Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen
(7 April 1891 – 11 March 1958)

In 1932, Ole founded the construction toy company The Lego
Group. He toiled away in Billund, Denmark, for decades before
creating Leg Godt, which means “play well.” His workshop was destroyed by fire twice. He endured bankruptcy and a world war
that caused a shortage of materials.

Finally, in the late 1940s, Ole Christiansen landed on the idea for
self-locking plastic bricks. By the time Ole Kirk died in 1958,
Legos was on the verge of becoming a household word.

On March 9, 1959, the first Barbie doll went  on display at the
American Toy Fair in New York City.

Eleven inches tall, with a waterfall of blond hair, Barbie was the
first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult
features. The woman behind Barbie was Ruth Handler, who co-
founded Mattel, Inc. with her husband in 1945. After seeing her
young daughter ignore her baby dolls to play make-believe with
paper dolls of adult women, Handler realized there was an
important niche in the market for a toy that allowed little girls
to imagine the future.

First Barbie TV commercial in 1959.

The woman behind Barbie was Ruth Handler,who co-founded Mattel, Inc. with her husband in 1945.

On January 23, 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company rolled
out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs—now known
to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.

The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where
William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students
from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each
other, yelling “Frisbie!” as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick
Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic
version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer” that could fly further
and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it
to the new toy company Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter”–an attempt
to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying
Objects (UFOs).

Walter Frederick Morrison
(January 23, 1920 – February 9, 2010)

A Christmas Story is a 1983 Christmas comedy film directed by Bob Clark and based on Jean Shepherd‘s semi-fictional anecdotes in his
1966 book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash.

Benjamin Robert Clark (August 5, 1939 – April 4, 2007)

Jean Parker Shepherd Jr. (July 26, 1921 – October 16, 1999),

Actor,director, and producer Peter Billingsley turned 50 April
16, 1971.

The most famous BB gun in the world, the Daisy Red Ryder
is a classic tradition that’s as strong now as it was when it
was designed more than 80 years ago.

(FoxNews) – A rare "Star Wars" toy from 1980 sold at auction this
week for more than $12,000.

The toy, a figure of Princess Leia Organa, was in its original
packaging, which featured a rare picture card – also known as
a transitional card,.  

Expert Nick Dykes, of Vectis Auctions in Stockton-on-Tees,
U.K.told the news agency that the Princess Leia figure in its
rare packaging, could be one of just a few in existence.

The  figure was part of a collection made by British toy company
Palitoy and released in 1980 to coincide with the release of "The
Empire Strikes Back" film in the "Star Wars" franchise.