He-Man, Nerf Among Finalists For The Toy Hall Of Fame

Cooperstown isn't the only town in upstate New York with a Hall of Fame. The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY has a Toy Hall of Fame. They have been inducting toys into their HOF since 1998 when the Teddy Bear, Crayola Crayons, Frisbee, Barbie, Erector Set, Etch-O-Sketch, Monopoly, Tinkertoy, Play-Doh, Marbles and Legos made up the inaugural class. They are now up to 77 toys and have announced the ballot for the 2022 class:

Bingo

Is Bingo a toy? It's more of an activity. I was never that excited to play Bingo as a kid. Old people LOVE it. What other toy has halls named after it? This is a fringe choice for me.

Breyer Horses

Never heard of these but they are plastic horses that have been around since the 1950's and are apparently a collector's item now. This has no business being on this list. I'd rather see that Fisher Price farm set on here. Every kid had that in the 1980's and early 90's.

Settlers Of Catan

I've never played this but I know this is a very popular board game. Risk got in last year so there is precedence for board games for adults.

Lite-Brite

Lots of kids had Lite-Brite when I was a kid but no one seemed to play it more than a couple times.  Once you make a design or two,  it loses appeal faster then almost any toy of that time period. This was an idea that seems much more fun in theory than practice.

Masters Of The Universe

Automatic HOFer. These figures were fucking great. They were really well made and some of them were really creative. You had the standards like He-Man and Man-at Arms and then you also had Moss Man (which smelled like real moss). The Castle Greyskull was one of the best toys I've ever seen complete with a cool microphone.

Nerf Toys

The biggest lock on this list. Nerf has been around forever and is so innovative. It's criminal that it's not already in here. Sand got in last year. I'm not kidding. Sand. How can you induct sand before Nerf?

Piñata

A birthday party staple, I don't know if I've seen a piñata at any other time? They are pretty fun in the moment but I think it might better regarded than it should be because they are never around.

Phase 10

This was always what you only played out of total desperation. Maybe you were trapped indoors at a family friend's house on a rainy day and this was the only game they had. Then you had to play Phase 10. Even the name is boring. I never had fun playing this. It's the toy equivalent of being in jail.

Pound Puppies

This was a well-made toy. I just don't know if they were popular long enough to be on this list.

Rack-O

I've never heard of this game. I've never played it. I guess it's a card game from Milton Bradley that came out in the 1950's.

Spirograph

Occasionally an adult would break this out (never a kid) and I would leave the room as soon as possible. I always had really bad handwriting and I would suck at this. I didn't like the patterns or the graphs.

Top

Getting a top always sucked but it probably should be in the Hall of Fame. It's been around forever. When I was a kid, you'd see them as a throwaway item in gift bags after birthday parties or if some business had random free toys. It's the kid version of junk you'd get at a trade show. I wonder if there was ever a time when kids were happy to get a top? I imagine so. You'd see some toys (especially before the invention of plastic) that seemed horrible. Kids had wooden blocks, paper dolls and tops.

They do allow people to vote once per day and the top three fan choices will be matched with the top three selections from their committee and that will decide the Class of 2022. If you don't vote Nerf, you got to vote for Greyskull.