Skip to Main Navigation Skip to Content
A daily look back at the toys, games, and objects that captured our attention as children and continue to fascinate us today.
Menu

Read, Watch, Listen

Discover books, magazines, podcasts, and blogs that celebrate toy history, pop culture, and collecting.

Classic Console

Produced by a team of volunteer retro-gaming aficionados, Classic Console showcases video game classics from 1972-1999.

Reminisce

Reminisce is a nostalgia-themed magazine from Reader’s Digest Association. The magazine features reader-contributed photographs, stories, and memories of the 1900s to the 1980s.

Playset Magazine

Take a trip back to your childhood with Playset Magazine. Published six times per year the magazine is primarily focused on atomic age play sets from the Louis Marx & Co. toy company.

Starlog

Starlog was a magazine published between 1976-2008 that focused on science fiction films and television programs. Issues have now been digitized for your viewing pleasure.

Republic 66 Media

If you’re a fan of LEGO, Republic 66 Media has you covered, with two LEGO-themed magazines: Bricks and Bricks Culture.

Super7 Magazine

Produced from 2001-2007, Super7 Magazine began with a focus on vintage Japanese toys and quickly expanded to include such innovative toy designers and artists such as KAWS, Baseman, and Bwana Spoons.

Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings

Over the course of 144 pages, author Brian Heiler has paid tribute to an oft-forgotten niche of off-brand, easily breakable, and ultimately disposable plastic toys that were typically available in supermarket checkout lines, variety stores, and pharmacy shelves.

The Real Toy Story

Part history primer, part exposé, The Real Toy Story is a literary roller-coaster ride. Author Eric Clark offers up a robust, hard-hitting look at the toy industry circa 2007.

A Gamut of Games

For anyone interested in game theory, design, and play, A Gamut of Games is required reading and a worthy addition to your bookshelf.

Totally Tubular ’80s Toys

Published in 2010, Totally Tubular ’80s Toys highlights a decade of the toy industry that was characterized by synergistic tie-ins to companion movie franchises, television shows, and books.

A Toy is Born

First published in 1974, A Toy is Born is still an enjoyable read for anyone interested in a look back at the origins of some classic toys and games and the national issues of advertising and toy safety that faced the industry at the time.

Cereal: Snap, Crackle, Pop Culture

Cereal: Snap, Crackle, Pop Culture from author Ed Daly is a humorous look at an industry that, despite recent downturns in sales and on-going health questions, remains a multi-billion dollar business in North America.

Wham-O Super-Book

The WHAM-O Super Book – Celebrating 60 Years Inside the Fun Factory! by Tim Walsh deftly chronicles the first 60-years of the California toy company’s existence.

The Road to Happy Days

The Road to Happy Days by Stephanie Sadagursky is one of my favorite types of books to read: historical non-fiction that is colorfully written and filled with fascinating and insightful anecdotes. Throughout the book’s 188 pages, Sadagursky vividly recounts her and her husband Paul’s 30-year journey into the world of buying and selling antique and collectible toys.