Could Your Favorite Childhood Toy Make It Into The National HOF?

If there’s one thing that can bring anyone and everyone together, it’s toys. 

Some of our best childhood memories are playing with our favorite toys and games. Whether it was by ourselves in our rooms or with our family and friends, playing with our toys allowed us to create our own stories and worlds to escape reality for a little while.

In both good times and bad, our most-loved toys brought us comfort and security, and they often never left our side.

Now, as “grown ups” (ick), we rarely have time to relax and enjoy ourselves. The time for playing has been replaced with daily grinds and responsibilities. (Not to mention sleeping with your favorite stuffed animal gets a little weird past a certain age.) But the nostalgia of playing with our favorite toys can still make us smile, even in our busy adult lives.

That’s why we love seeing which toys are being looked at to join the National Toy Hall of Fame. It brings back great memories or simpler times, when we actually had time to play without a care in the world.

Could your favorite childhood toy make it into the hall of fame this year?

National Toy Hall of Fame Names 2023 Finalists

Located within the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, the National Toy Hall of Fame has been inducting famous games and playthings into its halls since 1998. 

Anyone can nominate a toy they think deserves to be in by submitting it to Strong Museum, but the final selection of inductees is decided by an advisory of historians, curators, and educators based on three factors:

• Icon-status: The toy is widely recognized, respected, and remembered
• Longevity: The toy is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over multiple generations
•  Discovery: The toy fosters learning, creativity, or discovery through play
• Innovation: The toy profoundly changed play or toy design

Seventy-one different toys throughout history, like the Light Bright, American Girl Dolls, and the ball (yes, the simple ball) have been inducted over the years, but there’s still many that are missing. That’s why every year, the HOF releases a list of final nominees that could make it in this year, and every year, we love to look at them and pick our favorites.

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Keep scrolling to see if one of your beloved childhood toys made the cut to be a finalist for the 2023 National Toy Hall Of Fame!