Portal:Toys
The Toys Portal
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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, each of which typically has a portion of a picture. When assembled, the puzzle pieces produce a complete picture.
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...)General images -
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A puzzle of dexterity, a type of mechanical puzzle (from List of wooden toys) -
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Tartu Toy Museum (from Toy museum) -
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) -
Hello Kitty Dreamcast set, 2009 (from Girls' toys and games) -
Various spinning tops (from List of wooden toys) -
A gee-haw whammy diddle in use (from List of wooden toys) -
Girls assembling a puzzle (from Girls' toys and games) -
An infant boy playing with a toy dump truck at the beach. (from Boys' toys and games) -
1970s No. 2 Meccano set (from Construction set) -
Paintings of girl with dolls (from Girls' toys and games) -
Girls in Barbie Fashion Show in Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from Girls' toys and games) -
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A ball-in-a-maze puzzle (from List of wooden toys) -
Rows of pink girls' toys in a Canadian store, 2011 (from Girls' toys and games) -
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A matryoshka doll taken apart (from List of wooden toys) -
Toy Museum - http://www.raheelpatel.com/toymuseum.html. (from Toy museum) -
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A bauernroulette game (from List of wooden toys) -
A bead maze (from List of wooden toys) -
Jeujura wooden construction set (Swiss chalet) (from Construction set) -
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Burr puzzles (from List of wooden toys) -
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Constri (from Construction set) -
Girls playing in a park in the Netherlands (from Girls' toys and games) -
Interlocking Disks enable the construction of high-symmetry models such as that of C
60 Fullerene. (from Construction set) -
Lego bricks are a construction set example. (from Construction set) -
A girl in Udaipur playing "Jungle Child" (from Girls' toys and games)
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Lincoln Logs is the name of a children's toy consisting of notched miniature logs, used to build miniature forts and buildings. They were invented by John Lloyd Wright, son of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Lincoln Logs were inducted into the US National Toy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Did you know...
- ... that Woody from Toy Story was originally written as a ventriloquist's dummy and the main villain of the film?
- ... that the design for the water playground at Chelsea Waterside Park was criticized because local residents thought that the sprinklers resembled sex toys?
- ... that before becoming a voice actor, Kikunosuke Toya was the keyboardist of an all-male Princess Princess cover band in high school?
- ... that the Roman emperors Augustus and Claudius may have had an affinity for gambling?
- ... that Elizabeth II's childhood toys at 145 Piccadilly included 30 toy horses and a farm set collected from Woolworths?
- ... that development economist John Toye said free-market proponents "first turn liberty against equality and fraternity, then overthrow liberty itself"?
- ...that The Brady Bunch actress Maureen McCormick was one of the many people who voiced the 1960s toy Chatty Cathy?
- ...that the travels of a shipment of 29,000 Friendly Floatees bath toys lost overboard in the Pacific in 1992 have been used to model the world's ocean currents?
- ...that children up to the age of five can find it difficult to distinguish between television programmes and toy advertising campaigns?
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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
WikiProjects
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- Arts • Entertainment • Visual arts • Games
- Main project
- Toys
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- 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
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