The first thing I thought of when I read this thread was Ideal Toy Company. They were apparently the ones who created the teddy bear. They sold out in 1982 to another company that then went out of business. From the Wiki list, these are the toys I played with or remember from my childhood:
[ul][li]Battling Tops[/li][li]Bing Bang Boing[/li][li]Hands Down[/li][li]KerPlunk[/li][li]Magic 8-Ball[/li][li]Mouse Trap[/li][li]Mr. Machine[/li][li]Rubik’s Cube[/li][li]Tip It[/li][li]Toss Across[/ul][/li]What Ideal toys did you play with, or remember from commercials?
We had several of the ones you mentioned but battling tops was a great one. Of course, I still have a Magic 8 ball (somewhere.)
Hmmm, what would I ask a Magic 8 ball if I had one right now…? 
I can still solve it in under 2 minutes.
My Dad loved that Kerplunk game.
At least I think he did.
Maybe.
:dubious:
Thanks, more childhood mythology ruined.
Reading through the linked list, I found only one “toy” from my childhood:
It was pretty fun, as I recall, but the springs tended to get bent in the frantic action of the game.
I grew up in the mountains. The *Ideal Toy * was a stick shaped like a real toy.
You would find them just lying around! It was awsome!
That list can’t be complete, by any means. Ideal’s name seemed to be on anything that wasn’t Mattel or Hasbro or a Board Game.
Captain Action on that list has to be a notable failure. It was an attempt at a one-size-fits-all superhero “Action Figure”, back when these things were still only one stage removed from Barbie Dolls, and had removable clothing. They even got DC to come out with a Captain Action comic (drawn by Gil Kane, and lasting about 5 issues).