Custom Toys and Novelty Gifts
General Information
Custom toys and novelty gifts are great promotional tools for both young and old alike. They can be a fun and unique way to display your message or logo. Customers, clients, and employees appreciate promotional gifts that they can enjoy.
Custom toys and novelty gifts range from the simple and extravagant to the fun and classy. Some examples of promotional toy and novelty items include: yo-yos, slinkys, piggy banks, gumball machines, stuffed animals, bracelets, water guns, keychains, sticky hands, balls, model cars and beach toys.
A Brief History of Toys
Straight from the History Channel, here is a quick timeline of toy evolution:
- In 4000 B.C. a board game was played in Babylonia that was more than likely the ancestor of chess and checkers.
- In 1759 roller skates are invented by Joseph Merlin.
- In 1840 dolls are mass-produced in America for the first time.
- In 1843 “The Mansion of Happiness” becomes the first board game sold in the U.S.
- In 1903 the first box of Crayola crayons is produced.
- In 1943 a Navy engineer discovers that a torsion spring will “walk” end over end and the Slinky is born. If stretched end to end, the Slinky toys sold since 1945 would wrap around the world 126 times.
- In 1952 Hasbro introduces Mr. Potato Head banking on the idea that kids like to play with their food.
- In 1956 Play-doh originally enters the market as wallpaper cleaner. Soon people began to realize that it made a great toy, it was non-toxic and made less of a mess than regular modeling clay.
