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Show Toys replicas of today's adult society and culture This Popeye ring toss game, cir. 1 935 is an early example of a cartoon character that is used on a toy product. The matador and Ferdinand (the bull) is a 1939 wind up toy produced by Walt Disney. The horse is a pull toy manufactured in pre-World War I Germany. The turn-over tank is an example of a World War II war toy. By DON ETA GATHERUM The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys and that's the key to an industry that generated ge-nerated $11.4 billion in sales in the United States last year. The toy market is one of the most successful and competitive businesses in the nation-Interest nation-Interest in toys starts at an early age and traditionally tradi-tionally grows with earning capacity. Yet in today's world the rising prices of a boy's and a man's toy are coming closer together. For example, computer games start at $15 and run up to $90 a game. Travis Hatch, salesman for Telos Communications, claims 40 percent of all software sold is related to games. "This doesn't necessarily mean the games are all being used by children," Hatch said. "There are many games designed for adults. Some of the best selling adult software are golf games. One of the best is "Links," a product developed in Bountiful. While computer-oriented toys can be unisex, the stuff little girls like have also come a long way from the day when a rag doll would suffice. Today's little girl wants the latest Barbie with all her accessories. Sally Barber from Toys 4 Less said Barbie is one of the few toys on the market this year that is considered a "hot selling" item. "Barbie is celebrating her 50th year and this is working well for the doll and for Mattel, the company that markets Barbie," Barber stated What makes toys so important? The experts tell us toys recreate the world in miniature, min-iature, sometimes realistically, sometimes fancifully. ; They tell us many things about the society that created them. Besides being indicators telling us what children did in the past, they also convey a notion of the values the adults in the society held, especially in their attitudes at-titudes toward children. Toys mirror the development of their prototypes in the "real" world and help to show us the degree of importance attached by a society to the models after which toys are patterned. Finally, toys indicate the technical accomplishments of a society. A century and a half before Christ, Hero of Alexandria Alex-andria had invented a singing bird that used water to create the noise. w The soldiers of Frederick the Great reenacted their battle victories using tin soldiers they created. Dr. Kent Day, an anthropologist and curator of the Heritage Museum in Layton, says toys didn't develop until civilization was advanced beyond the stone age ; stage. t , . "Primitive people were too busy trying to exist to t create toys or other objects of art and amusement," Day said. The first objects believed to be toys are dolls, fetishes or figurines. These objects, scientists believe, are closely connected with religious worship. Their placement in gravesites suggest they were part of burial rituals. Musical instruments such as flutes, whistles and percussion objects were other forms of early toys that were also used in connection with religious practices. In his book, "Toys through the Ages," Dan Foley suggests a dried gourd might have been the earliest form of a toy. By using these toys, a child learned to mimic his elders, thus passing down religious ceremonies from one generation to the next. Because of the rough abuse toys are subjected to and the inexpensive nature of the materials used to make toys, much that is written about pre-historic toys is based largely on theory, not fact. Day notes that cloth, string and even clay are easily destroyed, leaving few objects intact to help us determine deter-mine the exact role toys played in early civilizations. "We do know toys were used to help a child learn his role as an adult. Dolls and dishes taught little girls the correct behavior for mothers, while miniature hunting hun-ting and farming implements gave boys experience using the tools they would need in their role as a father," Day said. "Until very recently, toys were made in homes by parents or other older members of the family unit." Examples of toys from Persia, Egypt and Mediterranean Mediter-ranean civilizations that pre-date the Christian era include in-clude those already mentioned plus hobby horses, sleds, balls (made from animal bladders), tops, hoops, kites, marbles and pull toys mounted on wheels. The word "toy" comes from the old English root word, "teon," meaning to draw or lead (a pull toy.) Day believes many of the marbles, cards and small gaming pieces found in ancient cultures were not toys but were used by adults in competitions that tested skill. Frequently these objects were used for gambling. gambl-ing. By the 18th century, toys were a well-established part of every developed culture. During the French Revolution, miniature toy guillotines appeared in the toy markets of Paris. Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography mentions purchasing a whistle from a toy store in Boston at the age of seven. In April 1726, William Price was advertising adver-tising "children's toys sold at reasonable prices" in the "Boston Gazette." Tin and iron were used in toy manufacturing following the Civil War. The toys created out of these materials reflected the growth of the country--miniature railroad systems, tin watches, mechanical dancing donkeys, mechanical banks and musical elephants accompanied by a monkey. The manufacturing of toys as an industry outside of a home setting probably started about three centuries ago with German woodcarvers who converted blocks of pine into carefully crafted animals and dolls. Nurenberg became the great distribution center for rural village toy makers in the 18th century. The industry in-dustry grew so rapidly that by the beginning of the 20th century, toy manufacturing was one of Germany's Ger-many's most important industries and one-fourth of all toys manufactured in Germany were shipped to the United States, claims Folley in his book. Until the end of the 1800s there was not a doll factory fac-tory in the United States. This meant the cost of toys was very high because nearly all toys were imported. This changed with World War I when our major source of toy supply, Germany, became our enemy. After World War I, strict import taxes were placed on toys, thereby stimulating the industry in the United States. 'ri V't t'v. Kt-4 w Vv'A 4 : - x r 'its : Wl 1 ' . , jmi i i r i .... , i ; - - - I I ft- ; i , if. ?; -f . j Sesame Street's "Ernie," is just one of the many television and movie characters depicted in today's toys. Toys reflect today's world. S "f r4 ",SriS Jk A- V- - ! f'fff Dolls like the ones pictured were produced in Germany and imported to the United States in great quantities at the turn of the century. The most valuable of the three pictured is the smallest one. This is because it has not been repaired and it is wearing its original dress. It is believed that dolls were among the first toys used in society. Anciently, a dell or a figurine started as an object connected with religion or burials. Because the objects were small, children used them as role-playing role-playing objects, imitating the ceremonies and customs of adults. Toys have helped children learn the roles of adults. Traditionally, boys would play with small replicas of the tools their fathers used. Girls would have miniature dishes, cupboards, ironing boards and dolls so that they could imitate the role of a wife and mother. In primitive societies, children were too busy working to play with toys. |