? Click to BrandlandUSA’s post on Radio Shack’s Invention Lab. Interested in how chemistry sets have spurred interest in science careers? Read this article from Today’s Chemist on Gilbert and Chemcraft brand chemistry sets.

If you lived at the tail end of the baby boom and into Generation X, you remember Romper Room. It was a brilliant concept, led by Baltimore schoolteacher Nancy Claster, who died in 1997. It was terribly educational and participatory, though kids did not know that. Unlike shows today, it got kids to actually move and interact. Here is a photograph of Connie Hindmarsh of Norfolk, Virginia, who was MY Romper Room teacher. She now operates Hindmarsh Studios, which sells children’s toys.

The show started in 1953, by Bertram Claster, a producer of variety shows who created the concept. His wife Nancy joined the show as “Miss Nancy” after it started. She was perfect for the position as she had an early childhood education background. Hasbro bought Claster Television in 1969. Over 160 stations aired the show, which stayed on the air until 1994.

The show had “Do Bee” and “Don’t Bee” segments, where bee-costumed person highlighted good and bad behavior. The shows ended with the Magic Mirror. Miss Connie would look at kids through the mirror and say that she could “see” them at home while reading their names.

Our first theory as to why they disappeared was that TV stations in the 1960s and 1970s had F.C.C. restrictions that forced them to broadcast a certain amount of local and children’s programming. That might be true, but TV Party website host Billy Ingram posits the theory in a WGN radio interview that the local shows were dropped at the insistence of meddler Peggy Charren, who crusaded against children doing product promotions.

TV stations dropped kids programming, cable networks like Nickelodeon were created and PBS took over most of the broadcasting of children’s educational programming. Live, local shows, like Romper Room (and hundreds of others) died. The show was cancelled, and the brand died, though River West Brands of Chicago has revived the trademark.

What would a Romper Room look like? How would a new show be relevant?

• First, it HAS to be live at least sometimes. The live aspect was what gave it its spontaneous feeling, and it also made it a very low cost production. Of course, episodes can be taped, but showing it live gives it a (good) danger factor! (True story. Child to hostess: I have to pee-pee. I am doing it NOW!)
• It should probably re-launch as a test in a minor or medium market, to give it time to work. TV stations have many one-off slots on weekends, and it would be there, in a middle American medium market, that new a new hostess could figure out what worked with today’s kids. Figuring out how to make this work with a new generation will not be easy, and new management would need the space and time to test how a current generation would react.
• Eventually, a live version could operate at a theme park, a place like Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where it could serve as a semi-permanent attraction AND as a syndicated show. Disney already has a relationship with Hasbro, which owned (owns?) the brand.
• It needs to be low tech. Children who are ages four to six have way too many loud and overly electronic things in their lives. If you see a pre-kindergarten child in action, you know that kids do not play with toys as expected, and want to do things that are physical.
• Don’t forget the licensed toys. The original show sold toys like Romper Stompers (still sold by Hasbro), which were basically plastic cups with strings attached that you could walk around the room. Other Romper merchandise included colorful jai alai-like scoops, for kids to throw and “lunge” balls to each other. There are some Romper Room toys that are still around, including the Inchworm, which is no longer sold under the Romper brand. Any toy that happens to “appear” on the set would be great product placement.
• It HAS to have the Pledge of Allegiance. Part of what made it great was that it SEEMED to kids like a big kids’ school room, but it was fun.
• It must have a female host, preferably a teacher who knows how to get five years olds to do an effective circle time. That is not to say that it can’t have a bit of cleverness; Pee Wee’s Playhouse was the 1980s version of Romper Room, and it what made that show were the great characters. Who could forget animator Dave Powers’ brilliant Conky character?
• While Nickelodeon Splat is fun, it needs order, a bit of regimentation as it is most popular among kids who are just going into kindergarten and first grade, when schools need to teach “listening skills.” Miss Connie (Connie Hindmarsh, my host at WVEC in Norfolk) made the kids BEHAVE.
• It had live commercials; the kids could participate. For instance, in Norfolk at WVEC, it was sponsored by Camellia Foods, a great regional grocery wholesaler and grocery brand. A personal recollection was that during my week, I brought in some cut out Camellia milk carton labels that I had pasted to green paper. I then got to help Connie do the Camellia commercial. Talk about product placement!

Above all, the show had a purpose. Claster’s daughter told the Times that:

‘The core of her curriculum was really the belief that ‘Romper Room’ was for the children at home,” Mrs. Bell said, ”and that everything that the children saw on television, whether it was just plain fun or educational — and a lot of ‘Romper Room’ was educational — should be set up so that children at home could participate.

”If children on television were walking on a balance beam for hand-eye coordination, the children at home were shown how to use a string on the floor, so they didn’t have to be kids who had to buy equipment to participate.”