Every Top Toy from the Last 50 Years Explained @WIRED
Please raise your hand if you’re holding on to an irrational amount of childhood toys because you were told they’d be worth a lot of money when you’re older.
Chris Bensch, chief curator at the Strong Museum of Play, delves into the backstories of each and every über-popular toy released over the last 50 years. In 1977 Star Wars action figures hit the market and revolutionized the toy industry. 1979’s Atari 2600 popularized home video game consoles and 1995’s Beanie Babies started one of the biggest collecting phenomenons we’d ever seen.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
