Toys

A display of Roman toys, including several that would be familiar to children today: a doll, dice, rattles, and toy dishes for playing house.

A toy is something to play with, for children, adults or both. They may either be the sole device used in an enjoyable activity or one of many. Toys have existed for thousands of years; dolls either of infants, animals, or soldiers, and miniature representations of the tools of adults are readily found at archaeological sites. The Inca, for example, had a rolling toy even though their adult culture did not employ the wheel. Two comparatively recent developments of toys have been their mass production and copyrighting. A number of these copyrighted, mass-produced toys are associated with particular decades in the twentieth century.

Many successful films, television programs, books and sport teams have official merchandise, quite often toys will be made and sold. Some notable examples are Star Wars and Manchester United. The haulage company owned by Eddie Stobart produced model lorries, which now subsidise the business.

Toys sold primarily as entertainment for adults are termed executive toys as some were originally marketed as a way to reduce executive stress. The term also avoids 'adult toy' which has connotations of sex toys used to enhance sexual excitement.

Medieval ship's model as toy for children, c. 1465

Some things usually thought to be games are actually toys, such as the computer game SimCity and its spinoffs, which are called software toys. As a rule, if something game-like lacks an explicit end state, it is a toy, not a game.

Toys by culture

This is not a complete list.

US pioneers: In the 1800's many families crossing the great plains were known as pioneers. The pioneer children often had such toys as tops and dolls. They also played simple games like 'hide and seek'.

America: Today Americans have all sorts of toys, the main ones being listed below. But this is and era of computers and video games, and many children (and even adults) have toys such as the Xbox, Gamecube, etc. and computer games such as Half-life.