since the dawn of the 20th century one thing has remained true everyone loves presents
there's nothing better than a big old wish list to put out into the universe during
the holiday season toys tinkers and games galore we've coveted them all and sometimes
we've trampled our neighbors in the shopping mall to get the perfect gift under the tree
whoopsie who can blame us the wonderful treats on this list have stolen the hearts
and wallets of families around the world for the better part of a century so we
thought it would be nice to wrap them up in a little bow and present them just for you
first up straight from the roaring 20s we have everyone's favorite way to get rope burn
the yoyo this absolutely mesmerizing spinning disc on the string is believed to have originated from
china in 1000 bc it's gone by many names over the years but when pedro flores started manufacturing
it in america in the 1920s he called it by its filipino name yo-yo in the 1920s
promotional trick contests had every dick and jane obsessed with learning how to walk the dog
animal crackers in my soup might sound disgusting when we say it but it's sweet
as pie when sung by 1930s child star shirley temple by the time she was 6 years old shirley
had already been in 20 films singing dancing and souping her way into the hearts of americans
in one of the first cross-promotional stunts ever the ideal toy and novelty
company obtained the rights to produce a shirley temple doll in 1934 and soon they
had a hit on their hands the doll made over 45 million during its seven years of production
which translates to over 870 million today making ideal toy company the single most
profitable company in america in 1935. and had them tap dancing all the way to the bank
in the 1940s kids were head over heels for a glorified piece of scrap metal
it's slinky this fun for girls and boys toy was sprung into action in 1943
when engineer richard james stumbled across an inspirational spring while on the job
slinky became known for catchy marketing jingles that ear wormed their way into the hearts of a
generation since they hit the market the sultry silver spiral has sold over 360 million units
slinky has been inducted into the national toy hall of fame named one of time magazine's all-time
100 greatest toys and there's even a national slinky day on august 30th that's one famous spring
come on barbie let's go party invented by mattel inc in 1959 by founders ruth and
elliot handler for their daughter they modeled barbie after a german doll named bild lily
the original german doll was marketed as a racy gag gift sold in tobacco shops clearly
the perfect inspiration for her children's toy barbie was initially fashioned to embody
the glamorous looks of stars of the time such as elizabeth taylor and marilyn monroe
today it's estimated that three barbie dolls are sold every second in her long illustrious lifetime
barbie much like elizabeth taylor has had over 200 careers and countless dream houses
what's barbie without kim gi joe this classic military action figure was created by doe levine
at hasbro in 1964. to be extremely clear i repeat g.i joe is an action figure and definitely not a
doll and how dare you say that the original line included figures repping the four branches of the
american armed forces early production errors of the gi joe gave them a distinctive facial scar
shortly after hitting the market gi joe accounted for nearly 66
of hasbro's profits but was discharged for time in the late 1960s as tensions escalated in vietnam
just like rambo gi joe came back with a vengeance in the 1980s and soared to popularity again
the next gift on our list got kids off the couch and into the kitchen
the easy bake oven was introduced in 1963 inspired by the pretzel vendors of new york city though
you were not able to actually make any pretzels in the first version of the oven you could use it to
bake cakes or cookies using special mixes designed for the device kids could bake confections using
the heat of two 100 watt light bulbs that warmed the interior to up to 350 degrees hot stuff a toy
that promises an endless supply of cookies and cakes a surefire hit since 1963 over 50 million
easy-bake ovens have been sold and millions of tiny cakes have been poorly baked as a result
a long time ago in a galaxy far far away it was the 1970s and every kid wanted to get their hands
on star wars action figures after the surprise success of star wars the toy company kenner
rushed to produce the action figures the original 1978 figures are now worth as much as 30 000 each
to collectors you could buy a lot of cantina cocktails on tatooine with that kind of money
everyone knows that what children love most is adopting other children how else do you explain
a phenomenon like cabbage patch kids in 1976 when 21 year old art student xavier roberts
developed the first version of cabbage patch kids known then as little people it's hard to
believe he ever could have imagined that one day parents would be trampling each other in
shopping malls to buy the dolls by the end of 1983 almost 3 million dolls had been purchased
resulting in the most successful new doll introduction in the history of
the toy industry customers would go through an adoption process when purchasing the doll
prematurely preparing millions of children for the joys of parenthood
thinking about investing your hard-earned cash in stocks and bonds might we interest you in
some cute plushies filled with plastic pellets instead beanie babies traced their origins to
the late 1980s when ty warner began selling his own designs on the side while working for dakin
the world's largest manufacturer of stuffed toys when dawkin found out they fired him big mistake
huge thai beanie baby's success came not just from the product itself but from warner's sales tactics
so it always seemed like the toys were sold out by creating the illusion of scarcity
beanie babies went from five dollars to some selling for as much as 13 000 what a sneaky
bean prices were inflated and soon the bubble burst leaving many beanie investors in the lurch
they may not pay for your retirement but hey they still sure are cute games went from the couch to
the patch of carpet just in front of the couch in 2006 when nintendo introduced the wii system which
featured wireless controllers in motion-based games as of june 30th 2020 they'd sold
101.63 million wiis worldwide gamers were getting on their feet and playing new
innovative games such as tennis bowling and golf technology really never ceases to amaze
the tech world changed when the iphone came out and who doesn't want a really big iphone in 2010
the ipad was released and it was all that and more consumers were hungry for a multi-touch screen
the ipad allowed users to access their favorite games and sites via apps with the touch of a
finger more than 300 000 ipads sold at launch and just a month later that number reached 1 million
that's a lot of pads a favorite among moms taking photos and college students trying to netflix
and chill the ipad has remained a top-rated gift for the better part of the last decade
stay-at-home restrictions in the release of animal crossing new horizons led to a major
spike in sellout sales for the nintendo switch in 2020. due to the pandemic everyone was stuck
inside and had nothing better to do than build cute little islands in a computer-generated utopia
can you blame us switch prices surged to more than double the usual 299
as shoppers scrambled to get some face time with the illustrious tom nook 2020 has been a wild year
but even in these trying times you can always count on supply and demand to drive up prices
there were a few things worth looking forward to in the year 2020 but one of those things
thankfully was the release of two new gaming consoles playstation 5 and xbox series x
that's right people the console wars have finally returned when each was announced both ps5 and xbox
series x pre-orders sold out in minutes so this holiday season you know people will be
social distance trampling each other in stores to get their hands on these hot new systems
with many gamers locked down and looking for a distraction from the pandemic it's likely
we'll see demand for these consoles higher than any other playstation or xbox system in history
when it comes to the console wars never underestimate the power of gamers
well that's our list and we've checked it twice we've also checked our wallets to make sure
we have enough moolah to afford all of these perfect presents turns out buying every one of
the top gifts of the 20th century is quite the investment we're going to cash in our
beanie babies and see if they'll turn a profit one thing is for certain next year we'll bring
a new gift craze that we will gladly brave the maul's stampedes to get it under the tree
you