Word: etchings
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...living rooms will be spread with some new variations on some old favorites: Lionel trains snaking around the tree, Barbie waving from her red Ferrari, G.I. Joe rappelling from the chimney with care. There will be Lego castles aloft by Christmas dinnertime, cabins carved of Lincoln Logs, and portraits etched on the Etch A Sketch. Even some new hits, like Lewis Galoob's Micro Machines, are souped-up successors to such staples as Matchbox cars. "All these toys have predictable long life," says Peter Harris, president of F.A.O. Schwarz in Manhattan, "while enhancing children's fantasies and imagination...
...best of them are infinitely simple and endlessly entertaining. There are nearly 103 million ways, for example, in which six eight-stud Lego bricks of the same color can be joined together. An artist in Colorado has re-created part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling on his Etch A Sketch. A classic toy, says John Brandt, manager of Toys International in Los Angeles, "is something where the child's imagination is the most important thing...
Over the years, the basic instruction sets grew in length, as miniaturization allowed computer designers to etch more circuits into silicon chips. The most advanced microprocessors began to resemble state-of-the-art calculators that could compute everything from square roots to compound interest at the touch of a button. By the time Digital Equipment introduced its best-selling VAX 11/780 computer in 1977, the machine's instruction set had swelled to 304 commands...
Tony Henja, who now plays for RPI, played for Nichols during Ciavaglia's junior year. Henja broke all the school's scoring records that year. But before the school could etch Henja's marks into the record books, Ciavaglia set all-new scoring records during his senior year. He scored 53 goals that season...
...disaster for the industry as a whole. Traditional toys have not lost their appeal, however short they may be on microprocessors. There will apparently never be a shortage of buyers for Crayola crayons, LEGO blocks and roller skates. Indeed, Ohio Art says sales of its Etch A Sketch, now in its 28th year, are up 50% this year. Says Gil Wachsman, president of the 128-store Child World chain: "What we're seeing is people moving toward better quality, and intrinsic to that is better value." For parents who still have closets full of little-used toys from Christmases past...