ROCHESTER, N.Y. — It’s mission accomplished for little green army men.
The molded plastic must-haves for generations of pretend soldiers were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame on Thursday, along with the 1980s stumper Rubik’s Cube, and bubbles.
The trio of toys takes its place alongside other classics including Barbie, G.I. Joe, Scrabble and the hula hoop after beating out nine other finalists including Fisher-Price Little People, American Girl dolls and My Little Pony.
The monochromatic army men have been around since 1938, with ups and downs along the way. Their popularity waned during the Vietnam War but they became big-screen stars with the 1995 Pixar movie “Toy Story” and several manufacturers continue to produce millions of them every year.
The army men were finalists two other years before making the cut this time around, offering hope to this year’s also-rans, which also included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Slip ‘N Slide, the skill game Operation, paper airplanes and others.
The brain-teasing Rubik’s Cube was invented by Hungarian architect Erno Rubik in the 1970s. The cubes, with nine colored squares on each side, can be arranged 43 quintillion ways, according to the Toy Hall of Fame. Anyone can nominate a toy, but to make it through the preliminary selection process and become a finalist a toy must have achieved icon status, survived through generations, foster learning, creativity or discovery and have profoundly changed play or toy design.
The toy hall is located inside The Strong museum in Rochester.
Associated Press
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