What was your favorite toy when you were a kid? Your answer might reveal more about you than you expect, says toy historian Chris Byrne. From Matchbox cars and Barbie to Rubik’s Cube and Squishmallows, he explores how playthings reflect cultural values and influence who you become as an adult. (Recorded at TEDNext 2024 on October 24, 2024)
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@alessandrakalini
December 11, 2024 at 4:16 pm
My sister is a toy expert and loves and collect old toys from our childhood! ❤
@maevekennedy3909
December 11, 2024 at 4:26 pm
Tinker Toys !!!
@alessandrakalini
December 11, 2024 at 4:28 pm
I loved everything cute and taking care of it (I’m now a mother ????), I played being strong (I did Thai boxing later in life), I would make toys myself and my favourite was to draw (I became an artist and have an associates degree❤️)
@ArchDudeify
December 11, 2024 at 4:29 pm
When you say I’ve played with lots of kids and ppl aren’t a little creeped out
@stopworrying8850
December 11, 2024 at 4:38 pm
If toys can do something, imagine what social media and gaming do to you.
@DC-zi6se
December 11, 2024 at 4:39 pm
Spoiler alert: THEY DON’T ????
@LukeMayay
December 11, 2024 at 4:43 pm
Very interesting approach! How do you maintain consistency of style in all your videos? ????????
@ericaferrideoliveira4610
December 11, 2024 at 4:54 pm
Thank you !!
@EdwardHendersonon
December 11, 2024 at 5:15 pm
Thank you for your openness! How do you interact with viewer comments below the video? ????????
@Awrethien
December 11, 2024 at 5:15 pm
Reading though the comments I think people have it backwards. The toys are not forcing you into a direction. The act of playing with a toy is an expression of a core part of what makes you the person you are. Just giving a kid an Erector set is not going to make them an engineer, but if you have a kid who likes to take apart the toy for fun to see how it works *that* is the sign you might want to get some engineering 101 books.
@lindamon5101
December 11, 2024 at 6:38 pm
Through*
@AlanMGross
December 11, 2024 at 6:56 pm
It’s a question of cause and effect and which is which.
@juliusryan890
December 11, 2024 at 5:27 pm
I didn’t play with toys when I was young
@lindamon5101
December 11, 2024 at 6:41 pm
Sure jan sticks& mud?
@harrypearle9781
December 11, 2024 at 5:32 pm
(STRONG) NATIONAL MUSEUM of PLAY is near my home, in Rochester, NY
I will share this video with the MUSEUM people and others in Rochester TNX MCH
===================================================================
@harrypearle9781
December 11, 2024 at 5:33 pm
TNX
@memig9984
December 11, 2024 at 5:50 pm
I want to take my kids there.
@kimhoffman2495
December 11, 2024 at 5:49 pm
When I was a kid my favorite Barbie “game” was launching Barbies off the fan blades of my bedroom ceiling fan lol. Then I was given a little handheld organizer device (that I nicknamed “Watson” lol) with educational games, thesaurus, dictionary, and an encyclopedia. I LOVED that thing lol. I would look up anything that I could, and learned. I still love learning, weird I know, so I continue to keep learning even as I am now older ????.
@alping45814
December 11, 2024 at 5:58 pm
Some older women still use toy’s. Any childhood related stuff you can tell about that?
@LăngKínhĐộngVật-vietnamese
December 11, 2024 at 5:59 pm
Tôi nghĩ việc đánh giá con người qua đồ chơi thời thơ ấu có thể quá giản lược và dễ dàng bỏ qua nhiều yếu tố quan trọng trong cuộc sống, như môi trường hoặc các trải nghiệm cá nhân.
@jenny22332
December 11, 2024 at 6:07 pm
I grew up in the 80’s (born in 1982), and played with a variety of different toys. I just absolutely loved those simple building blocks toy and would dream of actually building a real building one day. I grew up to be a construction manager where I get to work on some of the biggest & tallest buildings ever built! ????♀️????️????✨
@drnoahstjohn
December 11, 2024 at 6:08 pm
Wonderful talk Chris!
@ReadingAdam
December 11, 2024 at 6:27 pm
I was wondering if he was going to address the propaganda of toys. When I walk past an aisle of toys for boys, I see loads of guns, weapons, and action figures. I played with a lot of them myself and one of my dreams as a boy was to join the military and be a soldier (thank God I didn’t). How many toys subtly point young men in the direction of serving the empire? I also think I’d be scared to be in a closed office with this man.
@SurfbyShootin
December 11, 2024 at 6:37 pm
Nice toys but I had a T-REX. Now bow down.
@lindamon5101
December 11, 2024 at 6:40 pm
My toys swingset teetertotter tetherball clothesline bike trikes stilts krissy doll. Tractor innertube paper airplsnes. Lil fire engine scooter thing.
@frenchtoast4574
December 11, 2024 at 6:58 pm
It’s interesting how the toys do matter because of how it draws the kid’s attention, even though it matters most how the kid decides to play with said toys…
It’s as if it was divided in 2 phases:
1- Interest
2-Development
@nRecovery100
December 11, 2024 at 7:47 pm
Love this reflection on how toys shape our values and play styles!
@ElicBehexan
December 11, 2024 at 8:10 pm
I preferred to play pretend. A few props, but mostly what is happening in the child’s mind. I’d still play pretend if I could find a playmate. However, I didn’t go into things like D&D, I write stories now. Not published, but I write.
@YoutubeAreJewz
December 11, 2024 at 8:17 pm
I played with matchbox cars, bicycles, LEGOs, sporting equipment…. Never owned a console… had computer and used to play racing games and flying games.
Fast forward 15 years and I am an airline captain. Still want to be a racing driver though.
@ghaldurinanubios4290
December 11, 2024 at 11:23 pm
Think of it this way… you’re racing other cars, their finish lines only amount to the roads… while your finish line is across oceans, and continents… with a spectacular view of the high ground(air, in your case).
@YoutubeAreJewz
December 11, 2024 at 11:27 pm
@ that’s a great way of thinking about it, thanks!
@elizander3
December 11, 2024 at 9:30 pm
This the best ted talk I heard so far
@Melissa0774
December 11, 2024 at 10:35 pm
I loved Russ trolls. I had a huge collection of all different kinds of them and I kept them on a built in shelf in my bedroom that I kind of converted into something of a house for them. I pretended they were a huge family with a ton of kids. I even had miniature pencil topper ones and even tinier ones, that were the infants and toddlers, that I put in a little playpen. I also had a huge toy chest full of Barbies, but I think I actually preferred the trolls over the Barbies and I ended up using most of my Barbie clothes and stuff for my trolls.
@Melissa0774
December 11, 2024 at 10:42 pm
Pleasant Company totally sold out to Matel. And it’s such a shame that they don’t publish American Girl Magazine anymore. There are so many girls growing up today who could use that magazine. There are a lot of people who want to raise their kids with limited or no technology for the first few years, who sure would appreciate it.
@aemberii
December 11, 2024 at 11:04 pm
This is such an interesting aspect to look at your future as well as who you are as a person — wonderful talk 🙂
@MrBelles104
December 11, 2024 at 11:57 pm
Forget about childhood toys, I’m sure all of us are defined by our email address we made as a kid. What was yours?
@andylishez
December 12, 2024 at 2:54 am
One president from eastern europe didn’t have toys now he plays people like toys
@shubhamupman7260
December 12, 2024 at 3:04 am
A very interesting concept! Got me introspecting !
@iMacLawyerTube
December 12, 2024 at 3:16 am
Loved my StarWars Kenner toys. We built landscapes with boxes and bedsheets, whole new storylines were created. The franchise/merchandise connection didn’t limit us in any way
@mariebunny
December 12, 2024 at 4:41 am
I used to play with stuffed animals and pretended to “collect” them in the jungle (our hallway). Now I’m a wildlife conservationist ????
@jayfreeze7101
December 12, 2024 at 6:29 am
Who had a 1986 Cuddle Wit Musical Christmas Teddy Bear???
@WanderingWeirdly
December 12, 2024 at 6:30 am
0:35 word choice…
@KristenHuang01
December 12, 2024 at 8:03 am
Toys may reflect your status in your life, and playing with them is the way to express my emotions. Although my toy is dirty now, my kindness in donating my toy is meaningful.
@RadicalTrivia
December 12, 2024 at 2:11 pm
I played with Ninja Turtles, and now I teach martial arts. Cowabunga.
@breezybri5539
December 12, 2024 at 2:47 pm
I don’t remember much about my childhood ???? I do know I loved Barney and playing outside- I would make mud pies and collect rocks, hair ties, anything weird really lol. Also had imaginary friends ???? curious on what he would say about those
@zm23f
December 12, 2024 at 6:05 pm
Another woked propaganda on TED for “women are NOT WOMEN, they are WORKFORCE!” ????
@hanchi8710
December 12, 2024 at 8:57 pm
when i was a kid i played with those grocery bag wires at the grocery store
@KaMiQa16
December 13, 2024 at 6:16 am
if that’s not the ultimate answer to: what do you wanna be when you grow up?, then I don’t know what is
@codyeasonBGR
December 13, 2024 at 10:19 am
Good story here
@AkiluKri-jw7ik
December 13, 2024 at 4:10 pm
I never play with a toy and I never get one
@SMA582
December 14, 2024 at 12:34 am
@3:06 Are you my kindred spirit Chris Byrne? ????
@spx3rjm
December 14, 2024 at 3:04 am
I loved teenage mutant ninja turtles as a kid. Now I’m an accountant ????
@oliviarandall6387
December 15, 2024 at 12:00 am
I loved my little baby dolls, probably much longer than most of my friends did. I also had one of those pregnant barbies, and a Barbie paediatrician that came with 2 newborns. I am now a NICU nurse and care my sick and premature newborns everyday! It is really cool to reflect on how my childhood might have lead me down my current path!
@StanJones-ww8th
December 15, 2024 at 12:50 am
I may not be the toys we get that encourages our interest in professions later on; however, I think it may be interesting
to list all the toys we have ever had as a child that we still have as adults. The Erector sets I had as a kid are still in the family
being passed around. My love of the physical sciences over biological/social/political/etc that have been my profession
made it easy to keep my Erector Sets and a game Bas-ket played with a ping pong ball and nets are what became a part
of my adult life as an Engineer. An interesting talk. My parents placed a physical limit on the number of things I could keep as they grew up in the Depression where no one had very much and their message to me was that we don’t need a lot of stuff
so a portion of everything i got as gifts I needed to learn to give some to others along the way. Applied to toys and puzzles
and books. An interesting talk on toys and times we grew up.
@blackhagalaz
December 15, 2024 at 4:12 am
Wow that is so interesting! Thinking back I had a few toys that really shaped me and that was primarily animal figures and plushies animals. I suppose the cuddly plushies played into my nurturing personality (I love all my animals today like they are my babies ❤), but my little plastic animal figurines where different: I used to group them up in the garden and make these elaborate scenes. I was totally obsessed with documentaries as a kid so I my head I often played animal documentary. When I think about I I suppose not only did I just love animals, but I just loved telling stories and discover the natural world. Today I love gardening and writing on my novel. As a kid I also wouldn’t shut up about certain things I would always share my fascination with everyone who would dare to listen????. I was so fascinated with dinosaurs that I would actually learn the Latin names at 6 years old! Also my sister was always p*ssed when my barbies would have dinosaurs as pets, because she felt it wasn’t proper lol. Guess I don’t have to mention I own a snake now????. But especially the “telling people about my interest” is very interesting because for the past 10 years I have been working at a museum giving guided tours and doing workshops. I just love to teach, because I love to learn. Other things I did all the time as a kid where playing with playdough or twisting grasses, twigs etc. I do a lot of textile crafting today and sculpting, and generally do a lot of art.
It’s just so cool to see that as a kid we actually tell the world who we are right away when we play ????❤
@DAMOISNANO
December 15, 2024 at 10:57 am
I didn’t play toys. I WAS the toy for many people in my life. Fastforward to today, I am an ENGINEER.
@ladyjulbug
December 15, 2024 at 5:02 pm
I used to love setting up barbie houses, but not actually playing with the barbies. I liked making my own clothes out of scrap cloth and creating plays that I’d convince other people to act in and be the audience for. I also liked filling up water balloons, stuffing them in my bathing suit top, and playing house with my baby dolls while dressed like that.
Idk what that says about me. I grew up to be a teacher, and retired early to be a sahm. I am pretty passionate about the benefits of breastfeeding, though. Maybe there’s something there?
@foxdylan9536
December 15, 2024 at 5:16 pm
Mistake of the toy industry, history repeats in cycles
@carolinehaythornthwaite2965
December 15, 2024 at 5:21 pm
This reminds me of Ergon (?) from Ghostbusters, who was given half a “slinkie ” and then straightened it, see how that worked out.