Soap Bubbles, Little Green Army Men and Rubik's Cube are this year's inductees into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong Museum.
Regarding the bubbles, museum officials say the earliest paintings of children playing with bubbles appeared during the 17th century. Today, retailers sell more than 200 million bottles of soap bubble toys annually.
On those Little Green Army Men, made of molded plastic and standing two to four inches tall; they first marched onto the toy scene in 1938. They evolved from the metal and lead toy soldiers of previous centuries. Today, a number of manufacturers produce millions of the toy each year.
And Rubik's Cube was created by Hungarian lecturer and architect Erno Rubik in the early 1970s. The colorful cubes can be arranged 43 quintillion ways. The current speed champ, Mats Valk of The Netherlands, solved the cube in 5.55 seconds.
To date, 56 toys have made it into the Toy Hall of Fame.
