The toy I chose to play with over
the weekend was the Tyco Mini Typhoon II Hovercraft. This toy
was given to me for Christmas in 1990 and quickly became my favorite
toy, surpassing even the colorful and addictive Nintendo system.
For me the metrics of evaluating a successful toy rely in its
power to do something fun, but different and special that the
child can do only with it. If the child is able to come up with
thousands of ideas to do with the toy then the work is nearly
over.
Although my hovercraft lasted only a few years it has stayed with
me since. My roommate has newer supped-up version of the hovercraft
but it still has the same physics of the one I owned. The craft
is small, about 14" x 11" x 9". It floats over
land and sea and needs four hours of battery charging for about
fifteen minutes of play. You can check out more about it here:
http://medialit.med.sc.edu/typhoonscript.htm.
It really doesn’t seem like it would make me feel so nostalgic
and yet my childhood fascination with it still permeates to this
day.
Playing with my roommate’s hovercraft over the weekend gave
me time to reflect on why the toy was as meaningful to me as a
child as it is today. In 1990, at age seven I only knew of only
remote control cars. I heard of Toy helicopters and planes but
they required a lot of more assembly and time.
After reading the assigned articles
I found myself questioning whether I would want to enter a career
in toy design. I enjoyed reading the article on http://www.townsend-outlook.com/edits_college/art/art_toy.html,
which states “being a professional toy designer means being
a combination of a Designer, Engineer, and Marketing Person.”
When I think about what made the hovercraft so special to me I
realize it’s because there is nothing quite like it.
The Tyco Mini Typhoon II Hovercraft
floated over water and ground and moved like a hockey puck. It
was easy to control and looked very sleek with a round figured
with powerful fans in the back. Just for aesthetic reasons the
hovercraft was cool. It looked futuristic, different, and most
of it exciting. You didn’t quite know what it was going
to do when you turned on for the first time or the second or third.
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