Cabbage Patch Kids, NERF, baseball cards and the Fisher-Price Corn Popper have all made the cut as this year’s new inductees into the National Toy Hall of Fame. 

A panel of 23 judges selected the four 2023 inductees from a field of hopefuls that also included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, Connect 4, Battleship, Bop It and Choose Your Own Adventure books. 

This year’s Hall of Famers are all significant consumer products brands. Cabbage Patch Kids launched in 1979 and revitalized the doll category throughout the ’80s as electronics for kids were starting to take over the market. The brand’s popularity peaked during the 1982 holiday shopping season, when the now-defunct toyco Coleco shipped 3.2 million dolls worldwide. The Cabbage Patch Kids master toy rights have been managed by several companies over the last 45 years, including Hasbro, Mattel, Toys “R” Us and Jakks Pacific. They currently reside with Jazwares, which took them over in 2015. 

Parker Brothers’ NERF (Non-Expanding Recreational Foam) brand first hit the North American toy market in 1969 as a safe indoor football game for kids that would not cause damage in the family home. It expanded with Super Soaker water guns in 1989, and released its first dart blasters in 1991. Hasbro acquired NERF in 1991, and it remains a major priority for the toyco, which is opening three new NERF Action Xperience centers with Kingsmen Xperience across the US and China by 2025. 

On the collectibles front, kids and families have hoarded and traded baseball cards for decades. Last year, New York-based sports retailer Fanatics saw an opportunity in the space and acquired Topps, the largest baseball card manufacturer, for US$500 million. Earlier that year, Fanatics picked up the exclusive licensing rights to make Major League Baseball trading cards from the MLB Players Association. 

Now featuring more than 80 inducted toys, the National Toy Hall of Fame is housed within The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.

Photo courtesy of the National Toy Hall of Fame