Editing Toy (section)

===Industrial Era and mass-marketed toys===
[[File:Hornby pt1901.jpg|thumb|Frank Hornby's 1901 patent number GB190100587A for what later became known as [[Meccano]]]]

The golden age of toy development occurred during the [[Industrial Revolution|Industrial Era]]. [[Real wage]]s were rising steadily in the Western world, allowing even working-class families to afford toys for their children, and industrial techniques of precision engineering and mass production were able to provide the supply to meet this rising demand. Intellectual emphasis was also increasingly being placed on the importance of a wholesome and happy childhood for the future development of children. [[Franz Kolb]], a German pharmacist, invented [[plasticine]] in 1880, and in 1900 commercial production of the material as a children's toy began. [[Frank Hornby]] was a visionary in toy development and manufacture and was responsible for the invention and production of three of the most popular lines of toys based on [[Engineering mechanics|engineering principles]] in the twentieth century: [[Meccano]], [[Hornby Railways|Hornby Model Railways]] and [[Dinky Toys]].

Meccano was a [[Scale model|model]] construction system that consisted of re-usable metal strips, plates, [[Angle iron|angle]] [[girder]]s, wheels, axles and [[gear]]s, with [[Nut (hardware)|nuts]] and [[screw#bolt|bolts]] to connect the pieces and enabled the building of working models and mechanical devices. [[Dinky Toys]] pioneered the manufacture of [[die-cast toy]]s with the production of toy cars, trains and ships and model train sets became popular in the 1920s. The [[Britains (toy brand)|Britains company]] revolutionized the production of [[toy soldiers]] with the invention of the process of [[hollow casting]] in lead in 1893<ref>Joplin, N. (1996). ''Toy Soldiers''. London: Quintet Publishing, Ltd.</ref> – the company's products remained the industry standard for many years.

Puzzles became popular as well. In 1893, the English lawyer [[s:Author:Angelo John Lewis|Angelo John Lewis]], writing under the pseudonym of Professor Hoffman, wrote a book called ''Puzzles Old and New''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://puzzlemuseum.com/library/hoffm/hoff-bk.htm|title=''Puzzles Old and New'' by Professor Hoffmann|website=puzzlemuseum.com}}</ref> It contained, among other things, more than 40 descriptions of puzzles with secret opening mechanisms. This book grew into a reference work for puzzle games and was very popular at the time. The [[Tangram]] puzzle, originally from China, spread to Europe and America in the 19th century.

In 1903, a year after publishing ''[[The Tale of Peter Rabbit]]'', English author [[Beatrix Potter]] created the first [[Peter Rabbit]] [[soft toy]] and registered him at the [[Intellectual Property Office (United Kingdom)|Patent Office]] in London, making Peter the oldest licensed character.<ref>{{cite news |title=Peter Rabbit blazed a trail still well trod |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/peter-rabbit-blazed-a-trail-still-well-trod-c9zdfx2c6nk |access-date=6 October 2022 |work=The Times}}</ref> It was followed by other "spin-off" merchandise over the years, including painting books and board games. The  ''[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]'' magazine stated,  "Potter was also an entrepreneur and a pioneer in licensing and merchandising literary characters. Potter built a retail empire out of her "bunny book" that is worth $500 million today. In the process, she created a system that continues to benefit all licensed characters, from [[Mickey Mouse]] to [[Harry Potter (character)|Harry Potter]]."<ref>{{cite news |title=How Beatrix Potter Invented Character Merchandising |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-beatrix-potter-invented-character-merchandising-180961979/ |access-date=6 October 2022 |work=Smithsonian}}</ref>

In tandem with the development of mass-produced toys, Enlightenment ideals about children's rights to education and leisure time came to fruition. During the late 18th and early 19th century, many families needed to send their children to work in factories and other sites to make ends meet—just as their predecessors had required their labor producing household goods in the medieval era.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Reed |first1=Lawrence W. |title=Child Labor and the British Industrial Revolution |url=https://www.mackinac.org/3879 |website=Mackinac Center for Public Policy |access-date=10 April 2022}}</ref> Business owners' exploitation and abuse of child laborers during this period differed from how children had been treated as workers within a family unit, though. Thanks to advocacy including photographic documentation of children's exploitation and abuse by business owners, Western nations enacted a series of child labor laws, putting an end to child labor in nations such as the U.S. (1949).<ref>{{cite web |title=National Child Labor Committee |url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/nclc/ |website=Library of Congress |access-date=10 April 2022}}</ref> This fully entrenched, through law, the Western idea that childhood is a time for ''leisure'', not work—and with leisure time comes more space for consumer goods such as toys.<ref name="The Marketing of Children's Toys">{{cite book |last1=Hains |first1=Rebecca C. |last2=Jennings |first2=Nancy A. |title=The Marketing of Children's Toys |date=2021 |publisher=Palgrave |page=2}}</ref>

During the [[Second World War]], some new types of toys were created through accidental innovation. After trying to create a replacement for [[synthetic rubber]], the American [[Earl L. Warrick]] inadvertently invented "nutty putty" during [[World War II]]. Later, Peter Hodgson recognized the potential as a childhood plaything and packaged it as [[Silly Putty]]. Similarly, [[Play-Doh]] was originally created as a wallpaper cleaner.<ref name="mit">{{cite web|title=On the invention of silly putty, from Lemelson-MIT Program|url=http://web.mit.edu/Invent/iow/sillyputty.html|website=web.mit.edu|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030216041436/http://web.mit.edu/Invent/iow/sillyputty.html|archive-date=16 February 2003}}</ref> In 1943 [[Richard T. James|Richard James]] was experimenting with springs as part of his military research when he saw one come loose and fall to the floor. He was intrigued by the way it flopped around on the floor. He spent two years fine-tuning the design to find the best gauge of steel and coil; the result was the [[Slinky]], which went on to sell in stores throughout the United States.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

After the [[Second World War]], as Western society became ever more affluent and new technology and materials (plastics) for toy manufacture became available, toys became cheaper and more ubiquitous in households across the Western World. At this point, [[Brand|name-brand]] toys became widespread in the U.S.–a new phenomenon that helped market mass-produce toys to audiences of children growing up with ample leisure time and during a period of relative prosperity.<ref name="The Marketing of Children's Toys"/>

Among the more well-known products of the 1950s there was the Danish company [[Lego]]'s line of colourful interlocking plastic brick construction sets (based on [[Hilary Page]]'s [[Kiddicraft]] Self-Locking Bricks, described by London's [[V&A Museum of Childhood]] as among the "must-have toys" of the 1940s<ref>{{cite web |title=Must Have Toys 1940s – V&A Museum of Childhood |url=https://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/collections/must-toys-1940s/ |website=V&A Museum of Childhood |publisher=Victoria and Albert Museum, London |accessdate=11 October 2018}}</ref>), [[Mr. Potato Head]], the [[Barbie doll]] (inspired by the [[Bild Lilli doll]] from Germany), and [[Action Man]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.localhistories.org/toys.html|title=A Brief History of Toys|website=localhistories.org|access-date=17 December 2012}}</ref> The [[Rubik's Cube]] became an enormous seller in the 1980s. In modern times, there are computerized dolls that can recognize and identify objects, the voice of their owner, and choose among hundreds of pre-programmed phrases with which to respond.<ref name=VanPatten>{{cite web|last=Van Patten|first=Denise|title=A Brief History of Talking Dolls – From Bebe Phonographe to Amazing Amanda|publisher=About.com|url=http://collectdolls.about.com/od/dollsbymaterial/a/talkingdolls.htm|access-date=30 October 2006|archive-date=12 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512191251/http://collectdolls.about.com/od/dollsbymaterial/a/talkingdolls.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>