Play-Doh

Pop open a can and start creating! Roll it, squish it, shape it — and try not to mix every color into brown.

Squish it. Roll it. Flatten it. Cut it into shapes. Make a snake, a snowman, a plate of pretend spaghetti - or just squeeze a bunch of different colors together until you've created that familiar shade of Play-Doh brown.

Play-Doh didn’t start out as a toy - the soft, doughy material was originally developed as a wallpaper cleaner. Back when many homes were heated with coal, soot could build up on wallpaper, and the doughy compound was rolled across the paper to cling to the soot and lift it off. But as coal furnaces disappeared, so did the need for a soot-removing wallpaper cleaner.

Then a schoolteacher discovered that the soft, non-toxic cleaning dough worked pretty well as modeling clay for children. The product was repackaged as Play-Doh in the 1950s, and by 1957 it was being offered in red, yellow and blue as well as the original white.

Play-Doh eventually became more than just cans of colored dough. There were molds, cutters and all kinds of playsets. The Play-Doh Fun Factory let you squeeze Play-Doh through different shapes to make long strips, pretend spaghetti and plenty of other creations.

And don’t forget the distinct smell - open a can of Play-Doh and you know exactly what it is before you even look at it. There aren't many toys like Play-Doh that you can recognize with your eyes closed.