Portal:Toys/Selected article

These are articles that are selected for the Toys portal.

Usage

The layout design for these subpages is at Portal:Toys/Selected article/Layout.

1. Add a new Selected article to the next available subpage.
2. The "blurb" for all selected articles should be approximately 10 lines, for appropriate formatting in the portal main page.
3. Update "max=" to new total for its {{Random portal component}} on the main page.

Selected articles list

Selected article: 1-10

Portal:Toys/Selected article/1

Transformers is a 2007 American science fiction action film based on the Transformers toy line. The film, which combines computer animation with live action, is directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It stars Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, a teenager involved in a war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, two factions of alien robots that can disguise themselves by transforming into everyday machinery. The Decepticons desire control of the AllSpark, the object that created their robotic race, with the intention of using it to build an army by giving life to the machines of Earth. Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight, Anthony Anderson and John Turturro also star, while actors Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving voice Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively. Transformers was a box-office success, despite mixed critical reaction. Two sequels have been released: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in 2009 and Transformers: Dark of the Moon in 2011.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/2

Play-Doh is a modeling compound used by young children for art and craft projects at home and in school. Composed of flour, water, salt, boric acid, and mineral oil, the product was first manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S., as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s. When a classroom of children began using the wallpaper cleaner as a modeling compound, the product was reworked and marketed to Cincinnati schools in the mid-1950s. Play-Doh was demonstrated at an educational convention in 1956 and prominent department stores opened retail accounts. Advertisements promoting Play-Doh on influential children's television shows in 1957 furthered the product's sales. Since its launch on the toy market in the mid-1950s, Play-Doh has generated a considerable amount of ancillary merchandise such as The Fun Factory. In 2003, the Toy Industry Association named Play-Doh in its "Century of Toys List".

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/3

Midge Hadley is a fictional doll character in the Barbie line of toys by Mattel that was first released in 1963. Midge was created, along with Skipper, to counteract criticism that claimed Barbie was a sex symbol. She was marketed as Barbie's best friend. No Midge dolls were sold for the rest of the vintage years after the 1960s. She was re-introduced in 1988 as part of the play line, though two vintage reproduction dolls were made specifically for collectors in 1993 and 1998. The dolls sold in this time period usually had red hair, often with freckles, and her eye color was usually blue or green. Also in the period, Wedding Day Midge was sold, with the groom being Allan Sherwood. Allan had been marketed as Midge's boyfriend in the vintage years. In the most recent fictional Barbie storyline, often written on the backs of the dolls' boxes, Midge and Allan have three children, two who are named Ryan and Nikki and one who is not named. This was known as the Happy Family line, and was the subject of controversy when Midge was sold "pregnant" with Nikki as a newborn baby. Some parents disliked the "pregnant" Midge toy because they believed that Midge was too young to have children.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/4

The Game of Cootie is a children's roll-and-move tabletop game for two to four players. The object is to be the first to build a three dimensional bug-like object called a "cootie" from a variety of plastic body parts. Created by William Schaper in 1948, the game was launched in 1949 and sold millions in its first years. In 1973, Cootie was acquired by Tyco Toys, and, in 1986, by Hasbro subsidiary Milton Bradley. The game was given a new look and continued to enjoy commercial success. Several companies published cootie games in the first half of the twentieth century but only Schaper's featured a free-standing, three dimensional cootie. In 2003, Cootie was named to the Toy Industry Association's "Century of Toys List".

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/5

"Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy" is the fourteenth episode of The Simpsons' fifth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 17, 1994. In the episode, Lisa challenges the makers of the Malibu Stacy doll to create a less sexist doll. Together with the original creator of Malibu Stacy, Stacy Lovell, Lisa creates the doll Lisa Lionheart in an effort to positively influence young girls. The episode was written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, and directed by Jeffrey Lynch. The episode's plot was inspired by the Teen Talk Barbie line of talking dolls, which spoke a number of phrases considered demeaning to women. Kathleen Turner guest starred in the episode as Stacy Lovell, creator of Malibu Stacy. It features cultural references to action figures such as Ken and G.I. Joe. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 11.6, and was the second highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/6

The Mansion of Happiness: An Instructive Moral and Entertaining Amusement is a children's board game inspired by Christian morality. Players race about a sixty-six space spiral track depicting virtues and vices with their goal being The Mansion of Happiness at track's end. Instructions upon virtue spaces advance players toward the goal while those upon vice spaces force them to retreat. The Mansion Of Happiness was designed by Anne Abbott, a children's author and game designer. W. & S. B. Ives published the game in 1843, and it was republished by Parker Brothers in 1894 after George S. Parker & Co. bought the rights to the Ives games. The republication claimed The Mansion of Happiness was the first board game published in the United States of America; today, however, the distinction is awarded to Lockwood's Traveller's Tour games of 1822. The popularity of The Mansion of Happiness and similar moralistic board games was challenged in the last decades of the 19th century when the focus of games became materialism and competitive capitalistic behavior.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/7

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is an animated television series that premiered on October 10, 2010, on the United States cable network The Hub. Hasbro Studios and DHX Media's animation studio in Vancouver (formerly known as Studio B Productions) produce the series, which is based on Hasbro, Inc's My Little Pony line of toys and animated works. As of September 2011, the show is in its second season in the United States, and is broadcasting internationally in dozens of countries in over ten languages. Hasbro selected animator Lauren Faust as the creative director and executive producer for the show. Faust sought to challenge the established "girly" nature of the existing My Little Pony line, creating more in-depth characters and adventurous settings, incorporating Hasbro's suggestions for E/I ("educational and informational") content and marketing of the toy line. The show follows a studious unicorn pony named Twilight Sparkle as her mentor Princess Celestia guides her to learn about friendship in the town of Ponyville. Twilight becomes close friends with five other ponies: Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. Each represents a different face of friendship, and discovers herself to be a key part of the "Elements of Harmony". The show has been critically praised for its humor and moral outlook. Elements of the show have become part of the remix culture and have formed the basis for a variety of Internet memes.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/8

Modular Buildings is a series of Lego building toy sets introduced in 2007. Created in response to feedback and suggestions from the Adult Fans of Lego (AFOL) community, the sets in this series are generally intended for more advanced builders with most sets containing more than 2,000 total pieces and making use of unorthodox building techniques which have not been tried before in official Lego sets. In contrast to most Lego sets which are aimed at children and adolescents, the suggested age of most sets in the Modular Buildings series is 16 years or older. The Modular Buildings sets have been received with positive reviews, being considered by Lego designers and fans as "toys for adults". The sets include Market Street, Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, Fire Brigade, Grand Emporium, Pet Shop, and the newest one Town Hall.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/9

Sindy is a British fashion doll created by Pedigree Dolls & Toys in 1963. A rival to Barbie, Sindy's wholesome look and range of fashions and accessories made it the best selling toy in the United Kingdom in 1968 and 1970. After Marx Toys' unsuccessful attempt to introduce Sindy in the United States in the late 1970s, Hasbro bought the rights to Sindy and remodelled the doll to look more American. As a result, the doll's popularity declined and Barbie manufacturer Mattel filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement, which was settled when Hasbro agreed to remodel Sindy's face. During the 1990s, Barbie's share of the doll market continued to grow while Sindy's diminished, which led to Sindy being delisted from major retailers in 1997. Hasbro returned the doll's licence to Pedigree, and the doll was relaunched in 1999, manufactured by Vivid Imaginations. Sindy's 40th anniversary in 2003 saw a new manufacturer, New Moons, and another relaunch and redesign. Barbie and Bratz dolls now dominate Sindy's original target audience of pre-adolescents, so Sindy is aimed at preschool-aged girls.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/10

Flavas is an American line of fashion dolls created by Mattel in 2003. They are multi-ethnic and have an urban, hip hop style with "bling-bling" jewellery and stick-on tattoos, described as "ghetto-fabulous" by Newsweek. They were designed to appeal to tweens (8- to 12-year-olds) and compete with the widely successful Bratz dolls. They were marketed as "reality-based" and "authentic" and have more points of articulation than traditional fashion dolls for more expressive posing. Flavas were criticized for being stereotypical, bad role models, and a misrepresentation of hip hop culture. Their multiculturalism was described as positive, and British analysts expected their "risqué nature" to translate to high sales. But following sales that were described as "disastrous" they were discontinued within a year.

Selected article: 11-20

Portal:Toys/Selected article/11

Chibi-Robo! (ちびロボ！, lit. "Mini-Robo!"), fully titled Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure!, is a platform-adventure video game for the Nintendo GameCube console. It was developed by Skip Ltd. with collaboration from Nintendo. The game was first released in Japan on June 23, 2005, in North America on February 6, 2006, and in Europe on May 26, 2006. Chibi-Robo! puts the player in the role of the titular character, a 10-centimeter-tall robot owned by the Sanderson family. Gameplay revolves around navigating a household and collecting "Happy Points". These points are accumulated by completing various tasks from housework to helping solve the dilemmas of the Sanderson family and the numerous living toys that inhabit their household. Every action by the game's battery-powered protagonist consumes energy, requiring the player to recharge using the home's electrical outlets. Originally conceived as a point-and-click adventure game, Chibi-Robo! was put on developmental hold until Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto gained interest in the title and overhauled its production. Chibi-Robo! was generally well received by critics, with most reviewers finding the game to have an interesting premise, a charming storyline, and excellent sound design. However, reactions to its various gameplay mechanics were decidedly mixed between those that found them unique and rewarding and those who found them boring and tedious.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/12

Reborn dolls are a manufactured vinyl dolls that has been transformed to resemble a human baby with as much realism as possible. The process of creating a reborn doll is referred to as reborning and the doll artists are referred to as reborners. Reborn dolls are also known as living dolls or unliving dolls. The hobby of creating reborn baby dolls began around 1990 when doll enthusiasts wanted more realistic dolls. Since then, an industry surrounding reborn dolls has emerged. Reborn dolls are primarily purchased on the internet but are available at fairs. Depending on craftsmanship, they range in price from hundreds to thousands of dollars. The International Reborn Doll Artists (IRDA) group was created to educate artists in the art form of reborn doll making. Any artist can join the association, however certain ethical guidelines must be upheld by members. Reborning involves numerous time consuming steps. The most basic form of the process involves taking a vinyl doll, adding multiple layers of paint, and adding other physical features to the doll. Artists can pick different brands to best suit what doll they wish to create. Consumers can also buy reborn doll kits that include the doll parts and supplies for creating their own reborn. Making a doll from a kit is called newborning and allows artists to omit some steps in the fabrication process. Many supplies are needed for both external and internal modifications of reborns to make the doll seem more realistic.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/13

Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated family film, the first Disney/Pixar film to be made, as well as the first feature film in history to be made entirely with CGI. Directed by John Lasseter and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, the film was co-produced by Ralph Guggenheim and Bonnie Arnold and was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It was written by Lasseter, Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow, and featured music by Randy Newman. Toy Story follows a group of toys who come to life whenever humans are not present, focusing on Woody, a pull-string cowboy doll (Hanks), and Buzz Lightyear, an astronaut action figure (Allen). The top-grossing film on its opening weekend, Toy Story went on to earn over $191 million in the United States and Canada during its initial theatrical release and took in more than $361 million worldwide. Although the film was a huge box office success, the film is currently Pixar's lowest grossing film while this film's second sequel Toy Story 3 is their highest grossing film earning over $1 billion worldwide. View-Master released a 3 reel set in 3D in 1995 prior to release of 3D films. The film was so successful it prompted a sequel released in 1999, Toy Story 2. Eleven years later, on June 18, 2010, an additional film, Toy Story 3, was also released. Both sequels were instant hits and garnered critical acclaim similar to the first. The film was selected into the National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 2005, its first year of eligibility.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/14

Rubik's Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the "Magic Cube", the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toy Corp. in 1980 via German businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer, and won the German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle that year. As of January 2009, 350 million cubes had been sold worldwide making it the world's top-selling puzzle game. It is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy. In a classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces is covered by nine stickers, each of one of six solid colours (traditionally white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow). A pivot mechanism enables each face to turn independently, thus mixing up the colours. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be returned to consisting of one colour. Similar puzzles have now been produced with various numbers of stickers, not all of them by Rubik. Although the Rubik's Cube reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1980s, many speedcubers continue to practise it and other "twisty puzzles" and compete for the fastest times. Its international governing body, the World Cube Association, has organised competitions and kept the official world records since 2003.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/15

The Care Bears Movie is a 1985 animated adventure film, the second feature production from the Toronto animation studio Nelvana. One of the first films based directly on a toy line, it introduced the Care Bears characters and their companions, the Care Bear Cousins. In the film, orphanage owners tell a story about the Care Bears, who live in a cloud-filled land called Care-a-lot. Travelling across Earth, the Bears help two lonely children named Kim and Jason find new parents, and also save a young magician's apprentice named Nicholas from an evil spirit's influence. American Greetings Corporation, the owners of the Care Bears characters, began development of a feature film in 1981. The Care Bears Movie received mixed reviews from the outset; critics raised concern over its potential as a full-length advertisement for the title characters, among many other aspects. It went on to earn US$23 million domestically; as Canada's highest-grossing film during 1985 (with C$1.845 million), it won a Golden Reel Award. Nelvana produced two sequels in the next two years, A New Generation (1986) and Adventure in Wonderland (1987); neither surpassed the original financially or critically.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/16

Pokémon is a media franchise published and owned by Japanese video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second-most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind only Nintendo's own Mario franchise. Pokémon properties have since been merchandised into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, books, and other media. Pokémon USA Inc. (now The Pokémon Company International), a subsidiary of Japan's Pokémon Co., now oversees all Pokémon licensing outside of Asia. The name Pokémon is the romanized contraction of the Japanese brand Pocket Monsters, as such contractions are quite common in Japan. "Pokémon" is identical in both the singular and plural, as is each individual species name; it is grammatically correct to say "one Pokémon" and "many Pokémon", as well as "one Pikachu" and "many Pikachu".

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/17

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a 2009 American action thriller based on the G.I. Joe toy franchise, with particular inspiration from the comic book and cartoon series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. The film is directed by Stephen Sommers, produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and co-written by Stuart Beattie, based on a 1998 screenplay by John Paul Kay. G.I. Joe features an ensemble cast based on the various characters of the franchise. The story follows two American soldiers, Duke and Ripcord, who join the G.I. Joe Team after being attacked by MARS troops. After leaked drafts of the script were criticized by fans, Larry Hama, writer of the comic, was hired as creative consultant and rewrites were made. Rise of Cobra opened at the top of the box office and grossed over $302 million worldwide by the end of its run. Critical reception was mostly negative, with criticism of the writing and acting. The sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation was released on March 28, 2013.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/18

Slinky is a toy, a precompressed helical spring invented by Richard James in the early 1940s. It can perform a number of tricks, including travelling down a flight of steps end-over-end as it stretches and re-forms itself with the aid of gravity and its own momentum, or appear to levitate for a period of time after it has been dropped. These interesting characteristics have contributed to its success as a toy in its home country of United States, resulting in many popular toys with slinky components in a wide range of countries.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/19

Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. Barbie is the figurehead of a brand of Mattel dolls and accessories, including other family members and collectible dolls. Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over fifty years, and has been the subject of numerous controversies and lawsuits, often involving parody of the doll and her lifestyle.

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Portal:Toys/Selected article/20

Jump rope (American English) or skipping rope (British English) is the primary tool used in the game of skipping played by children and many young adults, where one or more participants jump over a rope swung so that it passes under their feet and over their heads. This may consist of one participant turning and jumping the rope, or a minimum of three participants taking turns, two of whom turn the rope while one or more jumps. This is called long rope. Sometimes the latter is played with two turning ropes; this form of the activity is called Double Dutch and is more difficult. Jump-rope rhymes are often chanted beginning when the skipper jumps in and ending when the skipper messes up.

Nominations

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