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Ken Sons and Tim Walsh Toyland digital archive

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: 110.9390
A digital video archive of Ken Sons and Tim Walsh’s interviews and footage for the documentary Toyland comprise this collection and can be accessed via The Strong’s network drive or by access hard disk drive. The preservation hard disk drive is housed in the archival stacks at the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play. The digital archive contains approximately 65 hours of video footage captured by Ken Sons of Ken Sons Films from 2007-2010. The digital movie files range from 4 seconds to over 60 minutes, with most digital video files between 10 and 15 minutes long. Files include interviews, product demonstrations, supplemental footage, and cutaway shots. Topics range from prominent American toy and game companies and game inventors to classic games and the American International Toy Fair held annually in New York, New York.

Dates

  • 2010

Creator

Conditions Governing Use

This collection is open for research use by staff of The Strong and by users of its library. Though the donors have not transferred intellectual property rights (including, but not limited to any copyright, trademark, and associated rights therein) to The Strong, they have given permission for The Strong to make copies in all media for museum, educational, and research purposes.

Extent

0.25 Linear Feet (2 boxes)

1 Terabytes (Approx. 65 hours of video footage) : Accessible on-site at The Strong.

Additional Description

Abstract

The Ken Sons and Tim Walsh Toyland Digital Archive is a collection of more than 65 hours of documentary footage recorded by Ken Sons for his film Toyland. The interviews and scenes were filmed between 2007 and 2010.

Historical Note

Ken Sons, a filmmaker from Sarasota, Florida, read a copy of game designer and historian Tim Walsh’s book Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them and realized the topic would make a compelling documentary. Sons proposed a partnership between them to explore the history behind toy inventing and give a behind-the-scenes look at the $22 billion toy and game business. From 2007 through 2010, Sons and Walsh worked together to interview game inventors and industry professionals.

Toyland presented the story of Walsh’s attempt to put a new product, Crazy Chins, on the market. Sons followed Walsh as he advanced his toy’s development from paper to prototype, culminating in a meeting with a Mattel executive. Along the way, Toyland featured case studies of classic toys and games with interesting back stories, such as Slinky, Twister, Lite Brite, Play-Doh, and more. Sons and Walsh also met with aspiring toy design students at Otis College of Art and Design and hopeful sellers at the annual American International Toy Fair (commonly referred to as the New York Toy Fair).

Featured interviewees included: inventor and author Steve Casino; Richard Gill, developer of Pictionary and Trivial Pursuit; Eddy Goldfarb, inventor of Yakity Yak Talking Teeth, Kerplunk, and Battling Tops; Reyn Guyer, inventor of Twister and Nerf; Mike Hirtle from Hasbro; Betty James, developer of Slinky; Milt Levine, inventor of Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm; Burt Meyer, inventor of Lite Brite, Inchworm, Mouse Trap, and Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots; Robert Pasin, president of Radio Flyer, Inc.; Don Rosenwinkel, president of Big Monster Toys; John Spinello, developer of Operation; Richie Weintraub of Mattel; Dave Yearick, co-creator of TriBond and designer of Djubi; Kay Zufall, developer of Play-Doh; and more.

Toyland has won several documentary film awards and highlights some of the most classic and enduring toys and games in recent history.

System of Arrangement

The Toyland digital archive is arranged in the original folders named by Ken Sons. They are separated by interviewee, product, company, or event. Within each topic’s folder is a series of Quicktime movie files, ranging from 4 seconds to over 60 minutes, with most digital video files between 10 and 15 minutes long. File names are original.

Custodial History

The Ken Sons and Tim Walsh Toyland Digital Archive was donated to The Strong in August 2010 as a gift from Ken Sons of Ken Sons Films and Tim Walsh of The Playmakers. The digital archive was accessioned by The Strong under Object ID 110.9390.

Related Materials Note

The Tim Walsh papers, located in the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play at The Strong, contain transcripts of interviews from many of the participants in the Toyland documentary who also contributed stories to Walsh’s book Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them.

Two copies of the finished documentary DVD of Toyland are housed within the library stacks at the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play.

Subjects

Record Groups

Related Names

Creator

Source

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Finding Aid to the Ken Sons and Tim Walsh Toyland Digital Archive, 2010
Status
completed
Author
Julia Novakovic
Date
1 May 2013
Description rules
dacs

Physical Storage Information

External Documents

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play at The Strong Repository

https://www.museumofplay.org/collections/brian-sutton-smith-library-archives-of-play/
Contact:
The Strong
One Manhattan Square
Rochester NY 14607 USA
585.263.2700
585.423.1886 (Fax)

Repository Information

Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play
The Strong
One Manhattan Square
Rochester, NY 14607 U.S.A.
library@museumofplay.org

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