Vintage Board Companies

Parker Brothers is probably familiar in most American households. People know them for at least several popular board games-- Monopoly, Risk, Clue, and Sorry. But who were the Parker Brothers?

George Parker was born in 1867 in Salem, Massachusetts, the youngest of Mr. and Mrs. George Parker's three sons. Parker was an avid game player and even had an informal game-playing club with several of his friends. When Parker was only a teenager, he invented his first game, Banking, in which players borrowed money from a bank and attempted to make money through speculating. One-hundred-and-sixty cards determined each player's luck. In 1883, with the encouragement of his friends and older brother, Charles, Parker decided to publish Banking. After being turned down by two Boston book publishers, he spent forty dollars to get 500 sets of Banking printed..

Again encouraged by his brother Charles, George, at just sixteen years old, founded his own game publishing company, the George S. Parker Company. By 1888, the business was doing so well that George convinced his brother Charles to join the company. Parker Brothers was born. Ten years later, the eldest Parker brother, Edward, also entered the company. In 1987, Kenner Parker Toys was acquired by the Tonka Corporation, which, in 1991, became a division of Hasbro

Some the famous games that collectors enjoy looking for are:

• Booby Trap
• Conflict (War game)
• MasterPiece (Art auction game)
• Gnip Gnop (Ping Pong spelled backwards )
• Survive

 

Milton Bradley was a game pioneer, credited by many with launching the game industry in North America. But years before he invented his first game, Bradley enjoyed a successful career in lithography. Bradley designed a board game called The Checkered Game of Life. The object was to obtain a happy old age instead of financial ruin and a numbered spinner decided a player’s luck. Players moved game pieces over sixty-four squares, which could be good, bad, or neutral according to their color. By 1861, Bradley had sold more than 45,000 copies of his game. He formed Milton Bradley and Company in 1864 to print other games and game manuals. The Milton Bradley Company, producers of the Game of Life and Candy Land, has long retained its place as one of the world's leading manufacturers of games and toys. It is now a division of Hasbro, Inc.

Some of the games that collectors look for in the MB brand are:

• Dark Tower (Electronic Game Board)
• Mystery Date
• Shogun (Military series of games)
• Fireball Island
• King Oil

 

Hasbro originated with the Mr. Potato Head toy. Mr. Potato Head was the invention of George Lerner in the late 1940s. The idea was originally sold to a breakfast cereal manufacturer so that the separate parts could be distributed as cereal package premiums. This was not successful and Lerner bought back the rights to textile manufacturers Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld, who did business as the Hassenfeld Brothers, later to be shortened to Hasbro. The toy was a smash success, which led to their development of other toys and games. Hasbro is the largest producer of board games in the world as a result of its component brands, such as Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley, Wizards of the Coast, and Avalon Hill (all acquisitions since the 1980s). As a result it has well known and top selling games such as:

• Axis and Allies
• Dungeons and Dragons

 

Ideal Novelty and Toy Company was founded in New York in 1907 by Morris and Rose Michtom after they had invented the teddy bear in 1903. The company changed its name to Ideal Toy Company in 1938. The company is now defunct however, certain brands and toys have been continued through other companies. Lionel Weintraub had the ability to find great talent and was one of the very first to recognize the genius of professional toy inventors. He was one of the first to buy inventions from Marvin Glass and Eddie Goldfarb. Mr. Machine was one of the industry's very first TV advertised toys. Lionel was instrumental in the introduction of the first 3 dimensional games. His first was "Mousetrap!" followed by none the less than "Toss Across", "Rebound", "Kerplunk" and the "Magic 8 Ball". Many of these games are still selling well today. In 1980, Lionel Weintraub and his Ideal team had the courage to launch a puzzle that they thought no one could do: "Rubik's Cube". The Cube became a worldwide craze second to none!

Ideal has produced some of the most collectible and enjoyable games to date. Some of these are:

• Poppin Hoppies
• Jaws the Game
• Sinking the Titanic
• Battling Tops
• Crossfire

 Other companies such as Aurora that produced such classics as Skittle Bowl, Transogram with such classics as “Hocus Pocus” and “Green Ghost”, LakeSide, Whitman, Marx with “Cat’s Eye”, Topper classic “Silly Safari” and Schaper who produced amazing games like “Cootie” and “Super Toe” cannot be left off this list. There have been hundreds of games produced over the years and for each of us they hold something special in our hearts and minds.