Game Boy Inducted Into The National Toy Hall of Fame

The 12 nominees for 2009 showed some fierce competition.  The Game Boy was competing with not only balls and Big Wheels, but some real timeless heavy hitters.  Here's the full list of nominees:

Ball
Big Wheel
Cabbage Patch Kids
Game of Life
Hot Wheels
Nintendo Game Boy
Paper Airplane
Playing Cards
Rubik's Cube
Sidewalk Chalk
Toy Tea Set
Transformers

I'm pretty sure I played with 10 of those and broke the other 2.

The Ball was inducted for being the first toy most people play with, and for being "as old as civilization itself."  The Museum of Play points out that balls are depicted in ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art, and are still used by grown-ups in most sports.  Big Wheels were inducted for re-inventing the tricycle in 1969, making them easier to ride, and also more badass.

As for the Game Boy, it is being inducted for its innovation, popularizing handheld gaming, and being synonymous with handheld gaming for 2 decades.

The National Toy Hall of Fame is housed within the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.  Each year 2 or 3 new toys are inducted, and this year's 3 new entries bring the total to 44.  Nominations can be made by anyone, and then they are scrutinized and voted on by a team of "historians, educators, and other individuals who exemplify learning, creativity, and discovery through their lives and careers."

If you're interested in what criteria could possibly put a portable video game system in the same class as 2008's stick and 2005's cardboard box, here's the info from their nomination submission page:

It's interesting to see the Game Boy take down some toys that are much older, a testament to how "pandemic" our portable hero has become.  Even the NES has not been nominated yet, and only one gaming system has been inducted into the Museum of Play before.  That would be the Atari 2600, inducted in 2007.

Game Boy at the National Toy Hall of Fame

List of all 44 inductees (.pdf file)

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