The Toys That Built the World

Insights into a number of visionaries and the competitive rivalries between iconic brands that changed the world of toys for ever, starting with a look at some unexpected inventions. During the Second World War, a naval engineer accidentally created an iconic spiral toy that walks downstairs, while an engineer trying to invent a synthetic rubber for the war effort instead created a strange putty.

The post-war baby boom created an unprecedented demand for toys, sparking a battle for industry domination between two of the world's most famous brands.

The competitive rivalry between toy cars Matchbox and Hotwheels. As car culture cranked up in the early 1950s, young English machinist Jack Odell invented one of the world's most successful toys when he created a toy car small enough to fit inside a matchbox for his daughter to take to school. A decade or so later, in Los Angeles, Elliot Handler created one of the biggest toy rivalries in history when he brought in a former missile designer to make a toy car behemoth of his own.

Fierce rivalry between board game manufacturers. Milton Bradley created the Checkered Game of Life, one of America's first board games. However, the Parker brothers threatened Bradley's reign with a range of offerings, including Monopoly.