50 Fun Facts About Retro

What was Slinky inventor Richard James's job when he saw a spring 'walk' off a shelf in 1943?

His wife Betty picked the name, and about 300 million were sold in the toy's first 60 years.

How long did it take the first 400 Slinkys to sell at their 1945 Philadelphia department store debut?

The toy later did duty as a classroom physics prop and as an improvised radio antenna in Vietnam.

The Rubik's Cube was invented in 1974 by a Hungarian sculptor and professor of what?

It was originally called the Magic Cube and was licensed to Ideal Toy Corp in 1980.

Roughly how many Rubik's Cubes had been sold worldwide as of January 2024?

The cube has about 43 quintillion possible arrangements and only one solved state.

What did French electrician André Cassagnes originally call the Etch A Sketch?

The name means 'the magic screen'; the Ohio Art Company launched it in the US for Christmas 1960.

The inside of an Etch A Sketch screen is coated with a fine powder of which metal?

Shaking the toy re-coats the glass; it entered the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998.

The View-Master, whose reels hold seven stereoscopic pairs of pictures, was introduced at which event?

The US military bought 100,000 viewers and nearly six million reels for training between 1942 and 1945.

Wham-O's plastic hula hoop went on sale in 1958 and sold how many in under four months?

Sales passed 100 million within two years; the name came from the Hawaiian hula dance.

The Pet Rock was created in 1975 by Gary Dahl, who worked in what industry?

He sold nearly 1.5 million at just under $4 each and became a millionaire before the fad died in early 1976.

The mood ring craze of 1975 relied on which technology to change colour with skin temperature?

By December 1975 some $15 million of rings had been sold, and then the market collapsed within weeks.

Edward Craven Walker invented the lava lamp in 1963 after seeing an egg timer bubbling where?

His first model was called the Astro, and his company Mathmos still makes them in Poole, Dorset.

The Simon memory game was launched in 1978 at which famous New York nightclub?

Ralph Baer and Howard Morrison based it on Atari's arcade game Touch Me, and it retailed for $24.95.

Under what name did Xavier Roberts originally sell the dolls that became Cabbage Patch Kids?

The name had to change because Fisher-Price already owned it; Coleco began mass-producing the dolls in 1982.

How many Cabbage Patch Kids did Coleco ship in 1983, the year of the Christmas 'riots' in toy stores?

The company pulled all its promotion because it could not keep up with demand.

The Tamagotchi's name is a portmanteau of the Japanese word for 'watch' and the Japanese word for what?

Bandai released it in Japan on November 23, 1996, and many schools banned it for distracting pupils.

The 1990s Pogs craze took its name from POG, a brand of what?

The letters stood for passionfruit, orange and guava; a Hawaiian teacher revived the milk-cap game for her class in 1991.

Stuart Anders, who invented the slap bracelet in 1983, worked as what in Wisconsin?

Cheap knock-offs with thinner steel could cut wrists, and many schools banned them.

The Sony Walkman went on sale in Japan in July 1979. What was it initially called in the United States?

It was the Stowaway in Britain and the Freestyle in Australia and Sweden before Sony standardised the name; 'Walkman' entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1986.

Sony's Betamax lost the format war to VHS, yet Sony kept making blank Beta cassettes until when?

The recorders themselves stayed in production until August 2002.

The 8-track cartridge was created in 1965 by a consortium led by the founder of which aviation company?

Ford offered factory-installed players on the 1966 Mustang, Thunderbird and Lincoln, and the endless-loop tape could not be rewound.

The first floppy disks, made by IBM in 1971, were how big across?

The 1.44 MB 3.5-inch disk that became standard shipped in 1986, and its shape survives as the 'save' icon.

Which company, in floppies since 1983, sold its last 3.5-inch disks in March 2011?

By then the disks were mostly a skeuomorph in software menus rather than a storage medium.

Push-button Touch-Tone telephones were first shown to the public at which event?

The rotary dial lives on in the verb 'to dial' a number.

The first telephone pager system was patented in 1949 by which inventor?

The Bell System showed its Bellboy pager at a 1960s world's fair, and Japan's last paging service shut down in October 2019.

What did Polaroid's SX-70 folding instant camera cost when Edwin Land unveiled it in April 1972?

Film packs of ten cost $6.90 more, yet Polaroid still sold 700,000 cameras by mid-1974.

The 2600 console was released in 1977 under what original name?

It was rebranded the 2600 in November 1982, and the 1980 home port of Space Invaders was its killer app.

In which state did Atari bury 14 truckloads of unsold cartridges, including E.T., in 1983?

A 2014 excavation dug up roughly 700,000 cartridges and confirmed the long-rumoured burial.

Pong, the first commercially successful video game, was created in 1972 by Allan Alcorn as what?

The prototype went into Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, and Sears sold the home version exclusively for Christmas 1975.

What was Pac-Man originally called in Japan?

Namco released it in Japan on May 22, 1980, and it became the best-selling arcade game of all time.

What are the four ghosts in Pac-Man called?

The colours are red, pink, cyan and orange, and each has its own chasing behaviour.

Why did designer Tomohiro Nishikado keep the enemies speeding up as you shoot them in Space Invaders (1978)?

The hardware quirk became a feature, and the game had grossed $3.8 billion by 1982.

The hero of Donkey Kong (1981) was originally called Jumpman. After whom was he renamed Mario?

Mario Segale owned the office building; Universal later sued Nintendo over King Kong and lost.

Which puzzle game was bundled with the Game Boy for its North American launch?

Gunpei Yokoi's team designed the handheld, which with the Game Boy Color sold about 118.69 million units.

How many days after New Coke's launch did Coca-Cola announce the original formula's return?

The old drink came back as Coca-Cola Classic; New Coke was renamed Coke II in 1990 and dropped in 2002.

New Coke was briefly brought back in 2019 as a promotional tie-in with which Netflix series?

The show's third season is set in the summer of 1985, the year of the original launch.

Crystal Pepsi's Super Bowl commercial in January 1993 was set to a hit song by which band?

The clear cola launched in test markets in April 1992 and was discontinued by late 1993, before a 2016 comeback.

Tang became famous when NASA put it on whose 1962 Mercury flight?

The association created the lasting myth that Tang was invented for the space programme.

Which General Foods scientist, who also formulated Tang, patented the concept behind Pop Rocks in 1961?

The candy's pop comes from pressurised carbon dioxide bubbles; it reached US shops in 1976.

An urban legend claimed 'Little Mikey' from the Life cereal ads died after mixing Pop Rocks with what?

The child actor, John Gilchrist, was and is perfectly fine.

How much did the original Swanson TV Dinner of 1953 sell for?

The first production run was just 5,000 dinners in aluminium trays.

The DeLorean DMC-12 was built from 1981 in a factory near which city?

About 9,000 were made before the company collapsed, days after John DeLorean's arrest on drug-trafficking charges.

The last original Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the line on July 30, 2003, in which country?

By then 21,529,464 had been built, and Ad Age voted its 'Think Small' campaign the best of the 20th century.

The first drive-in movie theatre opened on June 6, 1933, in which US state?

Richard Hollingshead's idea peaked at more than 4,000 drive-ins across the US in 1958.

On the BBC's Test Card F, what is Carole Hersee playing noughts and crosses with?

The clown, Bubbles, and the card clocked up roughly 70,000 hours of airtime.

Stretch Armstrong, sold by Kenner from 1976, is a latex figure filled with a gel similar to what?

It stretches from about 15 inches to four or five feet, and the box booklet said tears could be fixed with a sticking plaster.

Which company introduced the Speak & Spell at the summer Consumer Electronics Show in 1978?

Its speech-synthesis chip and cartridge slot earned it recognition as an IEEE Milestone in 2009.

'Jukebox' came into use around 1940 from 'juke joints', rooted in a Gullah word meaning what?

Manufacturers such as Wurlitzer and Seeburg tried to avoid the word because of its disreputable associations.

Which Dutch company introduced the Compact Cassette in August 1963?

Lou Ottens' team designed it for dictation; from 1983 to 1991 it was the top-selling format for new music in the US.

Troll dolls were created by a woodcutter named Thomas Dam from which country?

The smaller 1959 versions became one of America's biggest toy fads of the early 1960s, and DreamWorks bought the brand in 2013.

Lite-Brite was designed at Marvin Glass and Associates and licensed to which toymaker in 1967?

Time named it one of the top 100 toys of all time in 2011 and it entered the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2022.