Toy Research:Animal toys, Build-it-yourself toys and Kites

Kristine, Illenna, Mari and Mary Kate

Take-aways from Readings

★ Play is by definition something that is not serious★ Play is voluntary - it is fun, and this encourages unconscious learning. ★ Play is creative and representative(a play fight represents a fight).★ Play involves an interaction between abstract concepts and the physical world★ Play can be repeated and turn into a tradition. People who often play together will

form a community★ People want to ‘succeed’ at something when they play★ Play has time and spatial limitations.★ Play is irrational, play confirms our nature as being more than mechanical.★ Play in animal - young species use play for skill learning and practice. ★ “Life must be lived as play”

Take-aways from Readings

The Play Pyramid:★ A simple classification - very powerful reference in toy design and toy design education. ★ Play value: a measure of the benefit of the play - play value is ultimately determined by the user.★ Categories of toys in the play pyramid:

○ Sensory: This play involves aesthetics and entertaining the senses.○ Fantasy: This play is about role-playing or it has a level of pretense.○ Construction: This play is about creating.○ Challenge: Physical - both fine and gross motor skill development and Mental (e.g. throwing a

Frisbee)★ The play pyramid explains that a child at age 2 may play with the same toy in a completely different

manner at the age of 3 or 4, or even not play with it anymore.

The First Book of Toys:★ Toys today help us to understand our world - e.g. construction toys, telescopes, scientific toys.★ Toys may perhaps have come from nature when people used nutshells as toy dishes or pebbles for playing

jacks.

Animal Toys

HISTORY:- The German Steiff Company created the first commercial stuffed toys in 1880.- In order to make their stuffed toys, Steiff used new technology that was developed for upholstery.

(upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric, or leather covers.

- Ithaca Kitty became the first mass-produced stuffed animal toys in the United States in 1892.

TYPES:- Handcrafted: Amigurumi - a Japanese type of handcrafted knitted or crocheted

stuffed toys. Usually looks cute with oversized heads and undersized extremities.-- Brands: Pillow pets - a brand of stuffed toys that can be folded from a pillow into a

stuffed animal.Some brands of stuffed toys use marketing strategies to encourage the collection of a series of stuffed toys, such as Beanie Babies.

Animal Toys

- Fads: Fads included several brands of electronic and robotic plush toys when they were first released. For example: Tickle me Elmo, Furby, and Zhu Zhu Pets.

- Tickle me Elmo: a laughing and shaking toy based on the character Elmo from the Sesame street television show, which was released in 1996.

- Furby: a robotic talking plush toy with its own language, released in 1998.- Zhu Zhu Pets: a line of robotic plush hamsters released in 2009.

- Virtual brands: Webkinz: stuffed animals that were created by Ganz in 2005. Each Webkinz toys have its unique “secret code”, that give access to the “Webkinz World” website and a “virtual version of the toy for online play.

Disney’s Club Penguin and Build-A-Bearville from Build-A-Bear Workshop are other online worlds with content that can be unlocked from codes found on associated stuffed toys.In 2013, Disney launched its first collection of Tsum Tsum stuffed toys based on characters from different Disney properties, inspired by the popular app of the same name.

Build-it-yourself Toys

● Meccano in 1901! “Mechanics made easy”● Followed by Tinkertoy in 1914● LEGO was founded in 1932

Build-it-yourself Toys

● Commonly used to help us understand our world. The first models we tend to build are houses, animals, planes, etc.

● Huge educational aspect! Especially in STEM fields. Every single one of these companies has a section on their website dedicated to education.

Build-it-yourself Toys

● People who often play together will form a community

Kites

★ From the first book of toys:○ Originated from Asia, they were first used in religious ceremonies.

Purpose: frighten away evil spirits.○ In China, ninth day of ninth month is “Kites” Day.○ In Korea - tradition of flying kites in the first two weeks of new year with their names

written on it. Symbolism: Carry away bad luck that may come in the new year. ○ Made of paper, frames of thin wood, cloth for balance.

★ It is believed that the very first kite was made by Mo Di (468-376 BC), a famous

philosopher who lived on Mount Lu in Shanghai.

★ Generally accepted that Kites originated in China. In China, the kite is known as

Fengzheng and this name came into use during the Five Dynasties (907-960AD).

Source: http://www.sacu.org/kitehistory.html

Kite tales‘A long time ago a man wanted to fly up to the sky and the stars.

He was so determined that he built himself a kite big enough to carry him into the sky.

He flew so high that he became an immortal deity.’Source: https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/03/kites-rise-on-the-wind/

★ Early kites used for military

purposes, e.g. Chinese and

Japanese learned to use kites

for raising soldiers in the air

as snipers or spies.

https://www.batchelors.net/kites-in-the-classroom/10-kites-a-brief-history-for-students-and-teachers.html

Kites, a tool to further understand our world

★ Used by meteorologists to lift instruments into the atmosphere to measure the variations in

altitude. Benjamin Franklin used it to demonstrate that lightning was similar to static electricity

by flying a kite in an electrical storm and observe sparks coming from a key suspended on the

kite.

★ Kites used to pull carriages.

★ Life saving device

★ Good starting point in development of air

flying machines, powering aircraft design.

https://www.batchelors.net/kites-in-the-classroom/10-kites-a-brief-history-for-students-and-teachers.html

The Weifang Kite Tradition

The Weifang International Kite Festival happens

from April 20th to the 25th each year. Kite

enthusiasts come each year to participate in the

kite competition, and someone is crowned “Kite

King” each year. Weifang also has a museum

dedicated to the history of the kite.

As a sport, or a hobby, kites have much in their favour. They are cheap, quite easy to make, and

most importantly, kites can teach the maker much about the physical world.

Source:

https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/culture/kites.htm