Submitted by S Fonseca

Pin Art is the name of an executive toy pinscreen, a boxed surface made of a crowded array of pins that are free to slide back and forth independently in a screen to create a three-dimensional relief. Other similar product names are “PinPressions” and “Pinhead”. Pinscreens were previously applied as animation in films.

Pin Art toys were once made of metal pins. Because the metal pins bent easily, newer Pin Art toys are generally made of plastic pins. The plastic pins are thicker and do not move as easily as the metal pins, causing the toy to create a somewhat less detailed relief of an object.

Submitted by SK

From Wikipedia:

Lite-Brite allows the artist to create a “glowing” picture. The picture is created by placement of multi-colored translucent plastic pegs through opaque black paper. The light from an illuminated light bulb is blocked by the black paper except where the pegs conduct the light through. When lit, the pegs have an appearance similar to that of LEDs. Most Lite-Brite toys come with a series of pre-prepared patterns. Classic patterns include the “Wizard of Light” (a picture of a wizard with the “Lite-Brite” name above), and the clown.

From Wikipedia:

Fraggle Rock is a children’s television series with a total of 5 seasons and 96 episodes that originally ran from January 10, 1983 to March 30, 1987 on HBO in the United States, CBC Television in Canada, TV2 in New Zealand and ITV in the UK. It was later shown in the UK on Boomerang and Cartoonito. In 2008, Fraggle Rock is showing in the UK on POP! and Tiny Pop, in Australia on Boomerang and in Canada on Teletoon Retro. The series was created by Jim Henson, primarily featuring a cast of Muppet creatures called Fraggles, with music by Philip Balsam and Dennis Lee. It was one of the first shows to be co-produced by HIT Entertainment since its foundation in 1989 when it was called Henson International Television, the international arm of Jim Henson Productions.

The vision of Fraggle Rock articulated by Jim Henson was to depict a colourful and fun world. Also a world with a relatively complex system of symbiotic relationships between different “races” of creatures, an allegory to the human world, where each group was somewhat unaware of how interconnected and important they were to one another. Creating this allegorical world allowed the program to entertain and amuse while seriously exploring complex issues of prejudice, spirituality, personal identity, environment, and social conflict. Fraggle Rock generally refused to over-simplify any individual issue, instead simply illustrating the consequences and inherent difficulties of different actions and relationships.

The show was a worldwide hit, like Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. The “Fraggle Rock Theme” reached number 33 in the British charts during the phenomenon.

From Wikipedia:

Founded in 1930 by Herman Fisher, Irving Price and his wife, illustrator and artist Margaret Evans Price and Helen Schelle, the name Fisher-Price was established by combining two of the three founders’ names. Fisher worked previously in manufacturing, selling and advertising games for a company in Churchville, New York. Price had retired from a major variety chain store, and Helen Schelle previously operated Penny Walker Toy Shop in Binghamton, New York. Fisher-Price’s fundamental toy- making principles centered on intrinsic play value, ingenuity, strong construction, good value for the money, and action. Early toys were made of heavy steel parts and ponderosa pine, which resisted splintering and held up well to heavy use. The details and charm were added with colorful lithographic labels. Mrs. Price was the first Art Director and designed push-pull toys for the opening line, based on characters from her childrens’ books.

In 1931, the three founders took 16 of their wooden toys to the American International Toy Fair in New York City and they quickly became a success. The first Fisher-Price toy ever sold was “Dr. Doodle” in 1931. (The same toy, in excellent condition, would be worth a considerable amount in today’s collectables market.) In the early 1950s, Fisher-Price identified plastic as a material that could help the company incorporate longer-lasting decorations and brighter colors into its toys. “Buzzy Bee” was the first Fisher-Price toy to make use of plastic. By the end of the 1950s, Fisher-Price manufactured 39 toys incorporating plastics.

During the 1960s, the Play Family (later known as Little People) product line was introduced and soon overtook the popularity of earlier toys. Herman Fisher retired at the age of 71 in 1969 and the Quaker Oats Company bought Fisher-Price the same year.

In 1991, Fisher-Price regained its independence from The Quaker Oats Company and became a publicly traded company. Two years later, in November 1993, Fisher Price became a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel. A new management group set the company’s focus on basic, infant and preschool products and began expansion into international markets. By 1997 Mattel decided to market all of its preschool products under the Fisher-Price name.

Submitted by i Bartolo

From Wikipedia:

New Coke was the unofficial name of the sweeter formulation introduced in 1985 by The Coca-Cola Company to replace its flagship soft drink, Coca-Cola or Coke. Properly speaking, it had no separate name of its own, but was simply known as “the new taste of Coca-Cola”, until 1992 when it was renamed Coca-Cola II.

Public reaction to the change was poor, and the new cola was a major marketing failure. The subsequent reintroduction of Coke’s original formula led to a significant gain in sales.

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