For our December Helping Hands event, AW chose to sponsor the Christmas Village Toy Store at the request of one of our visual designers. It is a suggestion that many AW employees embraced, as the excitement of children at Christmas far outweighs our own as adults.The inspiration came in 2006 for The Christmas Village Toy […]
Continue Reading12 Toys of Christmas: And a Partridge with a New Wii
December 25, 2008
Seeing the cool, new toys hit the shelf this Christmas really made me want to be a kid again. I thought back to the toys of my day (being a child of the 80’s) and realized that there is not a lot of difference if you take away the heavy influence of technology. Check out […]
Continue Reading12 Toys of Christmas: 2 Hulas Hooping
December 24, 2008
Oh the sweet memories of being entertained by a plastic hoop! I’m not embarrassed to say that this was one of my prized possessions growing up…and still is. For those of you who are not familiar with this amazing phenomenon let this paint a picture for you. After doing some quick research, I discovered that […]
Continue Reading12 Toys of Christmas: 3 Cabbage Patches Sprouting
December 23, 2008
Cabbage Patch Kids, still marketed today, became a growing fad in the early 1980s. The product itself was actually invented in the 1970s by Xavier Roberts, and was originally named Little People. It wasn’t until 1982 when the name “Cabbage Patch Kids” came into existence. The name “Cabbage Patch Kids,” according to Roberts, is said […]
Continue Reading12 Toys of Christmas: 4 Hot Wheels Hauling
December 22, 2008
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Literally every day, growing up, I had Hot Wheels vs. Matchbox championships. I would tear out a piece of my sketchpad, draw a bracket, make some fake crowd noise and fire up the little plastic engines. Turns out, in 1996, Mattel acquired the Matchbox brand from Tyco. I always wondered why the Hot Wheels […]
Continue Reading12 Toys of Christmas: 5 Busty Barbies
December 21, 2008
Imitated but never duplicated, Barbie is one of the most successful toys ever. Many of my Barbie® memories include my friends and I cutting her hair, searching for her high-heeled shoes and creating our own swimming pool in the bathroom sink. Barbie was certainly my favorite toy and I am sure many of you would […]
Continue Reading12 Toys of Christmas: 6 Silly Putties
December 20, 2008
What is Silly Putty? It squishes, stretches, bounces- you can even use it to lift images from the newspaper. This toy has been amusing kids and adults alike for the past 50 years. It seems like every time you pick it up, you can find something new to do with it. But did you ever […]
Continue Reading12 Toys of Christmas: 7 LEGOs Locking
December 19, 2008
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Growing up, we all probably built giant towers, trucks, buildings and castles out of LEGOs. It seems that everyone knows the LEGO brand, but maybe not the story behind the name. Coined in 1934, the name was created by its founder by truncating the Danish phrase “leg godt,” meaning “play well.” In addition, the […]
Continue Reading12 toys of Christmas: 8 Etches Sketching
December 18, 2008
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. If you are like most people, the best thing you can draw on an Etch A Sketch is a staircase- not a personal portrait or a rendition of a popular painting. The popular Etch A Sketch is a beloved toy that both intrigues and frustrates its users. The challenge to create a picture by […]
Continue Reading12 Toys of Christmas: 9 Nerfs Launching
December 17, 2008
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Every Christmas, my nicely wrapped gifts were filled with the latest and greatest Nerf guns; after all their slogan was “It’s NERF or nothing!” My childhood was filled with NERF balls zooming by my head as I rolled behind an object avoiding my archenemy’s (usually my best friend) vicious strike from his blaster. Okay […]
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